Chinese Folk Wisdom: Leading with Traditional Values

After the establishment of modern China in 1949, the country went through several decades of political upheaval during which the Confucian education system underpinning the traditional Chinese value system was severely compromised (Bell and Waizer, 2010; Bond, 1986; Martinsons and Westwood, 1997; Davison et al., 2009). Meanwhile, economic reforms in the past three decades have brought with them the Western mindset that accompanies modern capitalism (Martinsons, 2008). However, the situation remains complex, given China’s immature institutional frameworks and legal system (Davison et al., 2009). On the one hand, trends show that there is now little room for traditional Chinese values in the face of invading Western concepts. On the other hand, it appears that certain Chinese values might have an edge in a fast-changing business environment, particularly the challenge to the West of the recent financial crisis (Jian, 2009; Panzner, 2009; Sung, 2008). Indeed, previous studies have shown that the present cadre of Chinese managers still exhibit Confucian values in their business dealings, and that these values still affect the commercial behaviour of Chinese managers (Burrows et al., 2005; Chan et al., 1998; Wright et al., 2002). Traditional Confucian values still influence the Chinese in several ways, apart from through the education system (Zheng et al., 2005). One of these channels is Chinese folk wisdom, the oral tradition handed down through the ‘family education’.