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re to rigid, informal group norms and values. A set of shared goals, values and beliefs influenced the managers in organizations, and all these shape the Chinese employees’ behaviors and perspectives.
2.3 Modern Practices of Confucianism in China
In China, 97.2% of the total population (Census of population 2006 report) is Chinese. Culturally, the Chinese are influenced by mainly Confucian values, followed by Taoism, Buddhism or Christianity (Kuo, 1987; Redding, 1993; SM Lee in Zakaris, 2005; Taormina, 2000).
As Confucianism has been spread and passed down for 2,000 over years to most Asian countries, and although the core values of Confucianism and Confucius’s ideologies remain, there are slight differences between countries in the values emphasized. In Japan, for example, according to Dollinger (1988), Confucianism emphasizes on four distinct themes. They are 1) human being regarded with respect and dignity, 2) values of harmony, 3) righteousness and the acts of righteous individuals in a framework of loyalty and 4) morally superior persons who lead by example and who are devoted to the other Confucian values.
In China, Eddie C Y Kuo (Director of the Asian cultural studies department in the National University of China and so far, the authority in the study of Asian Chinese values especially Confucian values in China), mentioned from his empirical research findings published in 1987 that some of the most significant influence of Confucian values in China as filial piety, extended family structure, son-preference, kinship network and ancestor worship. Below, the various values are discussed in greater detail.
2.3.1 Filial Piety
Confucian insists that filial love is deeply rooted in human nature (Tu, 1997). When a person enters adulthood and his/her world expands, this kind of immanent child-like sincerity should be rooted in his/her deep heart because it is an essential part being human. Mencius, one of the great founders and Masters of Confucianism after Confucius said: “The great man is he who has not lost his child’s heart” (Chaff & Chaff, 1965, p.104). Mencius thought if, after living 50 years, one still naturally holds filial piety with childlike sincerity, it is “great filial piety” (Chen, 2004). He gave an example of the great filial piety of the Sage-king, Shun, in the Chinese legend. The purity of his affection toward his parents was so sincere that no matter how badly his father, step-mother, and younger brother treated him, his filial piety had the transformative power.
Filial piety is regarded as the start of human relationships in China. The connotation of filial piety is based on the human primordial tie. Parentage is the root and identity of a person. The love one first receives from his/her parents starts even before one’s birth. After birth, human beings have relatively long periods of childhood during which the child is incapable of independence, thus being fully dependent on the parents. Therefore, parents are the natural starting point for one’s love and value of meaningful relationships. Among all kinds of human relationships, human primordial tie – the parent-child blood relationship is unchangeable and undeniable. It holds the strongest human affection, emotion, concerns, and mystery of life. To respect the fact of the unchangeable primordial tie is to respect nature. According to Confucianism, to take good care of this tie and continuously nurture it is to water the root of one’s life tr