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S.F. Lee: Hong Kong Technical College, Hong Kong, China
P. Roberts: Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, UK
W.S. Lau: Hong Kong Technical College, Hong Kong, China
S. K. Bhattacharyya: Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, UK
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors acknowledge the support of Warwick Manufacturing Group of Warwick University, for its support and suggestions in conducting this PhD research project.
Introduction
Recent decades have witnessed an explosive growth of interest in the Far East. In the 1980s, Japanese management practices gained tremendous popularity focusing on corporate welfare and theory of strategy, including Asian practices and their underlying philosophies. Research had demonstrated that management philosophies of East Asian countries and Japan indicated that there are certain aspects of management, which are inseparable from their cultures. And for those Neo-Confucian countries, The Analects of Confucius have great influence in the context of managerial and industrial practices and some links to economic development. Moreover, as explained by Dollinger, it would be improper to subsume all managerial phenomena under a cultural imperative model that is not the only determinant of managerial behaviour; a mixing or merging of philosophies and culture based on local experiences may be advantageous.
Sun Tzu's The Art of War and flow chart structure
There are a number of papers and books; both in Chinese and English or even some other languages, published on Sun Tzu's The Art of War applying the war strategies in business and management environments. Many of them talk about Sun Tzu's philosophies or strategies and in some cases successful stories using the strategies. However, there are only a few presentations with strategic models. Of these models presented, there is no clear methodology proposed showing how systematically Sun Tzu's strategies could be identified, implemented, reviewed and acted on under different situations and conditions.
Wee et al. (1995) present Sun Tzu's The Art of War's comprehensive model for strategies that has the following process: situation appraisal, formulation of goals, formulation of strategies, evaluation of strategies, implementation of strategies (human factor), implementation of strategies (operational factor), and strategic controls. The structure of the model itself resembles Deming's PDCA cycle for continuous strategic planning and improvement. However, the model has not included much of the detail of Sun Tzu's philosophies.
Sun Tzu's The Art...