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Confucianism as one of the Chinese major philosophical mainstreams can be applied not only in a private but also in a public or business context. In business Confucian values can especially be of importance when it comes to management and leadership. In this context it is of minor relevance whether a European or a Chinese company plans to adopt a Confucian leadership strategy. Europeans could in principle also integrate Confucian values into their strategy, because it simply appears to make sense. However the point may be that Confucianism originates from China. Since it is an indigenous philosophical stream people there are traditionally used to this kind of values. Therefore in case of a Chinese company an identification of the employees with Confucian values in the field of management and leadership is much more likely. Especially in management and leadership it is essential to not impose strategies on employees where an identification with these values is in question due to their foreign provenance. This includes Western strategies unmindfully applied in China as well as the other way round.

In this article three different perspectives on Confucian leadership strategies are discussed. A Confucian leadership strategy whether applied in Europe or China is strongly supported by Werner Schwanfelder in his book “Konfuzianismus im Management–Werte und Weisheit im 21. Jahrhundert” 1. Werner Schwanfelder is sales director at Siemens AG and responsible for divisions in Shanghai, Beijing and others.