Chinese Traditional Values — Implication for HRM in China

Abstract

The last chapter briefly introduced Chinese history and analysed the features of ancient Chinese thinking from three perspectives: holistic and naive thinking, fuzzy and processual thinking, and indirect and longterm thinking, by comparing these with Western abstract and scientific thinking; binary and static thinking; and direct and short-term thinking. Chinese traditional thinking continues to provide a moral, intellectual and social nexus for the Chinese psyche which, even ten years of the Cultural Revolution was unable to exorcise (Cheng, 1986). Chinese traditional thinking is revealed and preserved through a set of core values which underlie social interactions among Chinese people. We will extract five key themes in this chapter which depict core aspects of Chinese values that are derived from the traditional Chinese way of thinking. These values are: He (harmony); Zhongyong ( the Doctrine of Mean); hierarchy, seniority and loyalty (皺盽盻盿, 皈皏皯盺); Guanxi and Renqing (皭皖皹盾皢皚皞) and Face (Mianzi and Lian 盍眦眨眪眭).