ORCID Profile
0000-0002-5367-9390
Current Organisation
The University of Auckland
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 12-08-2019
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically how managers establish ethical guanxi (interpersonal relationships) with their business partners to prevent potential ethical incidences in Chinese and Western business contexts. The present study is guided by a qualitative, abductive approach and draws on in-depth interviews with ten senior managers in five urban New Zealand organisations. The results point out that guanxi (interpersonal relationships) purely working through renqing (reciprocity) is not sustainable, because it perpetuates a never-ending cycle of favours, once exchanging favours stopped or disappeared, then business relationships dwindled. To establish an ethical guanxi model, the authors found that xinyong (trust) is the foundation, and its enlargement stimulates lijie (empathy) that transfers pure business relationships to a genuine friendship which enhances ethical decision-making. They also posit that once managers are embodied with lijie, then they will have the virtue of ren to behave like junzi (ideal Confucian ethical person) whose business actions tend to be intrinsically guided by a sense of obligation to do something right that will work for erse stakeholders’ interests, for the prosperity of organisations and society. This study suggests that managers should take Confucian virtues of xinyong (trust) and lijie (empathy), because they will trigger ren (humanity) as an intrinsic value. In this way, it is more likely for them to become junzi (ideal Confucian ethical person) whose business actions are intrinsically guided by a sense of obligation to do something right that benefits various stakeholders, organisations and society. This study contributes to the extant literature on preventing ethical incidents of guanxi (interpersonal relationships) by drawing a framework of ethical guanxi, which is built on Confucian virtues of xinyong (trust), lijie (empathy) and ren (humanity). Further, this paper strongly suggests that companies should educate their staff to become more humane to make moral decisions in daily management practice.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2021
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2023
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-03-2022
DOI: 10.1002/BSE.3044
Abstract: Existing research posits that there are tensions in addressing ergent sustainability issues which need to be managed and embraced by firms. However, if these tensions cannot be addressed adequately, it will not only have negative impacts on in iduals' interests but also on the development of organisations and ultimately the prosperity of the society, ultimately resulting in unethical consequences. Hence, this paper empirically examines tensions in addressing ergent sustainability issues and how to manage them between Chinese and New Zealand firms in business partnerships. Guided by an interpretivist philosophy, this research adopts a qualitative and abductive approach as the preferred research method. In doing so, 33 in‐depth in idual interviews alongside one informal group discussion were carried out at 16 relatively large Chinese and New Zealand firms known for their commitment to sustainability that are in business partnerships. Interestingly, we find that these companies are faced with complex and multiple sustainability tensions. In order to better manage these tensions, we found that these firms adopt integrative approaches with opening, surfacing, collaborative and synergistic strategies which can help these companies to enhance their organisational ambidexterity.
No related grants have been discovered for Sitong Michelle Chen.