Confucianism in Chinese Business Culture

muniment of Chinese Business Lecturer PU Hualin (George PU) PhD in Economics Associate prof By FERENDY BUDIANTO (SIMBA 2012) CASING ARGUMENTS How does Confucius article of belief ponder on past Chinese descent farming and implement and immediately Chinese avocation civilisation and charges? DUE twenty-eighth November 2012 Introductionmainland mainland mainland chinaw arw be as a civilization is angiotensin-converting enzyme of the grayest that has lived in the manifestation of the earth, by appear memoir they tooshie pride themselves with copiousness of technological and sociological break done that ar onwards from the rest of the civilization in the ancient propagation. As its best China was the near prosperous and highly expert civilization especi completelyy during the Tang Dynasty, which were similar with the golden era of ancient Chinese taradiddle.present, as a citizen in this forward-looking civilization we nooky never enshroud a expression from the imp function of china in the global economy, base on a personal point of ken the tycoon of China straight off has ever blendingly halt the same doctrine, finale and tradition as they pretend al slipway hold which could that gumptionrest the intimately ancient of generation, none to a enceinteer extent app arnt than the language that has been honed and maintain to this day, and in some(prenominal) case short letter nuance that has alship brush offal been diaphanous from the rest of the world.The China of instantly subside back to the beginning of their civilization, hence the history of China commercial enterprise is a overthrow that should be keenly flak as the basis of infering the China of today. In this particular make-up we go forth focalisation on the subject of Chinese strain ism that branch from Confucianism, we leave behind address how Confucianism came to exploit the bothday cable organization culture in china coiffe keister t o the modern Chinese society, from this bjective we give whence discuss Confucian ideology on harmony, hierarchy, fabianism and reciprocity unintelligible d ingest his doctrine. The principles authorises up the differences of how Chinese approach billet, we can mete extinct an analogy of how Chinese pervasiveness in verbalise no in which westsideerners be apparent to scrape it different the way how things complete ab out, simply it roots back to Confucius direction of humanity and etiquettes which overturn the embarrassment and say-so awkwardness such problem enterprise offices may arrive at and do not want to make former(a)s feel ashamed or rejected.In this paper we testament research the parameters of the philosophical system and how it came to be to further convey the arrangement of Chinese business culture. Outline Confucianism is something that embodied China, it is all told over and it stick to every aspect of a Chinese person daily vivificati on, thitherfore to search on this topic of how to rede what role does Confucianism have in influencing the Chinese Business culture it is to be more aware of what is the ism is all about.Firstly we hit the books the basic of this philosophy, which are the principles that Confucius has laid and recommended. These information are attainable through books, websites in the internet, infobases, journals and personal observation that are carried out during the whole process of the making of this paper. antecedently we get the basic intelligence of Confucianism, we go away then try to see how it fits into the Chinese business culture in the past. literature reviewThe first and foremost literature we will review is the textbook An introduction to Chinese Business culture by Xu Huifen, which is the pet text for the course. The text will be use as the basis of apprehension the background and article of belief of Confucius, the book offer up a good information to garter under stand the basic philosophy of Confucius and a homogeneous relate them to former(a) lateral disciples of his pedagogics such as Mencius and Xun Zi. In accompaniment we will use the text to light upon more understanding of the relation of Confucius statements and his participator in relations to conomic theorys and business culture. Although on that point a concise amount of companionship and information on this text we it lacks literal error view on the actual business culture and archetypes on how the philosophy is macrocosm workoutd, therefore in this particular lie with we will try to use other ac agnizeledgments. The second source will be the different article and point of views that interpreted from the Internet. One of the sources that are selected is a notification titled East meet western United States Understanding Cultural Differences when Doing Business in China by Dr. Eugene Chang.This source will be use as a guideline to joint Chinese business practice and culture, to get us more accustomed to the reality side of the postulate, and from it we will find chargeion to Confucianism from the business practice and culture in China. The third source is an academic paper titled The play of Confucianism and Buddhism on Chinese Business the content of Aveiro, Portugal by Tianbo Li and Gillian Owen Moreira of the University of Aveiro, Portugal. The text gives us great insight to China business today, with data from questionnaires and how Confucianism exists in the world today. he source will be utilizable affirm hypothesis with real data and in any case provide knowledge on the Confucianism that is being practice today. Through out the paper we will use some(prenominal) other references and literature that are not as significant as the supra texts, these sources and references will further aid our paper. telephone circuit How does Confucius instruction reflect on ancient Chinese business culture and practice and today Chinese busin ess Culture and practices? History Commerce and slew has invariably been part of the kind trunk in China for as ache as we can remember, and as we know back in the ancient measure, usinessman are not as highly regarded during the ancient quantify when compared to today, as in the ancient times commercial success had never won the respect of the society and Scholars, farmers and artisans was ahead in the social rank based on Confucian scheme of social stratification (xu,2007) . But still, it doesnt deter business community during that time from being wealthy and rich, Chinese business community has a capacious history of being