What change, what stay: the mix picture of value system of Chinese business managers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes of Chinese business managers' values for the last three decades since the open door policy. Moreover, the paper discusses the mix picture, which combines Western and Eastern values, and its influence on management practice.Design/methodology/approachVia the seven “value dilemmas” regarding the value dimension proposed by Hampden‐Turner and Trompenaars, the authors surveyed Chinese enterprise managers in 2000 and 2009, then analyzed and compared the data from the questionnaire and the other findings in order to explore the changes of Chinese managers' value system.FindingsFirst, the value system of Chinese enterprise managers is subjected to dual influence from Western management philosophy and Eastern traditional philosophy. The value system shows significant consistency. The Chinese managers remain amazingly consistent in their value systems, except one changed dimension – “outer direction” in 2009, and “inner direction” in 2000. Second, the mix picture of Chinese business managers' value system has traditional Eastern philosophy characteristics, such as “particularism”, “diffusion”, “communitarianism”, “synchronous time”, besides, this picture also has “achieved status” and “equality” features which is the result of the influence of open‐door reform. Third, this mix picture of value system forms a great part of Chinese companies' management practice: the “Eastern part” plays a great role in decision making regarding strategy and people issues; meanwhile, the “Western part” works well at operation level and application of specific management tools.Originality/valueThis is the first study to discover the invisible driver behind Chinese management, namely the value system of the business managers, since their value system deeply influences the managerial decision making, as well as the daily operations. The paper's findings provide a new perspective to interpret Chinese management style and explain the management reality in this fast‐growing economy. The paper also adds evidence in the study of the relationship between managerial values and management practice.