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Purpose -This paper aims to provide an overview of this special issue. Design/methodology/approach -The guest editorial introduces the papers in this special issue, focusing on practical wisdom for management from the Chinese classical traditions. Findings -Chinese culture increasingly will permeate international culture and move from peripheral to mainstream status. To ignore this in management education would be a grave oversight. Originality/value -The issue offers insights into the value of practical wisdom from Confucianism, the origins of Chinese classical trditions and Daoism, and the various streams of thought within the classical Chinese traditions and their contemporary relevance.

Purpose -This paper aims at building up a comprehensive framework for integrating existing leadership theories from the perspective of Taoism, the well-known oriental philosophy, characterized by a dialectic thinking system. With sufficient evidence demonstrated, it argues that a Taoism-oriented model of leadership offers a complementary lens, through which leadership insights can be deepened, and may serve as an effective tool for adaptive leaders in a world where change is the only constant. Design/methodology/approach -Through an in-depth analysis of the principles of Taoism, and the concepts of leadership studies, it establishes a Taoism-oriented model of leadership to integrate the current major schools of leadership studies. Findings -The model of traits of successful leaders based on Taoism has satisfactorily solved the conflicts between different perspectives of leadership studies and provided a dynamic framework to guide leaders to keep up with the organizational changes.Research limitations/implications -The paper is only a rudimentary one that needs further exploration: for example, when external contexts of leadership are introduced, the current model would appear, in different patterns, to accommodate greater contextual complexities. Practical implications -The model of traits of successful leaders based on Taoism will contribute to a greater understanding of an organization for different leadership styles. It will potentially serve as an effective tool for the selection of appropriate leaders for an organization and for building up an effective leadership team to accommodate the rapid changes of the organization. Originality/value -This paper is an initial attempt to bridge leadership studies of east and west via the perspective of Taoism, which contributes to an integrating framework to accommodate different schools of leadership studies.

An analysis of the leadership challenges discussed in modern leadership studies suggests that a holistic Daoist model, based upon the five fundamental virtues of an ethical leader, offers a practical approach to ethical leadership in organizations. The Daoist model, potentially a complementary tool to the more positivist analytical approaches commonly taken in the Western leadership literature, provides a framework that helps to explain the dynamics of the ethical virtues required of adaptive leaders confronting change.

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