Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:08:07.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Yin-Yang Guide Chinese Indigenous Management Research?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Xin Li
Xin Li*
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article, I argue that it is misleading to dichotomize the West as being either/or and the East as being both/and. The West has thought dialectically since ancient Greece. I offer a typology to compare and contrast three dialectical or non-either/or logical systems or ways of thinking: Chinese Yin-Yang philosophy, Hegel's dialectic, and Niels Bohr's complementarity principle, as well as Aristotle's formal (either/or) logic. I show that the four logical systems have differences and similarities and show that Westerners can and do think dialectically. I also argue that Chinese Yin-Yang philosophy, while useful and powerful in some situations, is not always superior to the other logical systems and philosophies. My purpose is to alert Chinese management scholars to the dangers of overconfidence and to stimulate discussion and debate on the true value of Yin-Yang in particular and the promotion of Chinese indigenous management research in general. To that end, I present my opinion on the merits and drawbacks of Yin-Yang and posit that it may inspire but cannot guide Chinese indigenous management research because Chinese philosophy lacks a well-defined methodology and operationalizable methods.

本文作者认为, 那种把东西方思维方式之比较界定为西方非此即彼而东方既此又彼的二分法是具有误导性的, 因为西方自古希腊以来一直就存在着辩证思维。 作者提出了一个分类法用来比较亚里士多德的形式逻辑与三种辩证逻辑系统或思维方式之异同。 这三种辩证逻辑分别是中国阴阳哲学、 黑格尔辩证法、 和波尔互补原理。 作者指出西方人不但能而且也确实在辩证地思考问题。 作者同时指出中国阴阳哲学虽然在很多情况下非常有用但它并不总是优于其他逻辑系统和哲学。 本文的主旨是要替示中国管理学者过度自信的危险并激发关于阴阳的真实价值以及如何促进中国管理本土研究的大讨论。 为此, 作者提出了自己关于阴阳的优缺点的见解并指出, 由于缺乏一套完善的方法论以及可操作的方法, 阴阳虽然可以启发但不能指引中国管理本土研究。

Keywords

Chinesedialecticindigenousmanagement researchoverconfidenceYin-Yang阴阳中国本土管理研究辩证过度自信
Type
Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 7 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baggott, J. 2011. The quantum story: A history in 40 moments. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bakan, D. 1966. The duality of human existence: An essay on psychology and religion. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Bartlett, C. A., & Ghoshal, S. 1989. Managing across borders: The transnational solution, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Beller, M. 1992. The birth of Bohr's complementarity: The context and the dialogues. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 23(1): 147–180.Google Scholar
Bells, I. R., & Koithan, M. 2006. Models for the study of whole systems. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 5(4): 293–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandenburger, A. M., & Nalebuff, B.J. 1996. Co-opetition. New York: Currency Doubleday.Google Scholar
Broderick, D. 2005. Ferocious minds: Polymathy and the new enlightenment. Rockville, MD: Borgo Press.Google Scholar
Brush, S. G. 1980. The chimerical cat: Philosophy of quantum mechanics in historical perspective. Social Studies of Science, 10(4): 393–447.Google Scholar
Callon, M., & Latour, B. 1981. Unscrewing the big Leviathan: How actors macro-structure reality and how sociologists help them to do so. Advances in social theory and methodology: Toward an integration of micro-and macro-sociologies: 277–303.Google Scholar
Chen, M.-J. 2002. Transcending paradox: The Chinese ‘middle way’ perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 19(2): 179–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, M.-J. 2008. Reconceptualizing the competition–cooperation relationship: A transparadox perspective, Journal of Management Inquiry, 17(4): 288–304.Google Scholar
Chen, M.-J., & Miller, D. 2010. West meets East: Toward an ambicultural approach to management. Academy of Management Perspectives, 24(4): 17–24.Google Scholar
Chen, M.-J., & Miller, D. 2011. The relational perspective as a business mindset. Academy of Management Perspectives, 25(3): 6–18.Google Scholar
