Confucius Institutes

Emerald - 2009
HsiChang Li1, SamMirmirani1, Joseph A.Ilacqua1
1Bryant University, Smithfield, Rhode Island, USA

Tóm tắt

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on Confucius Institutes and assess the applicability of theories of leadership and knowledge sharing to multinational organizations and worldwide networks. Growth of multinational trade and decrease in international tension have facilitated the globalization of both profit‐seeking and non‐profit organizations. Changes in economic and political environment have also blurred the divide in management practices between these organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe research applies recent theoretical developments to analyze leadership and knowledge sharing of the highly successful Confucius Institutes. Operational similarities and differences between this global learning organization and multinational businesses are evaluated.FindingsMany similarities exist between the operations of the Confucius Institutes and multinational businesses. For both, strategic goals are achieved through the promotion of global expansion and the management practices of distributed leadership and knowledge sharing. The study makes clear the successful application of distributed leadership to a worldwide network. The Confucius Institutes reflect the cultural and social changes in China, combined with influences of global cultures. Findings suggest that distributed leadership is a suitable management style for coping with variant cultural and socio‐political conditions globally. This leadership style, combined with a knowledge‐sharing network, is also suitable for the situational variables encountered in making thousands of decisions across hundreds of global locations by both learning institutions and business organizations.Originality/valueThe paper explores a relatively new area of the similarities and differences between global non‐profit and business networks as learning organizations. The study is of value to both those managing and those studying such organizations.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Ardichvili, A., Page, V. and Wentling, T. (2003), “Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge sharing teams”, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 64‐77.

Bass, B.M. (1998), Transformational Leadership: Industrial, Military, and Educational Impact, Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.

Bass, B.M. and Stogdill, R.M. (1990), Bass and Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research and Managerial Applications, Free Press, New York, NY.

Behery, M. (2008), “Leadership, knowledge sharing, and organizational benefits within UAE”, Journal of American Academy of Business, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 227‐37.

Bennett, N., Wise, C., Woods, P. and Harvey, J. (2003), Distributed Leadership, National College for School Leadership, Nottingham.

Bolman, L. and Deal, T. (1991), Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership, Jossey‐Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Brown, M.E. and Gioia, D.A. (2002), “Distributive leadership in an online division of an offline organization”, Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 397‐419.

Brown, M.H. (1989), “Organizing activities in the women's movement: an example of distributed leadership”, in Klandermans, B. (Ed.), International Social Movement Research, Vol. 2, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 225‐40.

Brown, M.H. and Hosking, D.M. (1986), “Distributed leadership and skilled performance as successful organization in social movements”, Human Relations, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 65‐79.

Bryman, A. (1996), “Leadership in organizations”, in Clegg, S.R., Hardy, C. and Nord, W. (Eds), Handbook of Organization Studies, Sage, London, pp. 276‐92.

Burns, J.M. (1978), Leadership, Harper & Row, New York, NY.

Chityayat, G. (1985), “Working relationships between the chairman of the boards of directors and the CEO”, Management International Review, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 65‐70.

Davenport, T.H. and Prusak, L. (1998), Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

Dyer, J. and Nobeoka, K. (2000), “Creating and managing a high performance knowledge‐sharing network: the Toyota case”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 345‐67.

Fiedler, F. (1967), A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness, McGraw‐Hill, New York, NY.

Fiedler, F. and Garcia, J. (1987), New Approaches to Effective Leadership: Cognitive Resources and Organizational Performance, Wiley, New York, NY.

Ghiselli, E. (1971), Explorations in Managerial Talents, Goodyear Publishing Company, Pacific Palisades, CA.

Gibb, C.A. (1969), “Leadership”, in Lindzey, G. and Aronson, E. (Eds), The Handbook of Social Psychology, 2nd ed., Vol. 4, Addison‐Wesley, Reading, MA, pp. 205‐83.

Glasman, L. and Glasman, N. (1997), “Connecting the preparation of school leaders to the practice of school leadership”, Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 72 No. 2, pp. 3‐20.

Gronn, P. (1999), “Substituting for leadership: the neglected role of the leadership couple”, Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 41‐62.

Gronn, P. (2002), “Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis”, Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 423‐51.

Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. (1993), Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources, Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K. and Johnson, D. (2008), Management of Organizational Behavior: Leading Human Resources, 9th ed., Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

House, R. (1971), “A path‐goal theory of leadership effectiveness”, Administrative Quarterly, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 321‐39.

Huang, Q., Davison, R., Hefu, L. and Jibao, G. (2008), “The impact of leadership style on knowledge‐sharing intentions in China”, Journal of Global Information Management, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 67‐91.

Huntington, S.P. (1996), The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.

Ichijo, K. and Kohlbacher, F. (2008), “Tapping tacit local knowledge in emerging markets – the Toyota way”, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 173‐87.

Judge, W.Q. and Ryman, J.A. (2001), “The shared leadership challenged in strategic alliances: lessons from the US healthcare industry”, The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 71‐9.

Kao, K.M. (1987), “Comparing Chinese and western management: views and behaviors”, in Yang, K.S. and Tseng, S.C. (Eds), Chinese People's Management Views, Kwai Kuan Book Co., Taipei, pp. 297‐306.

Kayworth, T. and Leidner, D. (2000), “Managing global virtual teams: a prescription for success”, European Management Journal, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 183‐93.

Konkola, R., Tuomi‐Grohn, T., Lambert, P. and Ludvigsen, S. (2007), “Promoting learning and transfer between school and workplace”, Journal of Education and Work, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 211‐28.

Lee, C.K., Foo, S., Chaudhry, A. and Al‐Hawamdeh, S. (2004), “Developing a theory of voluntary, informal, knowledge sharing”, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations, London, 3‐6 August.

Lewin, K., Lippitt, R. and White, R. (1939), “Patterns of aggressive behavior experimentally created social climates”, Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 271‐99.

Li‐Hua, R. (2007), “Knowledge transfer in international educational collaboration program: the China perspective”, Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 84‐97.

Likert, R. (1967), The Human Organization: Its Management and Value, McGraw‐Hill, New York, NY.

Magnini, V.P. (2008), “Practicing effective knowledge sharing in international hotel joint ventures”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 249‐58.

Peppas, S.C. (2004), “US core values: a Chinese perspective”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 58‐75.

Razik, T. and Swanson, A. (1995), Fundamental Concepts of Educational Leadership and Management, Prentice‐Hall, London.

Rogers, E.M. (1962), Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press, New York, NY.

Sharratt, M. and Usoro, A. (2003), “Understanding knowledge‐sharing in online communities of practice”, Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 187‐96, available at: www.ejkm.com/volume‐1/volume1‐issue‐2/issue2‐art18.htm/ (accessed 12 March 2009).

Singh, J. (2005), “Collaborative networks as determinants of knowledge diffusion patterns”, Management Science, Vol. 51 No. 5, pp. 756‐70.

Spillane, J.P. (2006), Distributed Leadership, Jossey‐Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Spillane, J.P., Halverson, R. and Diamond, J. (2004), “Towards a theory of leadership practice: a distributed perspective”, Journal of Curriculum Studies, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 3‐34.

Stogdill, R. (1948), “Personal factors associated with leadership: a survey of the literature”, Journal of Psychology, Vol. 25, pp. 35‐71.

Szymczak, C. and Walker, D. (2003), “Boeing – a case study example of enterprise project management from a learning organization perspective”, The Learning Organization, Vol. 10 No. 2/3, pp. 125‐38.

Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W.H. (1958), “Leadership styles: continuum of leadership behavior”, Harvard Business Review, March/April, pp. 95‐102.

Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W.H. (1973), “How to choose a leadership pattern”, Harvard Business Review, May/June, pp. 162‐80.

Vroom, V. and Yetton, P. (1973), Leadership and Decision Making, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA.

Wasko, M. and Faraj, S. (2000), “It is what one does: why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice”, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 155‐73.

Wasko, M. and Faraj, S. (2005), “Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 35‐58.

Wu, M‐Y. (2006), “Compare participative leadership theories in three cultures”, China Media Research, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 19‐30.

York, G. (2009), “Papua New Guinea and China's new empire”, The Globe and Mail, 2 January, available at: www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081231.wyorkchina0103/BNStory/International/home (accessed 12 March 2009).

Yukl, G. (1999), “An evaluation of conceptual weaknesses of tranformational and charismatic leadership theories”, Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 285‐305.