Management with Chinese Characteristics: at the intersection of culture and institutions
Authors:   , Koczkás Sára 
Published: April 2024

With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, the proliferation of Chinese companies worldwide, and the increased presence of Chinese business schools in the international academic discourse, the research on Chinese organizations became a major research stream in international journals. A significant proportion of empirical research in the academic discourse on organizational issues stems from the People’s Republic of China, while the uniqueness of the external environment the country poses for its organizations still means a challenge in the generalization of these research results. According to the traditional approach to Chinese management, Chinese culture, especially the Confucian influence is a major determinant and explanatory variable behind the differences of Western and Chinese organizations. This dissertation aims to discover the influence of the Confucian ideology, other factors of the external environment, and the most relevant external and internal factors in Chinese management today. 1. Confucianism has many principles and values which could have an implication on modern managerial practices, such as the importance of moral force and rituals, the importance of loyalty or a harmonious society. However, the actual influence of Confucian ideology is more of a historical heritage for Chinese managers than actual influencing factor behind their practices. Chinese managers are proud of their heritage which gives them a sense of belonging, but their practices don’t follow Confucian principles more than the practices of non-Chinese managers do. Moreover, the empirical research results are highly influenced by the operationalization of Confucianism, for which there are countless different approaches – the ancient ideology and its many variations are a difficult concept to translate for management research. 2. It is important to note, that in the recent academic discourse, Confucian ideology is not a significant factor anymore. The external environment overall does not receive as much scholarly attention in recent empirical studies as it does in conceptual approaches about Chinese management. The most relevant external factor in Chinese management research is the political environment, and organizations’ relationship with political bodies and individuals. 3. The most relevant internal factors studied in relation with external environment are the strategic focus of the firm, leadership and ownership attributes, motivational, interpersonal and other human resource related factors. This suggests that even though the traditional approach seems to support a cultural (and Confucian) influence in the workings of Chinese organizations, this is not a relevant issue anymore for the researchers and practitioners of the field. If we wish to make a comparison between the management practices of China and another country or region, it seems best to narrow the focus of the research to a more specific area of management, since the attempts to find an overarching explanatory variable behind the uniqueness of Chinese phenomena runs the risk of inaccurate oversimplifications.