Abstract
There is a relative dearth in studying the impact of religions on the Hakka culture. This is particularly true for the case of Buddhism. Like most folk religions, Buddhism has been deeply rooted in Hakka societies. Such deep root implies the existence of tremendous impacts which Buddhism exerts upon the Hakka culture. Such impacts certainly deserve more attention by Hakkaology researchers. This research intends to fill the aforementioned gap by investigating the impacts of Buddhist thoughts on the business and management philosophies of Hakka enterprises. A total of 21 Hakka entrepreneurs are interviewed. Although not all of them are self-claimed Buddhists, they are generally open-minded and receptive to Buddhist thoughts. Their management styles, practices and philosophies are quite compatible with both Buddhist and Hakka values. Based on the result of this study, we further propose a preliminary Buddhism-based management model for Hakka enterprises.
Key words： Hakkaology; Hakka Culture; Hakka Enterprises;
Buddhism; Business ;Management
1. Introduction
Max Weber (1904-1905, 1958) is the pioneer of investigating the impacts of religiousthoughts on economic activities. He believes that
Protestant ethic is the spiritual foundation ofcapitalism. That is, the Protestant ethic has fostered the social psychological conditions which make possible the development of capitalist civilization in the Occident. He suggests that the connection between economic rationalism and a sense of religious
responsibility stems from the ethics of ascetic Protestantism. Using a similar analysis, he further concludes that due to the effects of the Confucian ethos, rational entrepreneurial capitalism would be retarded in societies influenced by the Confucianism (Weber 1951, p. 104). Weber‟s thesis of the
incompatibility of the Confucian ethos and rational entrepreneurial capitalism has been challenged by the so-called “economic miracles” of many East Asian countries. Chung et al. (1989) suggested that Confucianism does offer motivational mechanisms for East Asian capitalism which parallels the profit-seeking drive in Western capitalism. Thus, Confucianism is compatible and has facilitated Asian capitalism by its influence on managerial values and practices. Regardless the validity of the Weberian theses, his pioneering works contribute tremendously to the study of the roles of religion in economic development. Indeed, religion can be a formidable force in shaping business and economic activities which are undoubtedly an important part of culture.
By the same token, there is a need to look into how religions affect business
and economic activities through culture.
In the management literature, there have been studies exploring the impacts of Buddhist thoughts (particularly Zen Buddhism) on management styles. For example, Pascale and Athos (1978, 1981) discussed the
relationship between Zen Buddhism and Japanese management.
Unfortunately, their shallow understanding or even misunderstanding of Zen Buddhism has resulted in wrong conceptions about such relationship.
Specifically, they consider “ambiguity” to be what Zen is all about and consequently the management should purposely “create ambiguity”. This is certainly not a correct understanding of Zen and thus can be a dangerous attitude for management.
There is a relative dearth in studying the impact of religions on the Hakka culture, not to mention how religious thoughts may influence the management practices of Hakka enterprises through the force of the Hakka culture. Like most folk religions, Buddhism has been deeply rooted in Hakka societies. Such deep root implies the existence of tremendous impacts which Buddhism exerts upon the Hakka culture. A cursory look at the Hakka culture would give us many traces of Buddhist thoughts which have been ingrained in Hakka people. For example, the Buddhist concepts such as giving,
performing good deeds, the law of cause and effect, etc., are well accepted by Hakka people. Such impacts certainly deserve more attention by Hakkaology researchers.
In this paper, we report a study on how Buddhist thoughts impact the business and management philosophies of Hakka enterprises. Through
interviews and other forms of continuous interactions with over twenty Hakka entrepreneurs, we gain a good understanding of the roles which Buddhism plays in Hakka culture and the management styles of Hakka enterprises. This study not only bridges some gaps in Hakkaology research, but also widens the perspectives on Hakka cultures.
The study of the impact of religions on organization management can and should be viewed in the broader context of cultural approaches to organizations and, in parallel, the cultural exploration in the social sciences (e.g., Morrill, 2008; Smircich, 1983; Weeks and Galunic, 2003). Cultural roots play an important role in shaping both the conceptions of organizations and the resultant management styles. This fact has been well documented in the literature (e.g., Allaire and Firsirotu, 1984; Alvesson and Berg, 1992;
Burrell and Morgan, 1979, Deal and Kennedy, 1982). Threading such investigation through the factor of ethnic cultures (e.g., Hakka) can be fruitful and valuable to the understanding of organization management. Nevertheless, this is indeed a fertile but yet-to-be-cultivated research field.
In this project, we study how Buddhist thoughts impact the business and management philosophies of Hakka enterprises. Through interviews and other forms
of continuous interactions with over twenty Hakka entrepreneurs, we gain a good understanding of the roles which Buddhism plays in Hakka culture and the management styles of Hakka
enterprises. This study not only bridges some gaps in Hakkaology research, but also widens the perspectives on Hakka cultures. It also gains valuable
insights into the aforementioned cultural approaches to organization sciences (and social sciences, for that matter).
The rest of this report is organized as follows: Section 2 briefly describes how the research was conducted; Section 3 reports and discusses the research findings; based on the research results, Section 4 presents a preliminary Buddhism-based management model for Hakka enterprises; finally, Section 5 concludes the paper and suggests directions for future research.