The transfer of management knowledge to China: building learning communities rather than translating Western textbooks?

Abstract

The economic reforms in the People’s Republic of China have begun to open up this very large market. However, a major impediment to quicker or more substantive growth has been the paucity of experienced Chinese managers. In response, there has been a very rapid growth in business and management education in China, especially in MBA education. Given that management as a discipline was not previously taught in China, much of the knowledge base for this education has been imported from the West. However, it is argued that the linear attempt to transfer explicit management knowledge from the West to China is based on false assumptions about the nature of knowledge and so is unlikely to be effective. Instead a community model of knowledge is presented, which suggests that there needs to be an interaction between Chinese and Western ideas, which will benefit all parties.