TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The notion of compassion is a cornerstone in Chinese as well as western orientations for business practice. Spiritual and religious traditions, philosophical approaches and historical and present business practices outline this notion in a comparative perspective. This paper seeks to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach– Interdisciplinary paper, summarizing social science, philosophical and business literature.Findings– With its focus on compassion, business ethics in the Chinese tradition highlights a notion, which variously resonates within western traditions. Based on this, multiple lines or thought consequences for management development are derived.Practical implications– In terms of management development the call for compassionate management can be held as a common denominator of different traditions. Therefore, it will be important to include this aspect in our management development, cultural management as well as international strategy courses.Originality/value– In a broad interreligious and intercultural overview some basic characteristics of compassionate management can be identified. VL - 30 IS - 7/8 SN - 0262-1711 DO - 10.1108/02621711111150272 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711111150272 AU - Opdebeeck Hendrik AU - Habisch André ED - H.‐C. de Bettignies ED - K. Ip ED - B. Xuezhu ED - A. Habisch ED - G. Lenssen PY - 2011 Y1 - 2011/01/01 TI - Compassion: Chinese and western perspectives on practical wisdom in management T2 - Journal of Management Development PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 778 EP - 788 Y2 - 2024/04/24 ER -