Chen, Y. 1996. Yin-Yang: The structure of Chinese traditional thinking. Confucius Studies, 4: 108–117. (In Chinese.)陈炎 (1996) 阴阳: 中国传统的思维结构, 《孔子研究》, 1996 年第4期.Google Scholar
China Daily. 2012. TCM supporters push Europe to relax ban. May 3.Google Scholar
Dahneke, B. E. 2006. Define universe and give two examples: A comparison of scientific and Christian belief. New York: BDS Publications.Google Scholar
Fang, T. 2012. Yin-Yang: A new perspective on culture. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 25–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Favrholdt, D. 1999. General introduction: Complementarity beyond physics. In Favrholdt, D. (Ed.), Complementarity beyond physics (1928–1962): xxiii–xxlix. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B.V. (included in Niels Bohr Collected Works, Vol. 10).Google Scholar
Fung, Y.-L. 1983. A history of Chinese philosophy. Vol. I: The period of the philosophers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. 1984. The constitution of society. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. 1994. Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research: 105–117. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Gupta, A. K. 2011. The relational perspective and East meets West. Academy of Management Perspectives, 25(3): 19–27.Google Scholar
Han, W. 2011. The collapse of empirical research pagoda. Chinese Journal of Management, 8(7): 980–989. (In Chinese.) 韩巍(2011) 论‘实证研究神塔’的倒掉, 《管理学报》, 2011 年第7期.Google Scholar
Hegel, G. W. F. 1969. Science of logic. Translated by Miller, A. V., London: George Allen & Unwin. (Originally first published in 1812).Google Scholar
Høffding, H. 1955. A history of modern philosophy. Vol. 2, New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Holton, G. 1970. The roots of complementarity. Daedulus, 99(4): 1015–1055.Google Scholar
Huang, Y. 2011. Rethinking the Beijing consensus. Asia Policy, 11: 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jammer, M. 1966. The conceptual development of quantum mechanics. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Kuznets, S. 1955. Economic growth and income inequality. American Economic Review, 45(1): 1–28.Google Scholar
Lee, B.-C., Kim, K. W., & Soh, K.-S. 2010. Characteristic features of a nerve primo-vessel suspended in rabbit brain ventricle and central canal. Journal of Acupuncture & Meridian Studies, 3(2): 75–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leung, K. 2012. Indigenous Chinese management research: Like it or not, we need it. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 1–5.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. W. 2000. Exploring paradox: Toward a more comprehensive guide. Academy of Management Review, 25(4): 760–776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, P. P. 1998. Toward a geocentric framework of organizational form: A holistic, dynamic and paradoxical approach. Organization Studies, 19(5): 829–861.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, P. P. 2012a. Toward an integrative framework of indigenous research: The geocentric implications of Yin-Yang Balance. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 29(4): 849–972.Google Scholar
Li, P. P. 2012b. The second great encounter in the new era of globalisation: Why and how should the West meet the East? Journal of Trust Research, 2(1): 1–5.Google Scholar
Li, P. P. 2012c. Exploring the unique roles of trust and play in private creativity: From the complexity–ambiguity–metaphor link to the trust–play–creativity link. Journal of Trust Research, 2(1): 71–97.Google Scholar
Li, P. P., Leung, K., Chen, C. C., & Luo, J.-D. 2012. Indigenous research on Chinese management: What and how. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 7–24.Google Scholar
Li, S. 2003. Relation-based versus rule-based governance: An explanation of the East Asian miracle and Asian crisis. Review of International Economics, 11(4): 651–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2(1): 71–87.Google Scholar
