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4. Confucianism and Stakeholder Theory
4.1 General Introduction
Old China is relatively a conservative nation. A popular thinking at that time was that, China lied in the centre of the world and all the other nations were treated as dependencies of China, which was partly due to the high developed economy and technology. Thus, CFFs were mostly regulated by basic rules of Confucianism, which is one of the China’s main philosophies. Stakeholder theory emerged as early as 1965, which essentially based on western culture. It seems that, there would hardly be any connection between CFFs management and stakeholder theory. Indeed, however, it is possible that two consistent ways of management developed individually in different situations. It can be seen that, it is consistent between CFFs management and stakeholder theory.
Doubtlessly, culture and tradition can influentially affect human behaviour as well as business structure. Therefore, it is necessary to approach Chinese tradition and culture. In general term, China has three major traditional religions, which are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Obviously, Confucianism is predominant in both old China and current China. According to Confucian understanding, the world is sustained by, and structured around, three ultimates: Tian (heaven), Di (earth), and Ren (humans). These three dimensions of the universe share the sane nature, and their relationship is characterised by harmony rather than opposition or confrontation. The core of this thinking is the principle of Tianren Heyi: the harmonious oneness of heaven and humanity. According, the Confucian masters seldom separated them or discussed them in their opposition. Therefore, Chinese consider Tian, Di, and Ren as a complex system. People would certainly benefit form this system, if they contribute to it. Inside this system, interests of other parties can be regarded as his own interests. In terms of CFFs, Chinese managers would maintain that objectives of a firm should be derived balancing conflicting claims of the various stakeholders in the firm, which is substantially accordant to stakeholder theory.
4.2 Three Major Confucianism Tenets: De, Li, and REN.
4.2.1 De
Confucianism is not a purely secular tradition. It has a profound sense of religiosity and spirituality. As a religious humanism, Confucianism identifies the moral or virtuous with the religious and transcendental. According to this, a moral concept, De, is a core to lead Chinese behaviours. Although translatable as “virtue”, De, originally signifies a political and spiritual quality and ability, which was the power by which a king could rule the state without resorting to force or violence. Initially, offering sacrifices to Tian and the ancestors was believed to be of the greatest significance for earning the legitimacy and power to rule. Gradually, out of this practice evolved the understanding that ability and power must also be cultivated by individuals, and the De became “a moral-making property of a person” that is able to give the person “psychic power or influence over others, and sometimes even over one’s nonhuman surroundings”. Based on the understanding of the nature and source of the political power, Confucians believe that a good ruler is the one who cultivates his character sincerely, performs rituals reverentially, and accumulates good deeds earnestly. With the development of Confucianism, to be a person of virtue is thus no longer the privilege of a ruler or a superior minister. It has become a necessary condition for a personal transition from a crude and uncivilised being to a cultivated and civilised person. This is considered a person’s own responsibility. Self-cultivation is thus understood as the fundamental path to the spiritual transformation of one’s character. According to this, when a Chinese set up a business, he would consciously or unconsciously keep his business ways conform to the requirements of De, which is to be a cultivated and civilised person with social responsibility. Therefore, there are obviously coherent spirits between Confucianism and stakeholder theory. There are other two tenets of Confucianism, which are also important for human behaviour, called Li and REN.
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