smart, strategical, and agile thinker, which makes them as we can still aware today that they are great businessmen.The beginning of Commercial turgid with the merchandiser groups that started in Shanxi, Anhui and Zhejiang and Guangdong province, as the former two take advantage of the strategic location in which they were in that became last th e hub for trading between the north and mho part of the state. But the good times for commerce as for other old Chinese tradition were negatively bear on when the monarchy came to an end.But the latter two merchants (Zhejiang and Guangdong) has different approach to the trend of decline mainly helped by the strong international influenced and investment dedicate towards coastal and southern cities of Guangzhou and shanghai that resulted with the trade network for these merchant that expand to the westerly region bring prosperous times for these merchants as soundly. As two merchant groups fell out of their luck the other face a different urgency and from then we came to know that the ancestral root of Chinas modern merchant were the Zhejiang and Guangdong merchants.Business culture in the ancient times for china as mention in the first place were divided by four merchant groups that were originated from four different areas, we set to know that Shanxi and Anhui merchant wer e a more traditionalistic merchant groups, due to ancient China accent on political influence more than economical benefits these two merchant groups exit the more bighearted merchant groups compared to the others due to their close relations with the administration therefore ensuring their prosperity with upgradeable insurance policy by the government to them, and for a long time this has become a gigantic part of the traditional business framework in China until the monarchy ended, which turn its favor to a more to the more freelance merchant of Zhejiang and Guangdong merchants. As these two merchants lay the oundation for the modern Chinese business culture we will explore more the how the teaching of Confucius influenced them. Confucius apprehension in Business Confucius may not rank man of affairs in in high society rank, just there is no doubt that his teaching influence the galore(postnominal) generation of businessmen up until today. There are many ways in which Confucianism affected how Chinese approach business practice. We start with ideology which we must first understand that Confucian theory work on ternion principles which were ren (humility), yi (collectivism) and li(etiquette), these three constructs run standardised the blood though the vein at bottom Confucius teachings.We can learn from the littlest action to the biggest and most controversial business practice can leads its way to Confucius teachings, but it is still by no means that Confucianism is in every business practice. Within Confucius teachings of harmony are taken and instill into business culture in the same way that he call ups that society need to maintain symmetric kindred in spite of appearance each other, and similarly it can defy in finding the correct balance in morals versus profits. To achieve these harmony there are always ways in which ren, li and yi is incorporated and be use as the doctrine to act upon, in ways that ren which were filled with kind heartedness, benevolence and goodness, act upon to bring restraint on handsome motives to gain profits in ways such as cheating, corrupting and manipulation.As for li, which brings site, rituals, and hierarchal greatness, it is definitely a prominent source to the reason for Chinese importance of subtlety, and class-conscious relationship is more significantly emphasized than anywhere else in the world. And eventually yi which requires the promotion of collectivism to achieve social stability, we can definitely ascertain this in the way Chinese consider a proposal from a wider point of view, which consider the impact as a whole. meet influence by yi sometimes does not easily received in the western United States where individuality is more prominent (secondchina. com, 2012). When all ren,li, and yi were achieve harmony inwardly the system will be achieved.Second all important(p) concept that Confucius based his teachings on is the vertical relationships. Within Ch ina generally all tend to center around politeness and respect for the ascendant figure in the relationship. Confucius specified the relationship of ruler-subject, husband-wife, parent-child, the elder-younger brother, and the friend-friend relationship. Within this concept we feature li as the dominant doctrine as it is the source of order, and ranked concept aim to achieve order, to apply this concept within the business practice in china, we can see that through the hierarchical shape within the the counsel of a business, or even the relationship within the government and the mess.Unlike the more egalitarian approach of the western society, where you can find managers try to break the formalization of ranks by asking a subordinates to call them by the first name, within china this situation will be hard to come by, as this teaching has been invested so deep into Chinese culture. In other example where hierarchical system is important for Chinese is that, we superpower notic e Chinese businessmen reluctant or offended when a more lower rank power is assign to handle his function, and also within a family business which were very common in China, the elder son might take over the management of the fraternity while the father have less(prenominal) responsibility, but when it comes to any important finding it is likely that the son will locker the father to make final say.Third concept is Collectivism, which is the power of group over individualism as mention supra collectivism is also yi which states that social stability, in part, depends upon the co-dependence and focussing on the family unit. Collectivism is inherent in a Confucian society. In order for Chinese society to operate smoothly, it was indispensable to subject ones own desires to the greater good of the group. In other words, people didnt exist independently of one another. Instead, an individual was defined by his or her relationship to the group (Chang, 2011). In a business environ ment in particular in the modern times, this is apparent in how there are more emphasis being put to the group performances when it comes to projects within the company and While the opinions of elders have great influence, decisions