As a summary of the study reported above, we propose a preliminary Buddhism-based Hakka management model. As the name suggests, the model should incorporate both the Buddhist concepts and the traits of Hakka people and Hakka culture.
The model is adapted from the traditional Confucian framework of the triad of monarch, parent and teacher. No doubt, modern interpretation of these terms is necessary since the “monarch” concept is out of date. This
framework is compatible with many important values contained in both Buddhism and Hakka culture. Such compatibility and connection are summarized in Table 21 These values become the foundation and guidelines for organization activities. Figure 2 shows the Buddhism-based Hakka management model.
Table 1. The Buddhism-Hakka Connections in the Monarch-Parent-Teacher Triad Traditional Modern Buddhist Hakka
(Confucian) Concepts Values Values Concepts
Monarch Leader -- Four Types of -- Reverence for Benevolence * Ancestors,Deities, etc.
Parents Parents -- Filial Piety -- Filial Piety (Love and Care) -- Compassion -- Cherish “blood ties”
Teacher Teacher -- Respect Teache - Respect Teacher
(Education and -- The Buddha as -- Respect Books and Edification) the “Original Papers containing Teacher Writings
* The four types of benevolence include those received from parents, teachers, the nation (and its leader), and all sentient beings.
Figure 2. A Buddhism-Based Hakka Management Model The Teachings of the Buddha The Hakka Cultures and Values
(The Buddhist Values)
Parent Love and Care “Child”
Teacher Education Student
Leader Tasks/ Follower
Business Activities
Edification It is commonly believed that a leader is the “central point” of an organization. However, a leader is at the same time a follower. Also, any organization member is both a leader and a follower simultaneously. Thus, any organization is really a “centerless network” – a network of partners. To be exact, every member is a center. All members are equal because they are partners. Thus, a CEO is in equal status with a sanitary engineer (i.e., a janitor) – they are partners.
If every organization member is a “center” of the organization (or the web, the network, for that matter), then what kinds of role does he or she play?
That is, what are the roles of a “partner” plays? As shown in Figure 2, in
addition to being both a leader and a follower simultaneously, any organization member would also be both a “parent” and a “child”
simultaneously and be both a teacher and a student simultaneously.
It should be noted that the relationship between parents and children is a two-way street. Parents love and care about their children. Children also love and care for their parents. Similarly, teachers teach students and also learn from students. If a leader is at the same time a follower, we can analogously conclude that a parent is at the same time a “child” and that a teacher is at the same time a student.
In interacting with colleagues, organization members are teaching each other and learning from each other. Therefore, any organization member is a teacher and a student at the same time. On the other hand each member is a parent and a child simultaneously. By “parent is at the same time a child,” we do not refer to the parent‟s role as his or her parents‟ child. Rather, a parent is a “child” to his or her own children. This may sound absurd. However, it is only human nature that parents, from time to time, are longing for their children‟s attention, respect, love, care, etc. (Worse yet, parents are sometimes very “childish”.) Furthermore, we can define a parent as someone who is on the giving end, while a “child” on the receiving end, of love, care, etc. Every human being needs love and care. Any human being is capable of giving love and care. In fact, it is a human nature to love and to care. Thus, any
organization member can and should be a parent and a child simultaneously.
As a partner, any organization member plays the six roles of leader/follower, parent/”child” and teacher/student simultaneously – that is, they love and care for each other; they learn fromeach other; and they carry out tasks or organizational business activities by both leading and following each other.
When we say that “an organization member plays the six roles
simultaneously,” we do mean simultaneously. For example, parents not only love and care for their children, but also, as a leader, set examples for their children. On the other hand, children not only love and care for their parents, but also serve as “teachers” to their parents. Children are fast-learners.
Oftentimes, parents simply cannot catch up with their kids. A majority of adults have to turn to their youngsters for help with computers, internets, etc.
Also, from time to time, children are the best leader or role model for their parents. Most children are pure, honest and straightforward. They are generally not tricky and treacherous like some adults. Their minds are not contaminated.
Like the six roles being an integrated one, the “activities” associated with the three pairs of relationship (i.e., love and care, education, and business tasks) are also an integrated one. The three types of activities are indeed inseparable. For example, employees need to be taught in order to carry out various tasks in the organization.
