Research On Hanfei's Thought Of Management

Since the reform and opening up to the outside world policy was adopted three decades ago, China's management seemed to have finished its journey of fully introducing and explaining of western management theory, but its own Chinese featured management theory and model which could reflect Chinese traditional culture and adjust to the current state of China have not been established yet. Because of the differences between the state of China and that of the western countries, and also different cultures, traditions and thinking mode of people, mechanically applying the western management theory without any adjustment will surely lead to indigestion and other problems. The study and research of China's ancient management history will provide scholars and people in industries with foundations, platform and prerequisites for management modernization with Chinese style.China's over two thousand years of feudalistic society had been following the governing idea of "Confucianism outside with legalism inside". The monograph Hanfeizi had studied the art of monarch, that is, the strategy and tactics of managing the officials and common citizens. A country is a big organization and officials and citizens are members of the organization, so even today, many management ideas in Hanfeizi could also be applied to all levels of organizations fairly well. Of course, Han Fei was loyal to his emperor, and the original reader of his book was the emperor, but if we can use our subjective initiative, cast the feudalistic absolutism and throw off the rubbish, the rich management thought left could also be utilized by today's people and offer powerful ideological weapon and abundant management techniques. This doctoral thesis takes the monograph Hanfeizi as its basic material, and with reference to modern management settings and theories, strives to reread Hanfeizi from the view angle of modern management, and extract the thought kernel which could be applied today.This thesis mainly adopted the following research methods:literature investigation, which involves the study of the original work, and the related journal articles, books which also take Hanfeizi as their research subject. Comparative analysis, with which the author mainly compared Han Fei's management thought with western management theories. Trans-discipline study, because the research involves history, management, philosophy, politics even psychology and economics. Qualitative analysis, when comparing Han Fei's management thought and modern management theory, the author has to determine the nature of the former.At the beginning, the thesis analyzed Han Fei's theory of human nature. Han Fei understood that human nature is selfish. He believed that the foundation of all social relationships was built on the prerequisite of people being selfish. In this chapter, the author reviewed different kinds of theories of human nature in contemporary and modern management theories, and through comparison, found that Han Fei's theory of human nature is very similar to the hypothesis of Economic Man or X theory.On the basis of human nature theory, Han Fei offered his thought frame of "Fa"(law)," "Shu"(tactics) and "Shi"(position and force) which could be used to manage the country and the citizens. "Fa", is set as laws and rules in the books, announced in the government and publicized among the common citizens. Fa could also be understood as the rules and regulations of the organizations. When making Fa certain principles should be followed. It should be stable but at the same time should adjust to the changing social situations. Fa needs to be definite, consistent, open, fair, practical and strict. "Shu" needs to be hidden inside the emperor's heart, and the target of "Shu" is officials. "Shi" is the capital of conquering the officials and common citizens. The emperor should rely on "Shi" to practice "Fa" and "Shu". Han Fei refuted Confucian theory of supervisors'virtue as the sufficient condition for ideal governing, and proposed that the combination of "virtue" and "Shi" is the best governing.The thesis generalized Han Fei's thought of controlling. Control function is a dimension of modern management theory. Even though in the broad sense, thought of controlling is reflected in every detail of the book Hanfeizi, this thesis sums up preventive control (aforehand control), profit and loss control, personnel control, situation control, power control and flexibility of control from the history stories and fables, on the base of the analysis of the control function in modern management theory. In this chapter, the author addressed Han Fei's thought of power, and encouraged the emperor to strengthen his country with initiative actions.Han Fei's thought of leadership is a creative part of the thesis. No existent literature talked about the thought of leadership in Hanfeizi. The author summarized scattered arguments about the qualities of leaders in the original work, and pointed out that leaders should be prudent, modest, promise-keeping, desire-suppressing, indifferent to fame or profit, self-conquering, selfless, virtuous but never boast of his virtues. Leaders should be good at detecting talents and using talents. Award and punishment should be implemented according to the law. He should be insightful, alert, and could discover problems in time and solve them. Because the leaders themselves can set the orientation for the organization, leaders should heed to cover their personal interest, to be thrifty and frugal. They should also be economically wise, farseeing, uncorrupted, and not superstitious,Han Fei's thought of personnel management has been addressed in the existent literatures, but not comprehensive. In this chapter, the author first proposed the necessity of delegation of power, and pointed out that managers who do everything by themselves are not good managers. Those who can manage well should first be good at delegation. As for the standards of promotion, Han Fei contested that those who could be promoted should be wise in mind, eloquent and virtuous. "Practical" talents should be promoted. In the process of selection, the leader should be cautious in censoring, and follow the laws. He advocated promotion from the grassroots and level by level. Birth or background should not hinder the talents being elevated. In order to be fair and impartial, leaders should not be influenced by favor and Guanxi (connections). Han Fei suggested promotion from the insiders.For the principles of delegation, Han Fei held that one should not be designated two different official positions, and one official should not be assigned different affairs. Thus the work efficiency could be improved and people could develop their skills fully, or else they would be distracted and can't attend two or more things at the same time. On the other hand, he mentioned that one position should not be designated to two officials, in order to decrease the formalities and procedures, and eliminate conflicts among people. Supervisors should not doubt the abilities of their subordinates once they have designated them. The designation should help people to utilize their advantages. The task of senior managers is to work over on the skills of managing, instead of working on some specific work, or else their priority will be interfered. Last, in order to attract and keep the talents, leaders should eradicate "fierce dogs" and "temple rats", who are the bad guys and treacherous officials.Assessing is an important aspect of personnel management. Whether the personnel are qualified or not is the basis for their rewards or punishments. So the assessing method should be reasonable. Han Fei told us that when assessing, the supervisor should keep quiet and still, in order to get an objective truth. Assessing should be conducted under the law without the influence of favor. The officials'titles should correspond with their actions and deeds. Even if the actions are well-meaning, they should not exceed their duties. Officials should practice what they preach, and their words in different times should not contradict each other. The officials are not allowed to keep silent in order to avoid their responsibilities. Assessing should be conducted from different angles to avoid one-sidedness. Assessing should be conducted individually to eliminate the sham.The last chapter discussed about the Han Fei's thought of motivation. The author compared Han Fei's Two Handle Theory (rewards and punishments) with the motivation theory of modern management, and explained from two dimensions:the combination of material motivation and spirit motivation, the combination of positive motivation and negative motivation. Material motivation is rewards and punishments, and spiritual motivation is fame and infamy. The two should be emphasized equally. Also the managers should note that material incentives should be consistent with the guidance of public opinion. Emotion investment could be regarded as a kind of spiritual incentive. Even though both positive and negative incentives are necessary, under certain circumstances, managers could emphasize on one. Sometimes only punishment without rewards could bring faster and better effects.In the process of practicing the Two Handles, managers should heed some details and techniques. For example, the standards should be practical. Managers should be fair in deciding who to praise or to punish, and the criterion should be the law. No negligence of the meritorious or the culpable should be tolerated. The managers should not award those with no credit or punish those without crime. No personal sentiments should be involved. The managers should be promise-keeping in motivation. Han Fei proposed harsh punishment and fewer rewards. Because punishments themselves could prevent more punishments, for they could warn the other citizens. But at the same time, he asserted generous rewards could draw people to do good. At last, Han Fei emphasized that the power of the managers should not be lent to others, because the rights to award or punish is the core of the might and power.Of course, because of my limited ability, there may be some mistakes in my understanding of the historical materials. The connection with modern management practice could be made closer. These are the objectives of my further research.