Confucianism as Leadership Strategy? Alicia Hennig 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. The second contribution comes from Alexander Gruchmann. In his publication “Mitarbeiterführung in China. Eine kulturbezogene Betrachtung” 2 he tries to shed some light on the applicability of various western-originated leadership strategies in a Chinese context. The last perspective on this topic is presented by Po Keung Ip, who generally holds a critical view regarding Confucian teachings implemented in fields of business and management. In his article “Is Confucianism Good for Business Ethics in China?” he argues that in practice Confucius ’ moral person Junzi cannot serve as an appropriate role model in a leadership context. Confucianism as leadership strategy In his book Werner Schwanfelder focuses on the manager as leader. He describes how Confucius ’ teachings can help to improve the manager’s ability in a leadership position. This also yields positive effects on his personnel regarding identification with the working group and tasks at hand. The scope offered in his book ranges from the manager ’s personality, attitude and tasks to his leadership behaviour and the objectives to be achieved. This part of the article covers the essential aspects of his book, namely the manager’s leadership behaviour and personality. Generally Werner Schwanfelder distinguishes between manager and leader. In his opinion qualifications for leadership exceed those required for a management position, which becomes obvious in particular when managing the workforce (Schwanfelder p.77). The manager is a well trained professional and represents the practitioner whose job is described by making decisions and monitoring his personnel. By contrast a leader additionally needs a convincing personality. Therefore leadership is bound to personality and not simply a matter of training compared to managing as such (Schwanfelder p.70). Leadership responsibility calls for certain character traits, such as empathy and communicative abilities. Furthermore classical virtues, such as respect, wisdom and virtuousness play a major role. In addition the leader also needs to have managerial know-how, because in the end he will be judged on grounds of his results. However there does not exist an ultimate strategy that could ensure leadership success, but generally frankness, the capability to differentiate, focussing on 1 So far there is no English translation available. 2 So far there is no English translation available.