perspective. They measured leaders with three dispositional variables
(dominance, self-efficacy, and intelligence) and then used a median
split to derive eight multivariable patterns to explain the emergence
of leaders. Lord and Maher ( 1991 ) suggested that followers tend to
classify leadership perceptions in different cognitive categories, and
they communicate information about their leadership perceptions
through those shared names (category labels). Thus, a typology of PL
leaders, together with some revision of the conceptual dimensions,
seems to be useful for stimulating future research.
Eight types of paternalistic leaders
Following Smith and Foti ( 1998 ) and Lord and Maher ( 1991 ), we
propose a typology of paternalistic leaders based on the level of abso-
lute values (High versusLow) on each of the three core dimensions of
PL (Authoritarianism,Benevolence, and moralCharacter or moral
leadership). As we dichotomize the three dimensions, they together
produce eight types of PL leader. We use capital letter ‘‘A’’ to represent
high authoritarianism, lower-case letter ‘‘a’’ for low authoritarianism;
‘‘B’’ for high benevolence, ‘‘b’’ for low benevolence; and ‘‘C’’ for high
moral character, and ‘‘c’’ for low moral character. We briefly describe
the eight types.
Type 1. Authentic PL leaders(ABC). These leaders are characteri-
zed by high authoritarianism, high benevolence, and high moral
character. We label them as authentic as they are closest to the
ideal type of PL leaders as conceptualized by Farh and Cheng
( 2000 ). These leaders motivate subordinates through all three
types of psychological mechanism (i.e., fear, gratitude and
repayment, and identification and respect) simultaneously.
Type 2. Godfather PL leaders(ABc). These leaders exhibit high
authoritarian and benevolent behaviors toward subordinates
but with low moral character. We label them as godfathers
because they are self-serving leaders who lead through creating
fear and gratitude and repayment in the minds of their followers.
Type 3. Disciplinarian PL leaders(AbC). This group of leaders has
high authoritarianism and moral character but low benevolence.
We label them as disciplinarian leaders because they tend to
be strict, uphold high performance standards, and pay little
attention to subordinates’ personal needs.Paternalistic leadership in Chinese organizations 185