1st Edition

Business Leadership Development in China

By Shuang Ren, Robert Wood, Ying Zhu Copyright 2015
    196 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    196 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book argues that China’s businesses, and hence China’s future economic development, face a huge crisis in that there is a considerable "leadership gap" in China, with a shortage of competent business leaders, at a time when new leadership skills are required urgently, as China’s businesses evolve rapidly and engage ever more with the global economy. Moreover, the book argues, training is an undervalued and often marginalised activity in Chinese companies. The book outlines the nature of this problem, and goes on to demonstrate that there is a new breed of manager emerging in China, aware of the need to upgrade management skills, moving away from skills appropriate in traditional industrial firms, and emphasising more flexibility, positive engagement with workers, and competence in the market economy. The book includes an evaluation of different management approaches in China, reports on extensive original research, including interviews with practising managers, and sets out how self-development in widespread, deep and important.

    1. Introduction: Reworking Leadership Development in the Context of China’s Transition  2. Chinese Implicit Theories of Leadership: Traditional Roots  3. Chinese Implicit Theory of Leadership: Transitional Context  4. Analytical Fallacies in the Framing of Business Leadership in China  5. The Evolution of Training and Development  6. Patterns of Self-Development: Why and How  7. Patterns of Self-Development: What and so What  8. Concluding Remarks

    Biography

    Shuang Ren is a Lecturer at Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Robert Wood is Professor of management at Melbourne Business School, Australia

    Ying Zhu is Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Asian Business at the University of South Australia

    "This is a well-written monograph on the problems of business leadership in China and the so-called ‘leadership gap’, covering training and development, as well as self-development. It is clearly written and very much to the point."
    Malcolm Warner, University of Cambridge,
    Journal of General Management-BOOK REVIEW-CHINA, 2016