The Development of Management Practices and Management Education across Time: The Case of the People's Republic of China

INTRODUCTION The Chinese economy has moved from the edge of collapse in 1978 to a seventh place in the world in 1998, measured by GDP (Chinese State Bureau of Statistics, 1998). Scholars, in viewing an economy with such noticeable achievements during the past twenty years, often question how such progress has been achieved and whether lessons can be drawn from these achievements. China today is the most populous nation in the world, and is still for all practical purposes under the control of Communism Party. Although the Party is advocating its ideological belief much less than in the past and in a slightly modified version, it still carries out its intent through directives to its members who constitute the overwhelming majority of Chinese government officials, as well as top management personnel at almost every segment of the nation's economy. This totalitarian system has effectively micromanaged the nation's economy through numerous economic turns during the past twenty years, arguably in a very inefficient way compared to a free-market economy. History has a tendency to repeat itself, and there is no exception in China's case. During the Tang Dynasty era of the 7th and 8th centuries, China's economy was estimated to account for one-third of the world's economy and its trade partners included the Roman empire linked by the Silk Road on land, and the east coast of central Africa by sea. However, China gradually became a country of self-proclaimed Central Kingdom with a closed door to the rest of world. This has led many scholars both Western and Chinese, to conclude that the philosophical policy of isolationism that prevailed for ten centuries until the eighteenth century prevented an industrial revolution in China, in spite of the fact that China had plenty of capital, labor, technology, and infrastructure during this period. During more recent times, at the end of Mao's era in the late 1970s, the People's Republic of China lacked most of the elements necessary for economic development. This situation was further exacerbated by the chaos of the Cultural Revolution brought by Mao's extreme policies late in his life. At his death, China's centralized government still in a totalitarian format, offered a more pragmatic leader, Deng Xiaoping, after the Party's 3rd plenary of the 11th Congress, the opportunity to effectively change the course of China. Deng's liberation of thought and seeking truth through practice started to trickle down the national management system in the form of Party directives. China poised to make a concerted effort to change its course, and abandoned the philosophical isolationism that clouded the prospects for progress. Deng forced the adoption of an Open Door policy which, in spite of strong resistance by conservatives, was arduously advocated by Deng after his only official visit to the United States immediately after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in January, 1979. These policies were deemed ideologically very radical at that time because they were viewed as advancing capitalism (Solomon & Ding, 1993). Since then, China's economy has primarily been through two periods: Consolidation and Reform (1980-1990) and Furtherance of Reform and Growth (1991-to date). The first period was mired by a mixture of ideological confusion between the traditional planning economy and the modern concept of market economy introduced by the importation of advanced western technology and manufacturing process. The economic conflict between the market demand and the traditional political corruption led to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, prompting the Chinese economy to significantly slow down until the spring 1991. The second period started in the early nineties by Deng Xiaoping's visit to numerous Special Economic Zones in southern China during which he issued various directives to further the policies of the Open Door policy and economic reform. …