As shown, leadership was not needed in the SOE, but was needed in
the Sino-British venture. The question became, how do you transform
middle-aged employees from being SOE-friendly to being private-
enterprise-friendly? The answer after three years of trying was that
as long as the employees preferred the SOE way, no change was
feasible. The venture continued to operate tolerably well as long as
the British managers micromanaged tirelessly. When they were
replaced by less motivated foreign managers, the expected happened.
Intercultural sense-making
My remarks about the above Chinese leadership scholars’ contri-
butions to our understanding of leadership models in China call for
a context. The reader needs to know that the era of Confucius and
Mencius was one of transition from the slave system to the feudal
system. The system of feudalism by which the society was structured
and functioned included the emperor and his court at the top,
followed in descending order by lords, vassals, peasants, and slaves.
Members of the court discovered that the Confucian system could
reinforce the feudal system and achieved its adoption throughout
the empire. It worked tolerably well for each succeeding emperor until
it was torn apart by the Cultural Revolution. It was planned to be
replaced by the new leadership of peasants emerging from hard work
and suffering. This plan failed and the value system of Deng was a
return to pragmatism and the post-modern individuality of capitalism.
Although traditional Confucian values are alive and well in Taiwan
and Singapore, values in coastal China and Hong Kong have become
more pragmatic.
Cultures should be understood by past history, current circum-
stance, and genetic endowment. Concepts and belief systems of differ-
ent countries are understood by making sense of the developmental
history of the countries as well as their present circumstances. We
learn through our interactions with our local environment. Our feel of
cultural concepts and belief systems depends on the community in
which we engage in discourses.
For example, in Chinaguanxi(social connections) are based on
obligations owed to one’s family by outsiders, whereas friendships
are based on shared fellowship. Chinese seek friendships that are not
necessarily instrumental or a means to a selfish end. Morris, Podolny,
284 George Bear Graen