On Three Characteristics of the Chinese Style Management Held by Zeng Shiqiang

An Analysis of People-oriented Management Style 
People-oriented: The Foregrounding Feature of the Chinese Administration 
Different from work-oriented management style taken by western administration, Chinese 
administration has so far adhered to the people-oriented management style. In addition to the work 
analysis which bears something in common with work-oriented management style, in Chinese 
administration, position planning and department division, to Prof. Zeng, often take into account 
some of the human factors, more specifically, creating a position by taking account of human 
characteristics, this type of people-oriented management style should be regarded as the 
foregrounding feature of the Chinese administration. 
Prof. Zeng explains that Chinese people believe in the human effort, thinking all things, no matter 
important or trifle, big or small, can be done well by human beings. Therefore, management should 
take people as the key factor, namely people-oriented. At the start, the strategy of “all people working 
together” is usually taken, in which there is neither work division nor concrete position setting in 
order to discover an individual person’s unique capacity. Then, based upon the individual person’s 
distinguished capacity, a preliminary organization is set up. Supposing there are two men who are 
both considered suitable for the position of the supervisor, then the organization can be divided into 
two departments, in the same way, if three, then the three departments. Therefore, the organization is 
allowed to make certain adjustments so as to accommodate to the changing situation where 
people-oriented management strategy plays an important role. 
Then what kind of people does the company need in the people-oriented management? Because the 
division of labor is not clear, the supervisor and staff tend to find like-minded partners to work 
together. For in this way they can stand in others’ shoes and easily develop mutual cooperation and 
harmony, thus easy to arrive at a consensus over the issue raised in the company. 
In Short, Chinese management takes the “people-oriented” as the main feature, which has people 
with the same consensus gathered together to work for the same goal. That’s why Chinese 
management highlights the idea of “no-cooperation among people without the same ideological 
concepts”. In order to deal with the constant changing situation and avoid failure, it is quite common 
for Chinese people to choose working with like-minded partners together, and embark on the 
business after having a thorough and reasonable discussion among them.