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This paper aims to analyse the conceptual bases of the related terms of “host” and “guest” in Chinese and reveal essential, though overlooked, cultural differences that relate to “hospitality” in Western and Chinese cultural contexts.

A presupposition of this conceptual investigation is that culture manifests itself linguistically. The analytic approach used here is textual analysis. Confucian classical texts are the main source of evidence for examining the conceptual commitments of the Chinese characters 主 and 客 and their corresponding practical expressions.

Cross-cultural comparison reveals asymmetries between the term “hospitality” and its Chinese translations, etymologically and culturally. This study demonstrates how the Chinese 主–客 paradigm is both hierarchal in nature and centred on the role and interests of the host. It further compares this paradigm with its Western counterpart along five different dimensions.

The specific Chinese norms for the host–guest paradigm synthesized here could prompt both academicians and operators to question the cultural attachments associated with hospitality by participants and the cultural differences in hospitality transactions and management. The cultural sensitivity modelled here is intended to facilitate harmony between a hospitality setting and the culture in which it is embedded.

This conceptual paper is the first in the Anglophone literature to explore the Chinese cultural roots of the concepts “host” and “guest”. The linguistic perspective used in this study allows the concept of “hospitality” to be studied cross-culturally and in an interdisciplinary way, addressing a blind spot in the extant hospitality literature.

Badaracco of Harvard Business School suggests a “nudge‐test‐escalate” (NTE) approach in influencing and implementing change. In The Book of Changes (I‐Ching), the most archaic and authoritative works of the Chinese classics, it adopts a “test‐accelerate‐forge” (TAF) approach instead. The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences between these two models, and addresses the effectiveness of influential leadership when the models are used in the western and eastern settings, respectively. It also looks at the fundamental concepts that underlie the models and discusses the characteristics and virtues that an influential leader must possess in order to make change happen.

The paper reviews the Harvard model by Badaracco and extracts taken from I‐Ching. It makes comparisons between the Chinese and Western perspectives.

The paper provides a discussion on the NTE and the TAF three‐step approaches in their leadership style to understand how western and Chinese leaders exert their power of influence. This paper argues that although each adopts a three‐step approach in its leadership style, the differences lie in the philosophies that are used to guide the leader in influencing others. From the Western perspective, there are three pertinent virtues of “restraint, modesty, and tenacity” in pushing through change, while the Chinese adopt the three virtues of “prudence, balance, and authority” as their essential guide in leadership and by exercising self‐restraint and patience, resonance, and balancing.

The paper presents the pertinence and applicability of the Harvard model and the Chinese model since there is an increase of frequency of cross‐cultural communication in government, business, education, and other organisations. One of the trends in research on leadership is on leaders' quality in relation to organisational ethics and competencies of effective communication.

This paper presents a high level of comparative analyses between two influential models. It points out the need for leaders in both the western and Asian organisations to be aware of the two models so as to enhance their competencies and capacities in maximising change. This paper argues that Harvard model is well designed and highly applicable; and that the Chinese classics on influential leaders are still relevant in today's contexts.

Within both Western and Eastern traditions of virtue ethics, there is a Doctrine of the Mean, suggesting that errors may lie either in excess or in deficiency. The need to avoid both excess and deficiency in the allocation of finite resources is a concern in many sorts of business decisions, some with ethical implications. One finite resource is the resource of attention, and ethical problems can arise from failures to attend to important things. Both Aristotle and classical Confucianism accept the importance of paying attention to circumstances rather than following fixed rules or blindly maximising value. For organisations to give appropriate attention to different things requires suitable intra-organisational reporting and communication. Then there is still need for awareness that resources are finite, and for activity that is sustainable, highlighting the related idea of harmony, especially salient in the Confucian tradition.

This paper aims to examine whether and to what extent the practical wisdom contained in classical Confucianism can provide conceptual and ethical resources for ethical leadership for Chinese companies in the twenty‐first century. The objectives of the paper are: to reconstruct the core elements of Confucianism; to account some major issues confronting corporate China; to identify the attributes of the Confucian ethical leadership through those of Junzi against such a backdrop; to identify some major challenges for Junzi leadership in today's business environment in China; and to consider some implications of this analysis for management development and management education.

The paper adopts a normative analysis.

A critical articulation of the concept of ethical leadership based on the Confucian notion of Junzi is presented, and the concept is examined against the context of problems confronting business in China. The challenges for Confucian ethical leadership are identified in the conclusion.

The paper presents a critical reference for managers who adopt or intend to adopt Confucian ideas in management.

The paper provides a critical reference for those in society who assume leadership positions to learn about Chinese ethical leadership.

Few works in the literature have made the connection between Confucian ethical leadership and the Chinese corporate context with a critical approach and rigorous analysis to help reveal the inherent challenges.

Yi Jing is one of the most archaic works among the Chinese classics. Various schools of thought developed their philosophies from the philosophical perspectives in this book and its influence is wide ranging and far reaching. This paper attempts to show how leaders can approach the Yi Jing beneficially by identifying the principles, values and virtues in each of the 64 scenarios, deriving insights about change and leadership. It also aims to show how the Yi Jing compares with Western management literature.

This paper provides an analysis of Qian Gua of Yi Jing as an example of how leaders can draw insights from Yi Jing about change and leadership.