Chung (2011) suggests that we should look into the cultural politics‟
perspectives of Hakkaology. Cultural politics is “the complex process by which the whole domain in which people search and create meaning about their everyday lives is subject to politicization and struggle” (Angus and Jhally, 1989). The evolution and development of Hakka values and all activities which Hakka people engage in would necessarily involve the search and create meanings while such processes are inevitably subject to
“politicization and struggle”. Chung (2011) contends that the notion of
“edification” can best serve as the characterization and strategy for the
evolution and development of Hakka culture (or for any culture or
sub-culture, for that matter). Obviously, the management practices of Hakka enterprises are no exception – as shown in Figure 2.
The notion of “edification” is adapted from Rorty (1979). He coins this term to stand for the project of finding new, better, more interesting, more fruitful ways of speaking. Thus, implicit in this term is a dynamic and interactive process which goes on in all human relations. The term
“edification” is used in place of “education” because the latter may give the impression of simply “the transfer of knowledge.” The aim of edification is at continuing a conversation – conversation with oneself and with others -- rather than at discovering truth. The purpose of continuing conversation is to enhance understanding, consciousness and awareness, rather than just
“knowingness.” Thus the notion of “edification” serves well for describing the dynamic interactive process of business activities, love/care and education as discussed in the previous section. Indeed, all three types of organizational activities which partners engage in -- love/care, education/learning, and tasks/business activities – involve “continuing
conversations.” Effective partnership would require organization members strive for enhancing understanding, awareness and consciousness. These concepts can be best summarized by the following three premises associate with the edification and re-description.
• Edification enhances people’s consciousness and awareness, rather than knowingness and pigeonholing, of what goes on in the field.
• Edification helps people expand their horizons of understanding.
Edification encourages people to re-examine and revise their frameworks of
understanding.
The edification philosophy entails at least two closely related requisites for successful management through the process of constant re-description (i.e., a continuing conversation). First, the edification philosophy advocates
open-mindedness and therefore the importance of both extending horizon and widening perspectives. Second, the edification philosophy encourages
creativity for coming up with new and novel descriptions. Open-mindedness can remove many unnecessary constraints and obstructions to the generation of creative ideas required by the re-description activities. With extended horizon of understanding and widened perspectives, one becomes more receptive to new and novel ideas. One will be able to see bigger pictures. This, in fact, helps one maintain strategic focus.Open-mindedness also sets one free from the fixation on his or her own value systems, conceptual
frameworks, or favorite descriptions. One then becomes more conscious and aware of the circumstances and more sensitive to changes in the environment.
There are at least two (again, closely related) ways to enhance both open-mindedness and creativity. First, one may find it useful to use
metaphors freely so as to facilitate the re-description process. Metaphor has usually been defined as a trope involving a transfer from literal to figurative meaning. (Calder, 2003, p. 45) Aristotle even defined it as a sort of deliberate category mistake and the application of an “alien name.” In this way, one meaning is created out of another. Scientists often generate new metaphors through a cognitive process when they want to suggest a new hypothesis.
Rorty (1991) points out that metaphors are necessary for gaining knowledge, even though they did not express knowledge (p. 168). Metaphors also offer a very promising alternative to traditional theorizing approach. We can freely
use metaphors and extend them to different problem settings without worrying about issues such as replicability and generalizability. As Frisina (2002) puts it, “We can let go of the effort to describe the world „as it is‟ and enjoy the unmitigated pleasure of creatively playing with metaphors that we use to constitute ourselves and the world around us.” (p. 38) The notion of
“continuing re-description” suggests that these descriptions can hardly be qualified as “truth” – because they are changing constantly. Another important way to enhance open-mindedness and creativity is to develop habitual “mindfulness.” In recent years, the issue of mindfulness has received increasing attention from researchers in organization science. Langer (1997) specifies the concept of mindfulness as a state of active awareness
characterized by the continual creation and refinement of categories, an openness to new information and a willingness to view contexts from multiple perspectives.
Earlier we mentioned that most of the Hakka entrepreneurs in this study (like the Buddha) show great sense of humor and that such sense of humor can facilitate not only teaching, but also effective communication in
organizations. During the re-description process, stories, metaphors, analogies, etc. are often used. Such usage
can easily spark people‟s sense of humor and should be incorporated into the above Hakka management model.
5.Conclusions
In this study, we intend to investigate the impacts of Buddhist thoughts on the business and management philosophies of Hakka enterprises. We interviewed a total of 21 entrepreneurs. They represent a variety of businesses. A set of selected
Buddhism-related topics were used as guidelines for interview.
Although not all of the Hakka entrepreneurs in this study 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.
