At that time, he was sitting behind a tomb, leaning to a big tree, and reading the legend book, which might be a hint that predicts his revolutionary life. ( Chang & Halliday, 2005) Chairman Mao Zedong, who became well known after the Long March, used to be regarded as savior of the nation in China. Now he is officially appraised as great revolutionary, strategist, military mastermind, theorist, and leader of Communist Party of China and Peoples’ Republic of China. Yet the great man is charged to response for the 40 to 70 million deaths in the peacetime by launching the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.
However, as the son of a farmer, who even did no obtain a diploma, he made numberless elites support around him, defied any threat and pressure from Stalin, and is admired by many distinguished luminaries trough time. ( Wilson, 2008) As a leader in the teeth of storm, how did Mao Zedong win comrades’ hearts, clear out his competitors and achieved victory of the revolution? This paper will discuss about his conquest legend through analysis of his leadership traits and leadership behaviors after a brief introduction of his life. Than an application of his leadership in hospitality industry will be discussed.Brief introduction of Mao Zedong’s track of life Family At December 26 of 1893 , Mao Zedong was born in a sprawling courtyard house in one of the farm village called Shaoshan, Hunan province, China. His father Mao Chunshun was an irascible and tough farmer, who later became a rich peasant.
Contrary, Mao’s Mother Wen Qimei was a merciful and gracious traditional woman who believed in Buddhism. Mao Zedong was the oldest among his 2 brothers and 1 sister. Mao had 4 marriages and 7 children, his second wife Yang Kaihui was regarded as his soul mate. Education – Self-studyFrom 1901 to 1906, Mao studied at the tradition private school. After leaving the school at the age of 13, Mao became an indispensable labour for the family.
From that time, he had being developing his life-long amusement--reading. and < Water Margin> founded his heroism, and , as he said later, “stimulate me a desire to resume studies. ”(Wilson,2008) At 15, he announced he would continue studies at DongShan Primary school in Xiangxiang county, without support from his father, he borrowed money from relations. During in school, the book affected him a lot.In 18, Mao explore to a wider world –Changsha- for further education in Xiangxiang Middle school.
Where he first contacted with media and learned about the current-day insurgence. However, after witnessing a battle he decided to join the army. The 6-month army life taught him the disadvantage of soldiery. (Wilson, 2008) In 1912, he went trough several schools and finally find his place in Hunan Province Public Library.
For the latter half year, he read large quantity of articles by western theorists and philosophers, such as and Herbert Spencer’s .From 1913 to 1918, he was studying in Hunan Province Forth Normal School. During the restless period, Mao’s ideology was roughly shaped. Next year, he was in Beijing University Library and attending classes there, where he met some radical figures such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. Revolutionary road Into the party’s central power In 1915, Mao organized the Student Association in school and convened many young people with noble aspiration. In 1919, a newspaper called was founded through which he disseminated his concepts.
On 23 July 1921, Mao attended the First Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC). In October, he was appointed the first secretary of Hunan Province Party Committee, in charge of building the party in Hunan. In 1923, he was elected as one of the five commissars of the Central Committee of the Party during the third Congress session. In 1924, under the policy of consolidate, Mao was a delegate to the first National Conference of the Kuomintang (KMT), where he was appointed executive of the Shanghai branch of the Kuomintang and secretary of the Organization Department.
After than, due to some dissension within the party, Mao became disillusioned with the revolution and moved back to Shaoshan. In October 1925, rekindled by uprisings in Shanghai and Guangzhou, Mao returned and became acting as Propaganda Director of the Kuomintang. At September 9 1927, Mao launched the Autumn Harvest Uprising, announced CPC's independence. Lost the battle, Mao mustered the remaining forces and march into Jinggang Mountains, where Mao take in two local insurgents and merged his troops with Zhu De’s, created the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China.In 1928, Mao helped establish the Soviet Republic of China and was elected as Chairman. From 1931-1934, Mao led the red-army defeated five waves of besieging campaigns waged by KMT.
The same period, he was criticized as parochialism,opportunism and dogmatism by competitors send by the Central Communist Party, who were well educated and supported by Stalin. Mao was demoted for 3 times and the army suffered defeats. To survive, in October 1934, Red Army started the long march, the party convened Zunyi meeting on the load, in which Mao won back his status in central party.October 1935, the army arrived at Shanxi, ended Long March, made red army be attended and Mao gained lot praise from media. Conquest Kuomintang In December 1936, the Xian Event bursted, Mao sent Zhou Enlai to solve it nonviolently and utilize the event to reform a united front. In 1942, to compete against rival group leaded by Wang Ming, “Zheng Feng Movement” was launched, which furthered Mao’s consolidated power over the Communist Party.
