Chapter 9: Agency Beliefs About Chinese Leaders and Followers: A Comparison of Historic Chinese Leadership Philosophies

In spite of the financial crash of 9/11/2008 the share of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sino-Western joint ventures in China is increasing. This means that Chinese organizations must compete with what are called “postmodern” organizational designs from developed nations. Westernbased multinational organizations are characterized by

Assuming this is indeed the trend and that a similar power shift is necessary in Chinese and Sino-Western organizations, do Chinese managers have the capacity at the societal, organizational, and individual level to make such a shift? Can a new generation of Chinese managers do it? What needs to be done to facilitate such a change and what are possible barriers that may hinder it? These are the questions of interest in this chapter.