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Yin Yang: A New Perspective on Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Tony Fang
Tony Fang*
Affiliation:
Stockholm University, Sweden
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Abstract

In this article I propose a Yin Yang perspective to understand culture. Based on the indigenous Chinese philosophy of Yin Yang, I conceptualize culture as possessing inherently paradoxical value orientations, thereby enabling it to embrace opposite traits of any given cultural dimension. I posit that potential paradoxical values coexist in any culture; they give rise to, exist within, reinforce, and complement each other to shape the holistic, dynamic, and dialectical nature of culture. Seen from the Yin Yang perspective, all cultures share the same potential in value orientations, but at the same time they are also different from each other because each culture is a unique dynamic portfolio of self-selected globally available value orientations as a consequence of that culture's all-dimensional learning over time.

Keywords

cross-cultural managementdialectical thinkingglobalizationparadoxtimeYin Yang跨文化管理文化动态辩证思维二元性全球化对立统一体时间价值取向阴阳
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 8 , Issue 1: Special Issue Indigenous Management Research in China , March 2012 , pp. 25 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2012

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