Qian Gua, which is the first scenario in the Yi Jing, offers us powerful insights about change and leadership by offering: a framework of understanding change and human enterprises, considering the aspects of beginning, process, benefit and sustainability; a framework to understand the leadership development process; and leadership principles of conscientious self‐cultivation, transformational leadership through virtues and riding the tides of change.

A change and leadership model inspired by the Yi Jing should interest business leaders both in the east and the west, and help Westerners gain success in doing business in China or collaborating with the Chinese on a joint venture.

This is the first paper to draw insights about change and leadership through an analysis of Qian Gua of Yi Jing.

Much of the extant literature on the Chinese Family Firm highlights the unique cultural heritage and social context in which they are embedded as primary determinants of their strategic behavior. In contrast, few studies have examined the strategic behavior of Chinese Family Firms from an economic perspective. In this paper, we address this gap in the literature by applying Dunning's eclectic theory of the MNE to the Chinese Family Firm. In doing so, we generate a series of testable propositions. We suggest that although the strategic behavior of Chinese Family Firms will differ significantly from those of classic Western MNEs, they are nonetheless amenable to interpretation according to Dunning's analytical constructs of ownership (O), internalization (I) and locational (L) advantages. More specifically, we find that like the classic Western MNE, the Chinese Family Firm can be understood as a viable mechanism for capitalizing on particular configurations of OLI advantages in international markets.

The purpose of this paper is to circumscribe the various philosophical connections between the classical and the modern notion of corruption from Enlightenment to post-modernity.

The paper analyzed to what extent the classical notion of corruption (Plato, Aristotle and Cicero) still influenced the way philosophers perceived the phenomenon of corruption during the Enlightenment (1625-1832), the transition period (1833-1900) and the post-modernity (1901 onward). Taking those historical periods as reference points, the author will see how literature about historical, social and political conditioning factors of corruption could convey the presence/absence of the classical or the modern notion of corruption.

The paper finds that the classical notion of corruption implies the degeneration of human relationships (Plato and Hegel), the degeneration of the body-and-mind unity (Aristotle, Pascal and Thomas Mann) or the degeneration of collective morality (Cicero, Locke, Rousseau, Hume and Kant). The modern notion of corruption as bribery was mainly introduced by Adam Smith. Nietzsche (and Musil) looked at corruption as degeneration of the will-to-power. The classical notion of corruption put the emphasis on the effects rather than on the cause itself (effects-based thinking). The modern notion of corruption as bribery insists on the cause rather than on the effects (cause-based thinking).

In this paper, the author has taken into account the main representatives of the three historical periods. Future research could also analyze the works of other philosophers and novelists to see to what extent their philosophical and literary works are unveiling the classical or the modern notion of corruption.

The paper presents a philosophical and historical perspective about corruption. It sheds light on the way philosophers (and sometimes novelists) deal with the issue of corruption, whether it is from an effects-based or from a cause-based perspective.

Examines Chinese attitudes towards the introduction and implementation of an international corporate culture into their working environment. Refers to Sun Tzu’s military classic The Art of War and suggests his philosophy can be applied to business in China, and that the Western world should begin understanding this philosophy and the oriental mindset. Presents results of a study of Chinese employees at a Beijing, China hotel to determine attitudinal and behavioural patterns, and finds that the concept of corporate culture currently meets with strong resistance from many Chinese people who believe foreign ideals and concepts are not to be trusted.

Established on the detailed exploration of Chinese ancient management philosophies (CAMPs), the purpose of this paper is to extract enlightenments from CAMPs to see whether there exist some similarities between CAMPs and contemporary human resources management thoughts (CHRMTs) and pinpoint CAMPs' implications on human resource management practices nowadays.

Inspired by Lao Tzu's “When we can lay hold of the Dao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Dao”, the paper explores, categorizes and integrates wisdom stemmed from CAMPs to evaluate whether there exist some commonly accepted arguments between CAMPs and CHRMTs.

CAMPs which have been passed on by generations for the past 2,500 years in China provide firm ground for human resources management thoughts and practices development; CAMPs' emphasis on people's well cultured morality and highly developed virtues has kindled a light to illuminate human resources management practices, not only in the past but also in the future. CHRMTs' principles concerning “people‐centered strategies”, employee recruitment and selection strategies, employee training and education strategies, staffing as well as employee retention strategies, can all trace their sources from CAMPs.

The research on CAMPs is not only significant to complement and extend CHRMTs but also useful to direct current human resource management practices.

This paper seeks to propose that practical wisdom originating within the Chinese classical traditions has been instrumental in China's ascendance to the world stage. Its purpose is to analyze biographical data across 200 Chinese business leaders in order to gauge the relative influence of two competing ideologies – Maoism and Confucianism.

This paper is based on a two‐step design process. First, modern day leadership archetypes characterizing Maoist and Confucian ideology were developed from the literature. Second, these archetypes were applied in the content analysis of biographical data on Chinese business leaders.

There was evidence of both Maoism and Confucianism in the practices of Chinese business leaders. An unintended, third cohort of leaders emerged, representative of the younger end of the biographical distribution, who appear to embrace paradox in their ideological orientation.

There were three practical implications for management and leadership development: the importance of integrating the concept of paradox into management and leadership development curricula; the provision of illustrative alternatives to western world leadership exemplars; and increased emphasis on global leadership as an emergent phenomenon with particular attention to the burgeoning internationalization of Chinese enterprise and its associated ideologies.

The current leadership literature is dominated by western world exemplars. This paper offers an alternative view; one rich with the wisdom and classical traditions of the Chinese culture.