Confucian "Human""Humaneness" Management In Chinese And Foreign Enterprises

With the rapid development of modern economy and the increasing competition between enterprises, tens of thousands of managers have been scrambling to seek for ways to improve their management from western enterprise management theories. It is no doubt that western management system has its scientific basis and has played a huge role during the development of Chinese enterprises, whereas it had not and would ever be of any possibility to solve domestic management problems fundamentally. The Chinese have their own specific and peculiar modes of thought, manners and customs, as well as moral values. The problems of Chinese Enterprise management cannot be fundamentally solved unless the Chinese managers base on the reality of China and seek solutions from the traditional Chinese culture, among which the Confucian philosophy posed by Confucius have already presented the way of solution for the Chinese. It is generally referred as Confucian management philosophy at present. The Confucian culture has an ingrained and profound impact towards its people for over two thousand years. For one side, it has been rooted in the Chinese blood and penetrated into all areas of their life---society, economy, culture and politics, etc. Moreover, it also has an imperceptible impact upon the national morality, value orientation, thinking mode, behavior norms and social psychology of its people. For another, the magnum opus of Confucianism, The Analects contains a great many abundant and affluent management thought, which is of great practical importance in the development of modern enterprise management."Confucianism is the fullest, most thorough and most complete reflection of the mentality of the main Chinese mentality and it can inspire people’s managing enthusiasm and ethical responsibility more agilely and profoundly than any other traditional management thoughts."(Liu Yunbo, P255)Humaneness is the kernel of Confucianism, Confucius believes that humaneness is the essence of human nature, and the core of humaneness is to love, which means being human-oriented, to respect and cherish people. From the coinage of the structure of Chinese characters,"ren" is "two persons"(Shuo Wen Jie Zi, p209) if it is taken apart, which refers to the relationship between persons. Therefore, in relation to its essential characteristics, Confucian management thought is a "people-oriented" management philosophy which centers on how to manage people themselves and how to coordinate the relations between people.Enterprises are made up of people and enterprise management is the management about people and its essence is people-oriented. In the1980s, the humanistic management emerged which treated people as the center of all management activities, was considered to be the newest management pattern in modern enterprise management. Only when managers have catch the human essence, treat staff as an independent people, respect them wholeheartedly and sincerely, will the staff contribute themselves to work heart and soul. Modern western enterprise management is the most scientific and advanced management theory around the world, but it tends to be a sort of hard management with the stress on rationality and regularities. As to the issue of persons, the western enterprise management has always regarded persons as rational tools while ignoring the basic needs of the independent being. Though the role of people in management activities have been realized in modern human management, they are still regarded as the object of enterprise management and the two opposing sides between managers and those that are being managed. While Confucianism primarily explored humaneness, that is, the nature of the people; hence, it is of great significance to speed up the modernization of enterprise management by absorbing the essence of Confucian management thought.