INTEGRATING DAOIST PHILOSOPHY INTO HUMAN RESOURCE, FINANCE, MARKETING, AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATIONAL GROWTH

Abstract

Addressing growth through control, acceleration, and maximization is all too common in modern business practice and contributes to employee burnout, financial short-termism, customer cynicism, and waste. This paper argues Daoism can address and alleviate some of these problems through Daoist philosophies. This is done by strategically applying Daoist concepts of Dao, De, Wu-Wei, Ziran, and Yin-Yang to Daoist-inspired practices of human resource management, finance, marketing, and operations management. This paper does not treat Daoism as a cultural metaphor. The application of Daoist philosophy will be through the leader's contextual reading of the situation, graciously minimizing force, cultivating ethical capital, respecting the limits of each person's abilities, and balancing opposing forces. In HR management, Daoism and strategic harmony will appear as employee flourishing and a non-coercive leadership style. In finance, Daoism and strategic harmony will appear as the creation of long-term value. In marketing, Daoism and strategic harmony will appear as value creation through authentic and open communication. In operations, Daoism and strategic harmony will appear as resilience, simplicity, and waste elimination. The model and framework proposed in this paper will be flexible to change and growth. This paper argues Daoism and Daoist philosophies provide a valuable approach to stakeholder theory, the natural-resource-based theory, service-dominant logic, dynamic capabilities, and beyond. The primary argument this paper puts forward is that the absence of growth is not the problem, rather it is the absence of growth that protects the human, financial, social, and ecosystem resources that provide long-term and continuous viability to an organization.