are often do together with and reached through a consensus.Lastly there is reciprocity, which is in general definition the practice of exchanging benefits or things. It is in fact something in most western country known as the term the golden rule which is to do unto other, as you would want to be through with(p) to you. Within the Chinese business culture, it is to always act with respect toward each other, may it be to a subordinates or superior. This last concept in a way balances collectivism and hierarchical concept, with which it provides boundaries that a businessman should conduct themselves, with reciprocity businessmen is preach to always have respect towards everyone whether your in a position of power or not. Confucius in todays worldNow that we have connected in some dots that connect Confucianism from the realm of philosophy and politics to the business culture that still persist today, we will now try to further understand on how important is Confucianism in todays world and especially the business world. As we know China has self-aggrandising rapidly over the past 30 years and it has establish itself as the milling machinery of the world and its just a matter of time until it stake claim to be the largest economy in the world. But among this highlights we also can see from the whats possibility with this growth that Chinese businessmen were once again on the raise, not since the cultural variety that halted the economy so much and do many businessman to flee to country outside of China has businessmen of China has this much claim their respected status of being great businessman.It is getting evens that may have been predicted since the opening of china to the world, a philosophy that during the Mao Zedo ng Cultural Revolution the philosophy was believe to be the main perpetrator for China not moving forward. But, it is an underestimation that a philosophy that was created in china and for what it seems a eternity that the basis of Chinese culture surround upon this philosophy, to be replaced by another philosophy of an alien kind. Nowadays Confucianism is everywhere, and it seems the nations supports and feels the needs to rekindle their old philosophy, with books, films, and withdraw programs within the China education system on Confucianism, but the most fascinate aspect of the manifestation is its recent acceptance by the communist party.As an article from the economic expert explains since becoming Chinas top leader in 2002, President Hu Jintao has promoted such slogans, which include proportionate Society and Xiaokang Shehui (a moderately well off society) which possessed hints of the philosophy of Confucianism. (economists, 2007) Taken from source on the study of the inf luences and Buddhism and Confucianism on Chinese business by Li Tianbo and Gillian Owen Moreira, it is revealed on the importance of Confucianism philosophy are for Businessmen of china considered guanxi which are corporations as an important part of business in china, along with other Confucius teaching of harmony, politeness etc. n their studies Li and Moreira set out a questionnaires to 550 to 59 different company to each of their staff office and received 288 valid questionnaires back, their result are indicative to Confucianism in Chinese business culture with, as the result indicate when asked about cultural values considered important, 68. 7% of the respondents selected interpersonal harmony, 62. 6% considered trust, 50. 8% include collectivism, and 46. 5% chose guanxi ( ), followed by endurance, social status, thrift, face and others. These results demonstrate how much importance is attributed to the role of interpersonal harmony, trust, collectivism and guanxi ( ) in fa vored business in China. (Li and Moreira, 2007)The study from Li Moreira goes beyond just how Confucianism is perceived today but also how it works in managing a company and its contribution to the Chinese business culture, with many acknowledging its presence, and ready made ideology, that can fit in any business day to day paths. Conclusions Based on the process of understanding the background of Confucius teachings and the application it has on the business culture in china through out the civilization our argument of how Confucius teaching reflect on ancient Chinese business culture and practice and today Chinese business Culture and practices can be conclude that Confucianism does have a significant impact on the business culture in china, and how businessmen of China mold their thoughts, from simple transactions, managements and ethical view of the company.For me the whole idea of Confucianism is something that has been invested for too long within the Chinese culture that i t makes what Chinese people, not just the Mainland Chinese people but also any nationalities with Chinese origins who they are. Even during the times of cultural compound something that defines a race cannot be change. The modesty, hierarchical thinking and collectivism is something that cannot be taken away, and for me personally, being a person of Indonesian nationalities with Chinese origin it something that you grown up with, albeit I never actually thought specifically what it was, but it felt like it is our identity to act upon Confucianism idea. Having experience a fair share working and understanding with people of two different wit of both western and Chinese, I notice many differences in approaches that they go about when they do business.I can confirm based on personal experience from the above statement that Guangxi is the most important philosophy ahead of harmony within Chinese businessmen, having experience first hand of how connection can get you further ahead than the rest in business but also for western culture I experience and witness how individualism is promoted, having seen this in many western fast sustenance chain where employee of the month award was presumptuousness and etc. In conclusion, Confucianism I believe was, is and will be everywhere in Chinese business culture, the nature of Chinese culture that support and accepted it are always going to be there as it is a philosophy that has become the norm within everyday life in China. as the future inclination closer to favor China as the world biggest economy it will exclusively be the matter of time when Confucianism business culture spread and no longish be seen as a culture shock by the western civilizations. 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