In 1943, Mao was elected as Chairman of Central Political Bureau of CRC. In the seventh congress of 1945, Maoism was established as the Party’s guiding principles.During the period, Mao received many visitors and journalists attracted by his fame, at the same time, administrated the Communist to help resistance against Japan, he also released a lot of books and articles that time. At August 25th,1945, Mao accepted the invitation from Chiang Kai-Shrek and went to Chongqing for negotiating of conciliation, through excellent public relation work, Mao introduced the CRC to the city.
The relationship was fragile, at the day of 12th March 1947, KMD air raided CRC’s capital Yanan, declared the Civil War. During the following 5 months, the army was fighting defensive warfare under Mao’s commendation.On third august, the strategy was transformed from defense to counterattacking. The troops occupied Beijing in January 1949, where the headquarters move in after 3 months, than Nanjin in April, Shanghai in May, Changsha in August, indicated victory of People’s Liberation Party’s. At September 30th ,1949, Mao was elected as Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
Next day, he announced the foundation of People’s Republic of China. In December 10, Chiang Kai-shek evacuated from the mainland to Taiwan. Rebuild China After reaching an agreement with Stalin at 14th February 1950, Mao returned immediately to oversee the reconstruction task.Unfortunately, the Korea War broke out in October 1950 made Mao had to send the People's Volunteer Army to fought against the United Nations forces.
From 1950 to 1952, the nation conducted land revolution, suppressed counterrevolutionaries, launched the movement against “3 evils” and “5 evils”. In 1954, the first National Representative Congress passed the , Mao was elected as chairman of People’s Republic of China. From then, Mao put effort on developing agricultural cooperative movement. In April 1956, he proposed industrialization plan, further more, launched Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution which made gross mistakes.
At September 9, 1976, he passed away in Beijing. Leadership traits Assertiveness Mao was an assertive person. In 1908, he decided to continue his studies in a primary school at the age of fifteen, when he was an apprentice in rice shop. His father was mad about the idea and insulted him.
It did not shake his mind at all. He borrowed money from relatives without noticing his father, till one day, he announced:” I will go to Dongshan Primary school, leaving in 3 days. ” Astonished by Mao, his father was struggling by putting out one fact: he has no money to pay for the labour to replace Mao.The son was floored and said nothing, but when the third day came, he put the money on his father’s hand, which equals one-year wage, and leave without saying “goodbye”. (Wilson, 2008) His assertiveness decided his unwilling to comply.
Once, it was several days after the 7th congress, in a funeral service rites for martyrs died in war, he praised the soldier of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as unbroken, since none of them surrendered after defeated. (Chen Jin, 2010)Richard H. Solomon(1971) concluded: Mao’s the basic strategic concept merges his personal assertiveness with the dynamic of the Chinese political culture.As we know, “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” was the firmly convinced theory. However, in August 1945, in the famous Chongqing negotiation after the victory of anti-Japan war, Chang Kai-Shrek requested the CRC to turn over their weapons and intended to merge them. Mao replied: People’s hard-wined power should never be handed out lightly.
The battle did not stop even during the negotiation. Moreover, KMT wanted to share the land later when he was under negative circumstance, Mao insisted to carry the revolution through to the end.Pioneering spirit& creative initiative Through a general review of Mao’s biography, we would find most of his views and deeds were out of usual. The identical case must be long march, which totally ran out of people’s imagination. Actually, it was a military practice of Mao’s earlier experience.
During the summer holiday of 1917, Mao and his friend did an experiment: tried to survive as pauper, to travel as far as they can without money, and to challenge nature and the society with nothing to help them but their own hands and brain.They walked 900 miles in one month, visited 5 counties, found their adventure attitudes. (Xiao Yu, 1999) Another distinctive case was about his article written in 1926. He created a new class that could be an invention to Maxim: Vagrant Proletarian.
According to his analysis, they were farmer who lost their lands and worker who lost their jobs, included soldiers, bandits, robbers, beggars, and prostitutes. With about 20 million population, it will be a knotty problem to deal with them. Nevertheless, they could transact to revolutionary forces if guided and directed properly.Not surprisingly, leader Chen Duxiu denied the unorthodoxy suggestion.
It did not mean Mao abandon his opinion. In October 1927, after defeat of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao took the troop to a place for hiding from KMT’s pursuit. There, he met two gangs of bandits, leaded by Yuan Wencai and Wangzuo. Instead of conquering them, Mao made friends with them, than finally take them in and reorganize the troops. “During my staying in Jinggang mountains,” Mao said later,” they were loyal communist party members, obeyed orders from the party” Long vision and Forward-LookingThere is no doubt Mao is a radical person, it was at 4 August 1919, Mao fistly released his vision on a newspaper runned by himself: I dare to predict, some day, our nation would be the most thoroughly in revaluation, the most bright in society, our unition will be more superior then any other nations.
