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VOL. 8, ISSUE 1 (2026)
Constructing a Confucian governance philosophy and a sustainable leadership model for enterprises
Authors
Dr. Lung-Tan Lu
Abstract
Against the backdrop of intense global capitalist competition and
growing uncertainty, corporate governance faces structural challenges such as
short-termism, the collapse of trust, and ethical anomie. Western mainstream
management theories have long centered on instrumental rationality and
performance orientation; while they have improved efficiency, they struggle to
address issues of long-term organizational value creation and social
legitimacy. Based on the Confucian governance philosophy of "cultivating
oneself, regulating the family, governing the state, and pacifying the
world", this paper integrates modern organizational behavior and corporate
governance research to construct a Value-Oriented Sustainable Leadership Model.
First, it explores the foundation of leaders' internal moral capital and
self-management from the perspective of "cultivating oneself", demonstrating
the theoretical alignment between ethical leadership and the Confucian path of
"inner sageliness". Second, it analyzes the relational governance
logic of teams as responsibility communities from the perspective of
"regulating the family", integrating research on psychological safety
and organizational citizenship behavior. Third, it equates "governing the
state" with the modern corporate governance system of dual tracks of
virtue and law, exploring the complementary mechanism between institutional design
and moral education. Finally, it compares the long-term effects of two
management styles—"kingly way (Wang Dao)" and "hegemonic way (Ba
Dao)"—and proposes a theoretical framework for kingly way-based
sustainable leadership. The theoretical contributions of this paper are
threefold: First, it systematically translates Confucian ethical philosophy
into an operable organizational governance model, expanding the theoretical
boundary of indigenous management studies. Second, it integrates ethical
leadership (Brown & Treviño, 2006), transformational leadership (Bass,
1985), stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984) and corporate governance theory to
propose a cross-cultural integrated perspective. Third, it identifies moral
capital as a key source of enterprises' long-term competitive advantage and
elaborates on its mechanism of action. The research results show that the
integration of virtue and law, character-led leadership, and win-win outcomes
for stakeholders constitute the foundation of enterprises' sustainable competitiveness.
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Pages:75-86
How to cite this article:
Dr. Lung-Tan Lu "Constructing a Confucian governance philosophy and a sustainable leadership model for enterprises". International Journal of Management and Commerce, Vol 8, Issue 1, 2026, Pages 75-86
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