Po-Keung Ip

Practical wisdom of Confucian ethical leadership: a critical inquiry

Purpose – This paper aims to examine whether and to what extent the practical wisdom contained in classical Confucianism can provide conceptual and ethical resources for ethical leadership for Chinese companies in the twenty‐first century. The objectives of the paper are: to reconstruct the core elements of Confucianism; to account some major issues confronting corporate China; to identify the attributes of the Confucian ethical leadership through those of Junzi against such a backdrop; to identify some major challenges for Junzi leadership in todays business environment in China; and to consider some implications of this analysis for management development and management education.Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a normative analysis.Findings – A critical articulation of the concept of ethical leadership based on the Confucian notion of Junzi is presented, and the concept is examined against the context of problems confronting business in China. The challenges for Confucian ethical leaders...

Business ethics and a state–owned enterprise in China

Since Chinas Reform Era began in 1979, corporations of all shapes and sizes mushroomed in the economic landscape. Among these companies, a few have distinguished themselves by their unique corporate cultures and financial performance. The Chinese state–owned enterprises (SOEs) are notorious for their inefficiency, conservatism, bloated bureaucracy, and obsoleteness. However, a few good SOEs stand out as corporations of excellence with commitment to business ethics. Very little study has been done on SOE corporate cultures and business ethics, especially in the western literature. This paper provides an insight into one such organisation – the Double Star Group of Qingdao. This paper includes the results of an empirical survey on Double Stars employees’ perception of its corporate culture and business ethics.

Practical wisdom for management from the Chinese classical traditions

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an overview of this special issue.Design/methodology/approach – The guest editorial introduces the papers in this special issue, focusing on practical wisdom for management from the Chinese classical traditions.Findings – Chinese culture increasingly will permeate international culture and move from peripheral to mainstream status. To ignore this in management education would be a grave oversight.Originality/value – The issue offers insights into the value of practical wisdom from Confucianism, the origins of Chinese classical trditions and Daoism, and the various streams of thought within the classical Chinese traditions and their contemporary relevance.

The Traditions of the People of Hong Kong and their Relationships to Contemporary Business Practices

For over 150 years, until July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was a British Colony. It is a remarkable metropolis where East and West meet. The British brought with them the rule of law, liberalism, the spirit of capitalism, economic freedom and efficient administration. Hong Kong, apart from being an international city, is deeply Chinese as well. It is an open society with a strong Chinese ethnicity and cultural orientation. Despite her many modern westernized institutions, including the legal, educational, commercial and business institutions, Hong Kong has a unique brand of Confucian values as its deep cultural infrastructure. Indeed, the current cultural scene is a manifestation of a strong Confucian tradition buffeted with British liberalism.

Leadership in the Chinese Philosophical Tradition: A Critical Perspective

This chapter draws on the Chinese philosophical tradition two major schools of thought to reconstruct a notion of Chinese leadership. This notion combines the positive leadership elements from Confucianism (Ru Jia) and Legalism (Fa Jia). The strengths and weaknesses of both schools are examined. Absolving the positive elements while shunning the negative ones of the two schools, this third notion of Ru-Fa leadership has character and rules as its core constituents.

Wang Dao Management as Wise Management

The spectacular rise of China as a world economic power has prompted management scholars to probe the management aspect of China’s business. One major question asked is whether there is a uniquely Chinese management approach and practice that has emerged in the process (Leung, 2012; Chen and Miller, 2010). This chapter primarily responds to this question by critically examining one traditional Chinese concept that may have relevance to today’s management. The chapter reconstructs a concept of Wang Dao (王道, Kingly Way of Governance, or Kingly Way), originally proposed in the Confucian classics, and articulates its modern meanings in the context of business. The idea of Wang Dao (or Wangdao) was first advocated by Mencius as the supreme moral principle of political governance. The idea of Wang Dao stood as a minority view of governance amid a dominant ethos of governance during the Warring States period (476–221 bce) in China. The dominant way of governance in that period was by force and conquest, which resembles the way a hegemon would rule a country. This way of governance was fittingly named Ba Dao (霸道, the Hegemonly Way) at that time. Wang Dao, in contrast, is governance by benevolence and moral rightness or appropriateness. Its corporate version is articulated as Wang Dao management.

Confucian Personhood and Bioethics

Though it is said that Confucianism endorses a relatively rich notion of a moral person, how that notion of moral personhood relates to bioethics has seldom been clearly articulated and critically scrutinized1 It is argued that the familial collectivism entailed by Confucianism is either incompatible with, or too weak to sustain, a rights-based notion of personhood. The Confucian moral architecture, as represented by the ren-yi-li normative system, largely underdetermines a notion of a rights-based personhood which is vital to bioethics. Institutionally, the family, society and the state as basic institutions provide the major institutional factors which function as external (social) inhibitors for the development of a rights-based person. The meshing together of these conceptual and institutional factors has constituted a fatefully inhibitory barrier to the development of a rights-based person. This paper examines the bioethical ramifications of the Confucian non-rights-based notion of personhood in areas including abortion, treatment of newborns and doctor-patient relationships.