S2 Ep. 2 Alicia Hennig - Embeddedness: Exploring the Roots of the Eastern idea of Organizing

Boundaryless Conversations Podcast

In this episode we have the pleasure of introducing a very interesting academic voice, Alicia Hennig, Associate Professor of Business Ethics.

Her research focuses on Chinese philosophy and its application in organisations in the context of values, ethics and innovation. Working with Chinese as well as foreign companies in China, she continues to promote a better understanding of Chinese culture and thinking.

This conversation with Alicia was very crucial to explore the embracing of “embeddedness” (or entanglement). It’s about the critical need for organizations to see themselves as connected to the world they exist within. It turns out that Chinese philosophies, especially Daoism, are very much based on this concept of embeddedness. Daoism can provide Chinese management thinking with mindsets that seem to be rare in most of Western cultural traditions, and that may be more apt for a time of systemic shift.

We also talk about the paradox between globalisation, technological progress and contextual, indigenous approaches to management - in relation with embeddedness. Will China’s next generation of managers resist the universalising power of technology, considering how the country has leap-frogged in recent decades?

By not striving for coherence like most Western philosophies, perhaps Chinese thinking really is more resilient to such forces and can more easily provide a platform for evolution in management, as stories like that of Haier seem to demonstrate.

Alicia also talks passionately about the role of education everywhere in the world to showcase the richness of philosophies, wishing that more universities and business schools would diversify their curriculum to include Chinese, but also Indian, African and other philosophical traditions. It’s indeed a shared passion that we want to continue to explore with her in the coming months.

Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication: https://medium.com/@Boundaryless_/62cbb75fce0f?source=friends_link&sk=ed34750fd83cea1009ad319b41c8fd2d

To find out more about Alicia’s work:

> Website: www.newvirtues.com

> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-hennig/

Other references and mentions:

> Alicia Henning, Daoism in Management, 2017: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40926-015-0024-4

> Laozi, Tao Te Ching: https://www.amazon.com/Lao-Tzu-Ching-about-Power/dp/1611807247 (here in Ursula K. Le Guin’s edition)

> Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zhuangzi-Essential-Translations-Traditional-Commentaries/dp/0872209113/

> Explore novels by Yu Hua, Mo Yan, Yan Lianke, Liao Yiwu and Zhang Lijia.

> Jia Zhangke’s “Ash is Purest White”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLab19dyAVA

> Wang Xiaoshuai’s “So Long, My Son”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4I88xcwME8

> Zhang Yimou’s “Hero”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-gwDRjKXA

> Michael Schuman, Superpower Interrupted, 2020: https://www.amazon.com/Superpower-Interrupted-Chinese-History-World/dp/1541788346

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast

Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music

Recorded on 18 September 2020.