Reciprocity in Chinese Management

Masters Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, Tongji University, language: English, abstract: The emergence of the reciprocal inclinations concept in western management theories not only opens a whole new field of research, but does also invite westerners to see if reciprocal inclinations are better taken into account in foreign management. This seems to be especially true in China, where words like "guanxi (关系），ren（仁），and renqing（人情）" are commonly used by managers, while having an obvious connection with reciprocity. The research question is therefore "How do Chinese manager take into account reciprocity, what are the effects on Chinese companiesperformance and can western firms learn from it?" The research will begin with a conceptual work based on a literature review, which is divided into the following three parts. First, it will compare reciprocity in the western countries and in China and highlight the importance it has in these two parts of the world. Secondly, it will analyze in what measure reciprocity is taken into account by western and Chinese managers and put forward the possible effects on the companys performance. Finally, it will dwell on the differences between the western and the Chinese culture to raise plausible hypothesis on the limits and risks western managers will encounter by taking more into account reciprocal inclinations. The research will then continue with suggesting tools for western managers trough the establishment of a model to use reciprocal inclinations, and trough two case studies.