Confucianism Vs Taoism

4 Comparison and Discussion

Sustainable management is very critical for an organization to gain and maintain competitive advantage. The Confucianism roots in Chinese culture deeply and has been manifested from different perspectives. The cases reveal interesting and important insights of sustainable management applied in different organizations including a private enterprise, a state-owned enterprise and a governmental department

4.1 Comparison and discussion from the historical perspective

Considering the Confucianism developments from the historical perspective, three organizations have been affected by the Confucian theories in classic period during which Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi established the fundamental theories of Confucianism.

Therefore, the following discussions will disclose some important issues based on a brief comparison.

4.2.1 Individual Level

The importance of sustainable leadership is highlighted at the individual level. Leader’s morality, personal value and his or her engagement in self-improvement are characterized as the main elements of sustainable leadership at individual level.

Morality: Good morality has been emphasized by all three leaders,who believed that good morality is beneficial for shaping leadership in a good way and could promote the performances of the organization indirectly. They highlighted the importance of the Confucian virtues of “Ren” (benevolence), “Yi” (Rightness) and “Xin”

Nevertheless, Mr. Xu and Ms. Zhang have paid much attention to improvement of product or service quality. Mr. Xu focused on the concept of “Xin” or integrity. His Jixin Real-estate Company has paid attention to quality control throughout the whole process from the procurement of raw materials to the maintenance service although those would result in higher project costs as well as the cost of time. As a consequence, his company has gained recognition from its customers and the local government. However, Ms. Zhang concentrated on the benevolence. She mentioned that her team has made a lot of efforts to understand what her clients really need and strive for perfection constantly because of the severe competitions in the banking industries. By doing so, ICBC has retained the satisfactions and loyalty from the