How to balance the traditional Chinese culture and western management method in leaders’ management? : A case study on Chinese commercial bank SPDB

Abstract: Background:Most of the state-owned enterprises and family businesses introduce Confucianism in their management in China, while private enterprises are used to apply western management philosophy. Due to the development of the times and policy adjustments, many state-owned enterprises have gradually transformed into a mixed enterprise which has some functions of state-owned enterprise and a profitability goal like private enterprise. This phenomenon implies the management in mixed enterprises need to figure out a solution to balance Confucianism and western management style in their leadership. Purpose:This paper tries to analyze a Chinese commercial bank SPDB to understand how Confucianism and western management style work together in one enterprise and provide suggestions to foreign leaders in their transactional management, meanwhile explore a new field for researchers. Method:This qualitative study applies one case study in a Chinese commercial bank, eight research respondents including leaders and employees. Data is thereby collected from semi-structured interviews and documentary secondary data. The analysis of the empirical findings is according to grounded theory, through a series of processes such as coding, re-coding, linking to identify the pattern behind the case. Conclusions:In the research, we find that traditional Confucian culture and Western management philosophy have many similarities in guiding leaders on how to manage enterprises. However, the different ideas between eastern and western culture may lead to inappropriate management behavior which may increase contradictions in organizations. For balancing the two culture in one enterprise, leaders need to consider the importance of ‘people’ in Chinese traditional culture, and thus adjust the western management methods, meanwhile, when recruiting new staffs and promoting current employees, apart from considering Guanxi, leaders should consider whether the performance of these employees can be recognized by other employees.