Sustainable Strategic People Management: A Confucian Perspective on Chinese Management

Abstract

This paper examines the strategic management of people within enterprises as a driver of sustainable growth. As strategic people management (SPM) is founded on the Eastern knowledge workers’ perspective, we integrate SPM with the Confucian perspective to analyze the factors underlying the sustainable success of Chinese management. In so doing, we review the literature on sustainability, SPM, Chinese management, and the integration of Confucian cultural values. We utilize the qualitative case research method to examine 20 successful Chinese enterprises across five sectors. The results of the case analysis reveal three types of sustainable SPM associated with Confucian values: responsible people management, paradoxical people management, and humanistic people management. We propose a conception of sustainable SPM combined with Confucianism to be relevant in the Chinese business context, where a high degree of dynamism can be seen. The findings of this study could be extended through analyses conducted in other contexts with a high level of complexity, such as emerging markets, disruptive technology, unexpected crises, or any aggregated interactions of such contexts.