Principles of Chinese Management

436 Pages·2021·4.69 MB·English

by  Haibo Hu

Management for Professionals
Haibo Hu
Principles
of Chinese
Management
Management for Professionals
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10101
Haibo Hu
Principles of Chinese
Management
123
HaiboHu
Schoolof Business Administration
Jiangxi University of Finance
andEconomics(JUFE)
Nanchang, Jiangxi,China
ISSN 2192-8096 ISSN 2192-810X (electronic)
Managementfor Professionals
ISBN978-981-33-6521-6 ISBN978-981-33-6522-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6522-3
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Foreword
AstheOrientalSchoolofManagementfounder,Ihavealwayshopedthatmoreand
more young scholars could join the team to explore the spirit of the Oriental
management culture and revive it. Therefore, when Haibo Hu, dean of the School
of Business Administration in Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics,
invited me to write a recommended preface to the book named Principles of
Chinese Management, I readily agreed. After reading the manuscript, I think this
book has the following characteristics:
1. A self-contained system with clear logic. Chinese management thought is the
continuation of Chinese traditional culture and the new development under the
modern era’s background. Therefore, it has become an obvious problem to
figure out on what system and from what angle to summarize China’s man-
agementtheoriesandpractice.Thisbookhasmadeameaningfulattemptinthis
respect. This book is divided into three parts: introduction, theory, and appli-
cation. The theoretical part borrows the traditional Chinese idea of “right time,
rightplaceandwithrightpeople,”constructingthetheoreticalbasisofthisbook
from the relationship of humans and nature, human and society, and relation-
ships among human beings. The ancient Chinese philosophers and schools of
thought also started from these three aspects, but with some differences in the
discussion’s focus on how to solve these relations. In modern times, these
relations are still the main contents we should pay attention to in management.
Therefore,itcanbesaidthatsuchastartingpointaccuratelygraspstheessential
characteristics of Chinese management. The application focuses on China’s
management practice from five specific management areas: selves, workplace,
others,personalrelations,specificscenarios.Thesefiveareasbasicallycoverall
aspects of daily management and with strong pertinence and practicality.
2. Based on China, making dialogues between the East and the West. Without a
doubt,WesternmanagementisinthemainstreampositionbothinChinaandthe
world, which is an unavoidable problem in the study of Chinese management.
How to deal with the relationship between Chinese management and Western
managementhasbecomeaproblemtotesttheauthor’sability.Someresearchers
either follow the Western management ideas completely, explain Western
management ideas through Chinese management stories, or make farfetched
v
vi Foreword
statements without learning further. This book shows the author’s wisdom in
dealing with this problem: the whole book is based on Chinese management
ideasandpractices,usingalargenumberofuniqueChinesemanagementterms;
andevenalltheintroductioncasesandthecasesattheendoftheintroductionof
each chapter have referred to the practical experience of Chinese enterprises.
However,forsomeprinciplesthatarethesameorinterlinkedintheEasternand
Western management, the book covers East and West dialogues. This shows
thattheauthorofthebookhasauniqueviewofChinesemanagementandpays
attentiontosomenewideasanddevelopmentsofWesternmanagementwithan
open and inclusive attitude. Of course, it also reflects the universality and
particularity of management from another angle, which is the charm of man-
agement and the legitimacy foundation of Chinese management. Chinese
management must have both its own uniqueness and universal ideas that apply
to all.
3. The book integrates the ancient and modern culture and dares to innovate.
Chinese management is not ancient Chinese management, which is common
knowledge. However, in actual writing, Chinese management is often turned
into ancient Chinese management. This book has solved this problem better.
First of all, this book uses some space for modern and contemporary Chinese
managementideasandpracticesandsomecontemporarymanagementpractices
and entrepreneurs. Secondly, each chapter begins with ancient cases and ends
with currentcases. Last but notleast, this book also studies the performance of
ancient Chinese management ideas in the context of current management
practice.
4. The book sees much in little and people-oriented. This book carefully selects a
large number of small cases and tips, helping to deepen the reader’s under-
standingof the theoretical knowledge involved in this book, which benefitsthe
readerstograspthecontentsofthisbookbetter.Inaddition,theappendixofthis
book is also very distinctive, which includes the development of Chinese
management history, representative theories of Chinese management, ancient
Chinese civil and commercial organizations, and so on. These contents cannot
be presented in the text, but it is essential for understanding Chinese manage-
ment. I think this book fully demonstrates that the authors emphasize the con-
cept of people-oriented and have the courage to practice this concept because
they are willing to think from the perspective of the readers.
In 2006, in order to promote the positive oriental traditional culture and deepen
international cultural exchanges, I wrote Chinese Management Science with my
students. As one of the three schools of Oriental management, we try to combine
the new achievements of economic development and the new development of
management theory since China’s reform and opening-up policy to form an inno-
