Orgm 6000 Comparative Management - Religion Influences Asian Management
ORGM6000 COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT
Research Report
Topic B: Discuss the influence of Confucianism, Shintoism and Buddhism in enterprise management in East Asia. How does any such influence affect the conduct of international business with East Asian corporations?
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary 3
2. Introduction 4
3. Literature Review 4
3.1. Buddhism 4
3.2. Confucianism 6
3.3. Shintoism 7
4. The relevance of Confucianism, Shintoism and Buddhism for Business Management in East Asia. 8
4.1. Influence of Buddhism for Business Management in East Asia 8
4.2. Influence of Confucianism for Business Management in East Asia 9
4.3. Influence of Shintoism for Business Management in East Asia 10
5. Conclusion 11
- Executive Summary
This study discusses the philosophical influences of religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism in managing and making decisions that affect the conduct of international business in East Asia regions.
This study examines the historical origins of the three religions thence it evaluates the effects of the religious culture on the international businesses. In addition, it also explains the influence of religion on management activities such as creating an equal working environment, motivation of employees, personal and team performance, and harmony among employees in the organisation, the corporate strategies.
- Introduction
Cultural diversity is an inevitable trend in today's society, it not only affects politics, culture and society but also affects the economy as more and more businesses become multinational firms (Helble 2017). The rapid economic growth in East Asian countries has made economic researchers doubt that whether unique cultural values in this region have brought benefits for the business development in these nations. Moreover, many pieces of evidence have shown that managers have dealt with complex situations daily by an array of management tools. However, in those difficult situations, managers needed to be supported by religious values as belief in transcendent reality, divinity, god, truth, or good things (Fernando and Jackson 2006). Decisions, whether good or bad, were usually attributed to that supporting. Therefore, according to (Stevens 2017), religion plays an important role in affecting on leaders' decision-making because it affects the judgment, emotion, and motivation of their decisions. In addition, (Chan-Serafin, Brief, and George 2013) showed that religion relates the extent to which a group shares a system of ideas, values, and emotions and that influences the behavioural rules of the members, whereby individuals can assess the individual and communal consequences based on their actions. According to (Vail et al. 2010), the impacts of culture and religion on management practices are one of the common topics that are researched by many social - economists in nowadays because culture and religion can influence the corporate governance performances. Especially in East Asia region, where born many cultures and religions of the world such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Shintoism. This may also affect the behaviour and leadership styles of corporate executives in East Asia. Moreover, it may also affect the expansion of the international business of East Asian corporations (Helble 2017).
Consequently, this study aims to discuss the impact of religion, especially Confucianism, Shintoism and Buddhism, on the management and making decision process of firms in East Asia. Besides that, this research also analyses and compares factors among three religions that influence the expansion of the international business of East Asian enterprises.
- Literature Review
- Buddhism
Buddhism appeared more than 2,500 years ago, around the 6th century BCE in India. Then, Buddhism was transmitted from India to China via the Silk Road and it became one of China's main traditional religions and other countries in East Asia such as Japan, South Korea.