In recent years, with increasing competition, these executives realized
that they should concentrate on the business in which they have
specialized and with which they are familiar, like those world-famous
international companies. Several interviewees said that they would
like to emulate overseas’ enterprises such as GE and Panasonic to
strengthen and expand their businesses.
In sum, the present research shows that Western management
theories have been an important influence on the management phi-
losophies of Chinese business leaders, especially in achieving business
excellence, specialization, and scientific management.
Joint influence of Chinese and Western thoughts
Sincerity was the most frequently mentioned notion among the inter-
viewed executives. At the interviews, fourteen of the executives
reported sources of influence on this philosophy. Interestingly, half
of them said they learned it from Chinese thoughts and the other
half said they recognized the importance of sincerity from studying
the practices adopted by Japanese and Western companies.
Although honesty is a central value in Chinese philosophy as shown
in earlier chapters on Confucius and Xunzi, it is not unique to the
Chinese. Honesty and trustworthiness are central values in Western or
perhaps any other civilization. For example, the ancient Roman law
delineated honesty as the first of three basic ethical principles.
According to Ross ( 2002 ), honesty is one of the six basic duties in
Western societies. Indeed a few of our executives commented that
they understand why honesty is important in business and manage-
ment by reading Western books such asThe Protestant ethic and the
spirit of capitalism, A letter to Garcia, Built to last,andIn search of
excellence. Nevertheless, we wonder why some Chinese executives
had to turn to Western literature to realize the importance of honesty
in doing business? Could it be that honesty in Chinese philosophy is
conceived as a moral virtue on its own, and is often opposed to
motives of making profit or wealth? Discussions in the West on
honesty as instrumental to doing business and making profit may
therefore appeal to the sensitivity of some Chinese business executives
as they are confronted with the issues of morality and business which
we alluded to with regard to the notion of social responsibility.
We asked twenty-five executives whether traditional Chinese
thinking or Western management theory had a more important
264 Zhi-xue Zhanget al.