This article introduces a non-Anglophone concept of gong qi as a metaphor for ‘corporation’. It contributes an endogenous perspective from a Sino-Japanese organizational context that enriches mainstream business ethics literature, otherwise heavily reliant on Western traditions. We translate the multi-layered meanings of gong qi based on analysis of its ideograms, its references into classical philosophies, and contemporary application in this Japanese multinational corporation in China. Gong qi contributes a perspective that sees a corporation as an inclusive and virtuous social entity, (...) and also addresses the elusive, implicit, and forever evolving nature of organizational life that is rarely noticed. We propose gong qi can be applied in other organizations and wider cultural contexts to show a new way of seeing and understanding business ethics and organization. Rather than considering virtue as a list of definable individual qualities, we suggest that the metaphor of gong qi reveals how virtue can be experienced as indeterminate, yet immanently present, like the substance of emptiness. This, then allows us to see the virtue of immanence, the beauty of implicitness, and hence, the efficacy of gong qi. (shrink)

The main purpose of our study was to gain a deeper understanding of how culture influences the interpretation of ethical leadership by both leaders and followers in Zambia and Sweden. The study was conducted using an interpretative narrative inquiry with a small sample of ten participants selected using a purposive sampling method. The participants were drawn from six small and medium local authorities in Sweden and Zambia. The empirical data was collected using semi-structured interview guides with interview sessions lasting 45 (...) minutes on average. The data collected was transcribed and analyzed using narrative and thematic analysis. Based on this analysis, we came up with four main themes regarding the interpretation of ethical leadership by leaders and followers, and these are: Morality, Law, Humanity and Nature which constitute our Culture-Ethical Leadership interpretation model. The empirical narratives demonstrated some similarities in the interpretation of ethical leadership between leaders and followers in Sweden and Zambia. The leaders and followers from both countries affiliated ethical leadership to morality, humanity, adherence to the law, and, caring and protecting nature. Our research also led us to conclude that there is a degree of variance in the interpretation of ethical leadership which relates to the differences in the cultural contexts. In Zambia, leaders and followers show high inclination to the law as being ethical which is reflected in Bello ’s statement that failure to follow rules and regulations is a manifestation of unethical leadership while in Sweden, leaders and followers are inclined to high morality and humanity influenced by high levels of trust as narrated by our participants from Sweden. (shrink)