Vol.:(0123456789) https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-022-00146-1 1 3 Junzi virtues: a Confucian foundation for harmony within organizations Robin Stanley Snell 1  · Crystal Xinru Wu 1  · Hong Weng Lei 2 Received: 20 September 2021 / Accepted: 22 March 2022 / © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022 Abstract The classical literature on Confucianism exhorted leaders to practice fve core vir- tues as the basis for becoming a noble person (Junzi) and for sustaining harmoni- ous communities built on trust and good example. We present a theory about how the senior management in modern corporations, by enacting the fve Junzi virtues through virtuous environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and prac- tices, might inspire virtue-based relationships between superiors and subordinates and between employees. We argue that if middle managers and employees observe and experience that their frm’s ESG policies and practices are virtuous, they would feel encouraged to practice those virtues in their own behavior, and thus embody and promote interpersonal harmony. We provide three types of illustration for our theory. First, we map the fve Junzi virtues to the content of a specimen ESG report. Second, we map seven subtypes of servant leadership behavior of middle managers to the fve Junzi virtues. Third, we map seven types of employee organizational citi- zenship behavior to the fve Junzi virtues. Keywords Junzi virtues · Servant leadership · Organizational citizenship behavior Introduction Confucianism (儒教) developed as a philosophy in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE). Its themes primarily relate to inner virtue, morality, and respect for individu- als and the community. Confucianism remains a moral foundation for virtues in Asia (Kwong et al., 2015), where it can infuence companies’ business management prac- tices (Tian et al., 2020) by providing guidelines for proper behavior and practices (Hofstede et al., 2010). * Crystal Xinru Wu xwu@hsu.edu.hk 1 Department of Management, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong 2 Department of Accountancy, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Published online: 30 March 2022 Asian Journal of Business Ethics (2022) 11:183–226