Study On The Strategic Management Traits Of The Military Strategists' Thoughts In The Pre-Qin Times

As a fundamental part of the traditional Chinese culture, the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times encompass affluent management traits and demonstrate infinite vitality. Up until now, the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times have been deeply influencing the modern corporate management in China, especially the practice of strategic management of Chinese corporations. In the spirit of realistism and pragmatism and by absorbing the essence of Confucianism, Taoism and legalism, the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times take shape of a self-contained system of management thoughts with the idea of defeating the opponent as its core, integrated with the concepts of zhishen (self-management), zhiguo (state management), zhijun(army management) etc. This study analyzes the six representative books of the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times to identify the management trait clusters. Then the general characteristics of these management trait clusters and the logic among them are analyzed so as to construct the structure of the management trait corpus of the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times which will hopefully settle a foundation for establishing a national management theory.This dissertation initially defines some basic conceptions such as the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times and management trait and expounds the rationale and implications of this study. Next, the analytic framework and procedures are presented. The principal part of this dissertation (Chapter III and Chapter IV) witnesses the deconstruction of the management traits in the six representative books of the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times and the formulation of a subsequent trait corpus covering all the Pre-Qin military strategists' management thoughts. The six representative books are Art of War by Sun Wu, Art of War by Wu Qi, Art of War by Sima, Six Strategies, Art of War by Wei Liao and Art of War by Sun Bin. In the study of every book, the content is firstly expounded and then the management traits are identified, explained and analyzed. The main management traits are demonstrated in KJ frameworks and the corresponding management traits at each of the three levels are illustrated in detailed deconstruction diagrams. In Chapter V, The core traits among the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times are philosophically probed from the perspective of management culture. Then this dissertation uses the core traits to integrate with and organize the distinct trait clusters and formulate a self-contained management trait corpus, and analyze the characteristics of the management trait corpus. In Chapter VI, In terms of the western management thoughts, the strategic management model and corporate capability theory are mainly discussed. The study concludes that the military strategists' thoughts in the Pre-Qin Times may shed light on these two western theories with further suggestions proposed in term of strategic management of Chinese corporations.