This article aims to investigate an important implicit expectation held by many observers: the dramatic economic change presently occurring on mainland China would be accompanied by the transformation of Chinese managerial values, thoughts and practices. Using an ethnographic' approach, we seek to understand the forces that are currently shaping Chinese managerial values, thoughts and behaviours in some privately owned firms. A set of ten managerial assumptions at three levels - self', managing' and organisation' - are unveiled and we see how they function coherently in animating managerial behaviour with distinctive Chinese characteristics'. The importance attached to family' when dealing with employees, the requirement to be as flexible' as possible in managerial behaviour and the compulsion to call for harmony and stability' indicate that our informants define good management in a unique way. Interestingly, after years of intense political, ideological campaigning, economic reforms and opening-up policies, a set of traditional Chinese values continues to shape their managerial behaviour.