Among the five Buddhist concepts used as the guideline for interview, the Law of Cause and Effect are most commonly applied by Hakka entrepreneurs. The “oneness” and the Middle Path concepts follow closely. They consider the “mindfulness” or “one-mindedness”
concept just a “common sense” for conducting business, rather than what is called the “true mind” in the Buddhist literature. The
“emptiness” concept seems to be rather abstract to most of them.
They interpret it simply as “non-attachment” or the need to let go of worldly things.
Based on the result of this study, we propose a preliminary Buddhism-based Hakka management model. Both Buddhist and
Hakka values are integrated in this model. Since it is “preliminary”, the model should be further fine-tuned by incorporating more Buddhist theses and Hakka values. For example, in the Buddhist literature, the following eight factors are consider important perspectives one should take when dealing with worldly affairs:
Essence (體), Phenomena (相), Functions/Applications (用), Causes (因), Conditions (緣), Effects (果), Universals (理) and Particulars (事). These eight factors should, one way or another, be
incorporated into business management processes.
Future studies should also be directed to more comprehensive and comparative investigation of the impacts of Buddhism upon other ethnic groups or subcultures. In this way, we can have a better
understanding of the unique characteristics and styles
(if any) of Buddhism oriented Hakka business management, as contrast to those in other subcultures. Similarly, the proposed
preliminary Buddhism-based Hakka management model needs to be further fine-tuned and tested in different environments. After all, as suggested by the aforementioned “edification” concept, the evolution and development of the Hakka culture, of Hakkaology, and of the Hakka
business management model, etc. should be a process of continuing conversation and endless re-description.
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Appendix I
List of Hakka Businesses Participated in this Study
** We do our best to preserve the privacy and anonymity of the interviewees.
1. Accounting Firm This accounting firm specializes in international and domestic,
business and personal taxes. The company is headquartered in the U.S. But it has extended its business to East Asian countries. The founder who is also the current owner of the company is a Buddhist.
2. Architect
The architect received a master‟s degree from University of Kentucky and a
Ph.D. degree from University of Florida. After he returned to Taiwan, he first became a partner in an architect firm and later had his own company. As both an architect and a developer, he established his business and reputation in Central Taiwan area. Sadly, he passed away in April, 2011.
3. Auto Parts Design, Manufacturing and Export The company was founded more than thirty years ago. Currently it has over 100 employees. The company Headquartered in Southern Taiwan with warehouses and offices in the U.S. This Hakka
entrepreneur started his business in lumber and building materials. He then moved into the manufacturing of parts, mainly auto parts. He had built a solid export business in light systems for recreation vehicles. As the global economy went south, he successfully shifted the business to the manufacturing and export of sirens for police cars, ambulances, etc. During the past decade, he purposefully diversified his ventures into service industry, namely the motel business. This
latter venture accounts for about 10% of the company‟s overall profit.
It provides a cushion for the company‟s financial health. This is particularly important move since the export business is too sensitive and vulnerable to the global recessions.
4. Car Dealer This is, in fact, a failed business. The car dealership was a joint
adventure in China. The Hakka “entrepreneur” put up the majority of the capital while the counterpart Chinese partners provided the “local connections” with local government to obtain land, showroom building, license, etc. Less than three years, after the business stabilized, the Hakka entrepreneur was kicked out of the partnership and lost all his investment. Before this failure, the Hakka
entrepreneur did have a successful
transportation company (focusing on limousine services) in Southern Taiwan.
5. Convenient Stores (2) One traditional, the other franchisee of a major chain. The
traditional store is just a typical Mom and Pop store.
6. (Director of) Branch Office of a Nonprofit Organization Founder of a branch organization of a Buddhist foundation in a major (Midwest U.S.) city.
7. Engineering Consulting (2) Both major in Civil Engineering with concentration on
“structure engineering”; one focuses on water-related projects and the other more into construction business. Both got their master‟s degree from University of Kentucky.
8. Engineering Design (2) One has aerospace industry as major clients. The other is a
software engineering company. Both in California, U.S.A.
9. Food Processing Global operations with plants in both Taiwan and the U.S.
10. Orchid Farmers (2) One engages in farming only, the other also in sales.
11. Publishers (2) They are publishers of magazines and books, one founder of a
magazine and the
other successor. The latter has expanded the operation into publication of additional magazines and books. The magazine
managed to survive and celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2010.
12. Restaurants (3) One owns 3 restaurants, another owns 3 at different times, and
12. Restaurants (3) One owns 3 restaurants, another owns 3 at different times, and