Transformative connections between culture and finance

Abstract

Our valuable words reflect our view of work, life, and culture. They also reflect basic underlying assumptions, the most important cultural element, encompassing unconscious beliefs and values that are taken for granted and that determine our behaviors, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. This chapter explains Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, as basic underlying assumptions in management practice in Japan. Specifically, the chapter studies the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean among the four Chinese classics, which serve as the main textbooks of Neo-Confucianism. Their theories show the relationship between culture and finance, and the link between personal and organizational transformation. Next, this chapter demonstrates Neo-Confucianism in Japan, and culture and finance in Japan, related to Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism. In summary, this chapter shows that some nonprofit motivations underlying Japanese business activities derive from Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism.