Leadership and Management in China: Philosophies, Theories, and Practices

the part of the follower in a hierarchical relationship, obligations to
repay favors given by others, and the importance of accepting moral
teachings.
Implicit in the cultural logic of Farh and Cheng’s ( 2000 ) model is
the complementarity of leader and subordinate roles. Authoritarian
leadership cannot work unless subordinates have been socialized to
respect the vertical hierarchy and have a dependent mind-set (Pye,
1981 ; Redding, 1990 ). The leader’s benevolence cannot be sustained
if it does not engender feelings of indebtedness and a willingness to
reciprocate in subordinates. Moral leadership works only if subordin-
ates identify with their leader’s moral superiority and are willing to
imitate it. When both leaders and subordinates play their respective
culturally prescribed roles, relational harmony prevails. But when
one party abandons its role while the other still expects compliance
with cultural roles, this will lead to strain, disharmony, and, at worst,
a breakdown of the relationship.
Based on the above framework, a series of empirical studies were
conducted to examine the model’s validity. These efforts first focused
on the development of a research instrument to measure the three

Compliance and dependence Indebtedness andobligation

Subordinate responses

Respect and identification

Authoritarianism Benevolence

Morality and integrity

Figure 6.1.Farh and Cheng’s model of paternalistic leadership.

Source:Adapted from Farh and Cheng (2000).

Paternalistic leadership in Chinese organizations 175