vative and leading book. Since then, other books with similar titles have been
published, which is also called “with the same voice and the same spirit.” The
publication of Principles of Chinese Management marks a further attempt by
Chinese scholars in this field. Although there are some differences in these works’
Foreword vii
logicalsystemwiththesame theme,Ithinkthisdifferencejust reflectstheconcept
of “harmony in diversity” in traditional Chinese thought. I hope this kind of work
canbemoreandhopethattheyoungscholarsofJiangxiUniversityofFinanceand
Economics can have more masterpieces.
This is an endorsement.
Dongshui Su
Preface
According to Daniel A. Wren, an expert in the history of management thoughts,
“management thoughts are not only a process of cultural environment, but also a
product of cultural environment. Because management thoughts have the charac-
teristics of open and systematic, it is necessary to study it in the cultural context.”
Fromancienttimestothepresent,themanagementactivitiesatanylevelandscale
cannot be separated from the specific historical conditions and national cultural
background, and the management thoughts produced from management activities
are also engraved with the imprinting of national culture. Due to factors related to
anthropology, history, and social psychology, China and the West have created
differentculturalsystemswithuniquefeaturesaswellasuniquestylesintheirlong
process of national development. This cultural tradition with distinctive cultural
traditionsispermeatednotonlyinthedepthofpeople’sconsciousness,butalsoin
the whole process of social production and management activities, which also
shows the different styles and characteristics of Chinese and Western management
thoughts.
As early as the 1960s, Harold Koontz, an American scholar, put forward the
concept of “jungle of management theory” and summed up these theories into 11
schools in 1980, since then, theories such as “Business Reengineering” and “Fifth
Disciplines” have emerged one after another. Most of these theories are based on
the Western cultural background, and few scholars establish the Chinese manage-
ment theory scientifically from this angle.
In the report to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,
GeneralSecretaryHuJintaopointedout:“promotingChinesecultureandbuildinga
spiritual home shared by the Chinese nation.” Now, we are in the tide of great
development and great change. Neither China’s huge economic potential in the
reform and opening-up, or the soaring of the Chinese business economy cannot
realize without supports from Chinese traditional management culture. In the
twenty-firstcentury,ifweareonlysatisfiedwiththestudyofWesternmanagement
oroperatingmanagementanddisregardourownculturaltraditions,wewillgiveup
our right of speech and that leads us nowhere. Therefore, we need to establish a
scientific management system and modern enterprise management model with
Chinese characteristics to meet the needs of the socialist market economy.
ix
x Preface
In accordance with the requirements of the times, principles of Chinese man-
agementwasformedundertheguidanceoftheschoolofBusinessAdministration,
JiangxiUniversityofFinanceandEconomics.Guidedbyitsprinciple,thestudyof
this book follows the following three directions: first, it is the research on the
development of Chinese management thought that studies the object, method,
significance, and path of development of Chinese management principles. This is
the starting point studying Chinese management, and also an extremely important
fundamental work. Secondly, due to the lack of a systematic book of management
in ancient China, we need to systemically organize and analyze all kinds of man-
agement ideas in China, and summarize a series of theoretical bases. Finally, we
should also pay attention to the study of the bridging between the principles and
practice of Chinese management and the management science of the West, which
should be the focus of the study and an important part of establishing a modern
management system with Chinese characteristics. Only in this way can we deepen
the understanding of the connotation and essence of Chinese management princi-
ples, and lead researches to more in-depth areas to guide our social management
practice.
The Purpose of Teaching
“Teacher is the person who teaches students knowledge, tells students the way to
liveandanswersstudents’questions.”Textbooksareknowledgecarriersthatreflect
teachingcontentsandteachingrequirements.Asthebasictoolsforteacherstocarry
out teaching activities, textbooks are important guarantees for improving teaching
quality.
The teaching purposes of this book:
(1) Infiltrating the consciousness of “Chinese management”
Since the reformand opening-up, management education in China has taken a
road of importing andabsorbing. This practice has made China’s management
education rapidly on the same page with international management education
and caught up with the new trend and tide of management development. But
thedependenceonWesternthoughtsofthismethodisincreasinglyrevealingits
limitations. Today, we have been used to thinking about problems within the
conceptandframeworkofWesternmanagementbutignoringthefactthatthese
concepts and frameworks are produced in the context of Western culture and
are not necessarily applicable to the situation in China. Therefore, the first
objectiveofthisbookistoenablestudentstofindanotherwayofthinkingother
than Western management thinking model.
(2) Supplementing Chinese management knowledge
Management is not only a science, but also an art. It has not only knowledge
that is applicable in any situation, but also has knowledge that is applicable in
specific situations. Another purpose of this book is to supplement the