Mozi's business thought society believes that management also comes from labor activities. History shows that the most promising and creative management theories often come from countries and regions with rapid economic take-off. At present, oriental management theory is facing such an unprecedented opportunity.
Since human civilization, people have produced management in the same labor. The prosperity of management theory is always inseparable from the rich management practice of "powerful country", "grand meeting" and "new era"
Some famous schools of modern management are almost all put forward by scholars in developed countries. For example, management process school, interpersonal school, group behavior school, experience (or case) school, social cooperation system school, social technology system school, system school, decision theory school, mathematics school or "management science" school, contingency theory school and so on. The functional departments and enterprises in these countries need the guidance of advanced management theory in their economic construction and daily management activities, especially the behavior management with people's psychology, motivation and cultivation as the main research objects.
In the course of thousands of years of civilization, the Chinese nation, with a broad mind of learning from others, has continuously refined and integrated the excellent management cultures of eastern countries, forming a management culture with the management thoughts and methods of Zhouyi, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, military strategists and Islam as the main body. This management culture once made ancient China write a brilliant page in the history of world civilization because of its excellent management and the creation of skilled craftsmen.
Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China's economic construction has made great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention. The 16th National Congress held last year also defined the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way. According to the data released by the World Bank, during the period from 1980 to 2000, the contribution rate of China's economic growth to world GDP growth was 14%, ranking second only to the United States. From the historical experience, the most promising and creative place of management theory is the countries and regions with rapid economic take-off. China's economy is facing unprecedented opportunities for development, which is also an excellent opportunity period for oriental management theory.
After more than 20 years' research, the theoretical system of oriental management is becoming more and more mature. Moreover, oriental management theory will take a new step in the integration of eastern and western management thoughts and ancient and modern management thoughts.
A set of management theory, or a management idea, comes from and serves certain economic activities, and it is bound to have a specific cultural background. In fact, in addition to western culture as the background, many management practices in the world are based on eastern culture.
The process of oriental management research can be roughly divided into two stages.
From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, it was the stage of making the past serve the present. Typical representative articles include the economic management thought in A Dream of Red Mansions, Research on China's Ancient Behavior, and Modern Management.
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, it was the foundation stage of oriental management theory. Oriental management theory creatively puts forward the "three acts" thought of "putting people first, putting morality first and being human", and summarizes this essence as "being human". "Being human" means that everyone should first pay attention to his own behavior cultivation, and "being a man is to be a man first", and then from the perspective of "being a man", regulate his behavior, create good interpersonal relationship and incentive environment, so that managers and managers can "Man-made" and "being human" are dialectical, interrelated and can be transformed. This transformation process is reflected in all aspects of family, industry and state management. The more managers and managed people pay attention to the quality of their own behavior, the better the effect of their "being a man", that is, management.
Since the mid-1990s, oriental management theory has become increasingly mature. As one of the achievements of the national natural science foundation project "Research on Oriental Management Thought", the book "Oriental Management" was officially published in June 2003. Oriental management theory has been further improved, mainly by inheriting the excellent Chinese traditional culture, absorbing the rational management ideas of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, military strategists and legalists in the oriental management culture, combining the management practice of China businessmen with the achievements of China's reform and opening up, and integrating the essence of western management theories such as behavior management, process management, decision management, contingency management and knowledge management, thus forming a more perfect oriental management theory system.
Under the new economic conditions in the new century, the development of oriental management theory will also solve the following three problems: First, the understanding of the relationship between eastern and western management ideas. After long-term research and dissemination by scholars, the theory of oriental management has attracted wide attention and recognition from the international community. However, there are still many scholars in China who have doubts about whether management should be divided into "East" and "West". In fact, oriental management is not completely different from "western management", but an open system that constantly absorbs the core of western management. The so-called "East" emphasizes its cultural background. The second is the misunderstanding of the nihilism of the connotation system of oriental management theory. People who hold this view believe that the so-called oriental management is just a word game in a pile of old paper, which has no system and connotation at all. What needs to be clearly pointed out is that this view is incompatible with the concept of "making the past serve the present" advocated by Oriental management thought. Practice has proved that the rich management ideas brought by ancient management culture have obvious modern value after refining and processing. The third is to explore the source of oriental management. The origin of oriental management theory is not only in China, but also the excellent management culture of other ancient oriental civilizations (such as Indian and Egyptian) provides rich nutrition for the establishment of oriental management theory.