More accurately,in March 1920 , he had a talk with his friend Xiao Yu, in which he argued people must made sacrifices to transform a country instead of inviolately revolution, if CRC could do with vim and vigor, they would command China in 30 or 40 years.Afterwards, history has proven it. Mao always looked forward without being affected by emotion. At 12 December 1936, Mao’s archenemy Chang Kai-Shrek was hold under Zhang Xueliang’s duress, Zhang was friendly to CRC, however, considered the situation that Japanese had broken in, and Chang holed the only force that could compete against Japan, Mao relinquished the best opportunity to kill Chang and accept Stalin’s order, sent Zhou Enlai to save him. The case help to bring about an agreement on the anti-Japanese united front.
Social perceptionMao was not an excellent Marxism learners, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Wang Ming wre, But they did not bring great success for revolution, Mao did. It widely attribute to Mao’s accurate perception of China’s situation. “no investigation, no right to speak” is an ideology to express the important of actual perception. He spent totally about 7 years in researching the rural area, added up with his own experience as a farmer and countless works he read, he know very well about the nation’s situation, that is why “using the rural areas to encircle the cities” proved to be effective strategy. Meng, 2002) With those leadership traits, backed up with excellent speech skills and powerful energy, Mao carried out many incredible actions, which made impossible possible. It seems he never know about leadership behaviors, his leadership arts developed natural and generous.
Nevertheless, his majority features included charismatic leadership behavior and directive leadership behavior. Leadership behaviors Charismatic There is a reason why Mao was selected as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century and cause cult of personality in his time. Spence, 2006) As illustrated before, Mao had very long vision, but without a large group help him to carry out his ideas, the long vision might be just a wild ambition. Fortunately, he is a charismatic leader, which gathered him many supporters.
( Bo Xuezhu, 2010)Mao was always impressed by his approachable. Edgar Snow(1979) describe him as simple and pleasant, just like every Chinese peasant, he also laughed like a child when talking about weakness of either his or Soviet’s. Even though Mao’s appearance could be considered as coarse sometimes, his speech is quite inspiring.He had read tones of books, and has very firm belief, so that when he expressed, he use a lot of metaphors and aphorisms,moreover,he condense his idea into slogans.
”All reactionaries are paper tigers” was one of what called up people’s confidence to fight against superior enemies. He also had a sense of humor in his talk. Once, he got a woman visitor called Malecite. When asked about Mao’s negative impression, she said Mao killed many people not in the rang of 8 to 40 year’s old. The atmosphere was freezing, but Mao laughed and replied:” No, I don’t eat child for lunch.
As a leader, he took risks. As mentioned before, he went Chongqing for peace negotiation was actually dangerous intercourse. Chang Kai-Shrek could easily arrange an assassination. In fact, Mao’s car was bombed when he was watching opera with Chang.
However,Mao took the travel as an opportunity to conquer the uncontested area. He did many social activities to introduce CRC, tried to change people’s prejudice by public his poet on local newspaper. At last, he did not agree to surrender to KMT. Directive Mao was very directive when actualizing his strategies.
According to his command files, the orientations were detailed into minutes and individuals. November 23th,1935, when Mao was in Yanan as chef commander, he graphed an order telegram Peng Dehuai and Zhou Enlai: Under the fundamental policy of destroying Dong Yingbin army by circling Heishui temple, move one regiment to Hanjia river, Gangou gate, Wangjiazhuang area, Rong Zhen will lead the first and thirteen regiments to the northern of Longyi bay, Wangjia corner, both of you will arrived at this afternoon.In hospitality Mao’s leadership is valuable reference for hospitality leaders who are in trouble or looking for expanding. In an emergence situation, Mao’s charisma would be a great neutralization for employee to leave, he would join the employees to win their favorable impression and find out the problems. Than a lot of researches and inspiration activities would be done to reform everyone’s confidence.As in 1920’s, to find out the problem happen in Hunan peasant movements, he had a one-month investigation, the tour resulted in a very inspiring report, which enhance the importance of peasants.
In an expanding situation, he would know the hospitality industry was now rapidly developing, With his pioneering spirit, he would perception the new marketing segments, his long-vision would foresee a powerful hotel chain through over the world.And with his directive leadership behavior, the service quality would be ensured. It was like in 1928, the army had absorbed all kinds of persons during the past years expanding, to keep the party's progressiveness,Mao issued “the three main rules of discipline” and “the eight points for attention” to regulate their behaviors. Conclusion Mao’s story is a miracle to china, without his leading, there is no way CPC’s “millet and rifles” can challenge the superior equipped KMT and Japanese militaries.His long-vision builds up the belief for a chaotic country in a prehistoric time; His initiative strategy wins the army countless victories; his aggressive leadership agglutinated numberless talents, and his powerful confidence motivated them into extremity.
The man grow up from unequal circumstance, founded a new country with bright future. Thus whole country tears for his death. Although his character also cause the disaster during later years, he is the undisputed leader of China's working class in 100-year. His bookis the world’s NO. 1 seller next to, ( Lever, 2007)his status is equal to Muhammad Gandhi in history.
