Indigenous Chinese Management Philosophies: Key Concepts and Relevance for Modern Chinese Firms

The Relevance Of Indigenous Chinese Management Concepts

Research on Chinese firms’ management style and culture has started to increase with the reform and opening policy implemented by the Chinese government in 1979. Parallel to the growing number of foreign firms doing business in China and thus with increasing intensity of cross-cultural encounters, Chinese firms amplified their business activities both abroad and at home. The detected differences between Western and Chinese managerial practices induced a vast amount of international scholars to examine the causes, consequences, and concepts thereof in order to provide appropriate explanations and predictions. Among them, one prominent stream of research emerged which argues that mainstream theoretical perspectives, approaches and frameworks were designed to be universally valid, but they hold two major shortcomings: First, they are ignoring meaningful circumstances and conditions, and hence are context-free (Tsui, 2006; Whetten, 2009). Second, they are all developed by Westerners and therefore lack the emic or insider perspective (Triandis et al., 1993; Fang, 2003; Child, 2009). So as to address these deficiencies, the investigation of indigenous management concepts stepped forward (Leung, 2012; Holtbrügge, 2013).