Generally speaking, the idea of "putting morality first" advocated by oriental management thought and the general plan of "governing the country by virtue" are internally unified; From a small point of view, oriental culture advocates the idea of "harmony is precious" and "being human", which is conducive to enhancing the cohesion of enterprises and the stability and harmony of families and society.
From ancient times to the present, oriental management culture has strongly promoted economic development and social progress. China's achievements in more than 20 years of reform and opening-up can not be separated from the proper application of oriental management thought.
First of all, China's strategy of governing the country carried out the idea of "people-oriented" in oriental management. The well-off society we want to achieve in an all-round way is a higher-level society that meets people's material and spiritual needs. Secondly, the idea of "putting morality first" advocated by oriental management culture is internally unified with the general plan of "governing the country by virtue" established by the CPC Central Committee. In order to achieve the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way put forward by the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and curb corruption from the source, we advocate the concept of "new three virtues" of "official morality, business morality and people morality" as the spiritual concept and ideological guidance of social subjects' economic behavior norms and social activities. In addition, in the process of reform and development, many social contradictions need to be solved by using and drawing lessons from oriental management theory. For example, on the issue of honesty, we need to learn from the concept of "doing things for others". Every organization and manager should first show sincerity, keep their promises, first "correct themselves" to give each other confidence and example, then consider others and adjust their behavior, so as to achieve the consistency of interests of both sides and achieve a win-win situation.
At the micro level of enterprise management, Oriental management theory also has unlimited application space. First of all, it is reflected in the management of Chinese businessmen. Because all enterprises in China are family-owned in the initial stage, family members trust each other, which is convenient for coordination and saves the cost of information asymmetry. In addition, oriental culture advocates the idea of "harmony is the most important", family members are harmonious and concentric, and etiquette coordination is also emphasized for members outside the family. The use of "five-sided network" can enhance the competitive advantage of enterprises. Secondly, with the continuous improvement of enterprise knowledge intensity and informatization, and the flattening trend of enterprise organizational structure, "manual" management is more important. In order to maintain the competitive advantage, managers must constantly innovate, and innovation requires managers to strengthen their self-cultivation, enhance their awareness of innovation, update their knowledge structure, and realize example encouragement. At the same time, from the perspective of "being a man", create good conditions and atmosphere for employees and encourage employees to give full play to their advantages.
Oriental management culture has important reference significance for today's family management. "Filial piety is the first of all virtues", "Filial piety is the foundation of virtue, and teaching is born from it." The spirit of filial piety is of practical significance to the management of the family and even the country. The connotation of "a sense of security for the old and love for the young" is of far-reaching significance for carrying forward the traditional virtues of respecting the old and loving the young. Oriental management thought emphasizes the management values of "being human" born by social and natural, state and economic subject, enterprises and individuals as a whole, which can make society, enterprises and individuals move towards integration, flexibility and humanization.
There is a saying in Mo Shang that the development of any theory is a long-term accumulation process, and the oriental management theory should also be continuously developed, enriched and improved. First of all, we should unswervingly complete the classic works of oriental management, including 14 works such as Governing the Country, Managing Students and Managing the Family, so as to make the oriental management theory more detailed and deepened and form a more systematic and profound management theory. Secondly, we should start to study the application of oriental management theory and enhance the operability of oriental management theory. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the study of oriental management cases, especially on the basis of China's practice of reform and opening up for more than 20 years, and further combine oriental management theory with applied economics to explore the role of oriental management culture in China's economic development. On the other hand, we should attach importance to the study of oriental management psychology, fully affirm the value of qualitative research, and draw lessons from meaningful quantitative research in the west in appropriate fields. Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, mainly studied psychology and economics, and made an in-depth analysis of the decision-making problems under uncertainty. Vernon Smith, another prize winner, has contributed to the research of experimental economics. In the process of studying human heart, human morality and man-made, the Oriental Management Psychology Laboratory should also critically learn from the research results and methods of western experimental psychology and experimental economics. Finally, we should strengthen the education, popularization and promotion of oriental management culture and carry forward the management concept of "doing things for people".