Implications for Management from Harmony of Laozi

Proceedings of The 4th International Conference on Advanced Research in Management, Business and Finance

Year: 2022

DOI:

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Implications for Management from Harmony of Laozi

Minghua Xing

ABSTRACT: 

Management today is in need of deeper understanding towards and recipe out of ongoing adversities within pandemic and consequent challenges. When unity, collaboration and holistic togetherness in act are needed in reality, agreeable and harmonious mindsets and cognitive routes are absent. Inspired by the management studies on holistic principles derived from non-Western philosophy, this paper delivers a descriptive study on the harmony concept in teachings of prominent Chinese philosopher Laozi, to explore deeper understanding on harmony and to facilitate harmonious mindsets for management in individual, societal and universal levels. Harmony has been an influential concept and value in various social contexts and in Asia traditions in particular. As an ‘internally strong’ culture, China survived numarous adversities including natural, social, human disasters, upheavals and complexities. The answer lies in its inherent core value: harmony. When Confucian views on harmony have gain recognition to some extent, harmony of Laozi is less known. However, harmony of Laozi, is of more holistic, cohesive and systematical meaning in terms of cognitive implications for management.  This paper describes and illustrates harmony of Laozi in three dimensions: perception on, process of and ways to facilitate harmony by self-cultivation, self-localization and self-integration. As an initial effort to relate harmony with management, this study aims also to enhance attention towards harmony’s conceptual and applicable insights for a more harmonious architecture in the world.

keywords: harmony, Laozi, cognitive route, management.