The notion of compassion is a cornerstone in Chinese as well as western orientations for business practice. Spiritual and religious traditions, philosophical approaches and historical and present business practices outline this notion in a comparative perspective. This paper seeks to address this issue.
Interdisciplinary paper, summarizing social science, philosophical and business literature.
With its focus on compassion, business ethics in the Chinese tradition highlights a notion, which variously resonates within western traditions. Based on this, multiple lines or thought consequences for management development are derived.
In terms of management development the call for compassionate management can be held as a common denominator of different traditions. Therefore, it will be important to include this aspect in our management development, cultural management as well as international strategy courses.
In a broad interreligious and intercultural overview some basic characteristics of compassionate management can be identified.