Mehra, J. 1987. Niels Bohr's discussions with Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger: The origins of the principles of uncertainty and complementarity. Foundations of physics, 17(5): 461–506.Google Scholar
Meyer, K. E. 2006. Asian management research needs more self-confidence. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 23(2): 119–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D. 1986. Configurations of strategy and structure: Towards a synthesis. Strategic Management Journal, 7(3): 233–249.Google Scholar
Olson, D. H. 1994. Curvilinearity survives: The world is not flat. Family Process, 33(4): 471–478.Google Scholar
Peng, K., & Nisbett, R. E. 1999. Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction. American Psychologist, 54(9): 741–754.Google Scholar
Peterson, C. M., & Seligman, M. E. P. 2009. Positive organizational studies: Lessons from positive psychology. In Cameron, K. S., Dutton, J. E. & Quinn, R. E. (Eds.), 14–27. San Francesco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline.Google Scholar
Prahalad, C. K., & Doz, Y. L. 1987. The multinational mission: Balancing global integration with local responsiveness. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Rawnsley, M. 1998. Ontology, epistemology, and methodology: A clarification. Nursing Science Quarterly, 11(1): 2–4.Google Scholar
Schelling, T. C. 1960. The strategy of conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sharma, R. 2012. China slows down, and grows up. The New York Times, April 25.Google Scholar
Solow, R. M. 1956. A contribution to the theory of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 70(1): 65–94.Google Scholar
Sypniewski, B. P. 2005. China and universals: Leibniz, binary mathematics, and the yijing hexagrams. Monumenta Serica, 53: 287–314.Google Scholar
Tsang, E. W., & Ellsaesser, F. 2011. How contrastive explanation facilitates theory building. Academy of Management Review, 36(2): 404–419.Google Scholar
Tsui, A. S. 2004. Contributing to global management knowledge: A case for high quality indigenous research. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 21(4): 491–513.Google Scholar
Winchell, W. 1953. How about calling the Russians our Frienemies?. Nevada State Journal. May 19.Google Scholar
Wise, M. N. 1987. How do sums count? On the cultural origins of statistical causality. In Kruger, L., Daston, L. J. & Heidelberger, M. (Eds.), The probabilistic revolution, vol. I. 395–425. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wong, W.-C. 2006. Understanding dialectical thinking from a cultural–historical perspective. Philosophical Psychology, 19(2): 239–260.Google Scholar
Woodward, J. 1958. Management and technology. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office.Google Scholar
Yan, X. 2001. The rise of China in Chinese eyes. Journal of Contemporary China, 10(26): 33–39.Google Scholar
Yu, Y.-D. 2010. A different road forward. China Daily, December 23.Google Scholar
Zadeh, L. A. 1965. Fuzzy sets. Information and Control, 8(3): 338–353.Google Scholar
Zadeh, L. A. 1975. Fuzzy logic and approximate reasoning. Synthese, 30(3–4): 407–428.Google Scholar
Zhang, K. 2012. Academic debate I: Complexity and Chinese indigenous management research. Quarterly Newsletter of Chinese Network for Social Network Studies, 2(1): 1–7. (In Chinese.) 章凯 (2012) 学术讨论一: 复杂性与中国本土管理研究,《中国社会网研究学会通讯》, 2012 年第1期.Google Scholar
Zhang, L. 1985. The ‘Tao’ and the ‘Logos’: Notes on Derrida's critique of logocentrism. Critical Inquiry, 11(3): 385–398.Google Scholar
Zhang, Q. 1996. The Xiangshu thinking of I-Ching and the direction of Chinese culture. Philosophical Research, 3: 65–73. (In Chinese.) 张其成 (1996) 易学象数思维与中华文化走向, 《哲学研究》, 1996 年第3期.Google Scholar
Zheng, G.-Q., & Hu, Z. 2008. Comparative study of argueing between exist or abandon of traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese Archives of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 26(2): 354–356. (In Chinese.) 郑国庆 & 胡臻 (2008) 两次中医存废之争的比较研究. 《中华中医药学刊》, 第26卷第2期, 第354-356页.Google Scholar