lower-level PL, but also their cross-level interaction effects. Future
research on PL should take into account the full complexity of the
leadership phenomenon in organizations and investigate PL using a
multilevel approach.
Beyond the Chinese family business context
Existing research suggests that Farh and Cheng’s ( 2000 ) model of PL
can generalize to different organizations in Chinese contexts. Note
that empirical tests of PL were conducted on the basis of diverse
samples, rather than simply family-owned Chinese firms (e.g. public
schools in Taiwan, state-owned firms and foreign investment ventures
in mainland China). Beyond the Chinese contexts, paternalism has
been argued to be a salient characteristic in many Asian countries,
such as Japan and Korea (Redding, Norman, and Schlander, 1994 ),
India (Sinha, 1990 ), and Turkey (Aycan, 2006 ). In these Asian coun-
tries, as in China, family-based hierarchy extends to society at large.
For example, Sinha ( 1990 ) proposed a nurturant–task-oriented model
for India in which an ideal leader is both nurturant and task-oriented.
According to this model, the supervisor would offer benevolent sup-
port for subordinates provided that the subordinates respect and obey
the supervisor, work hard, and are highly productive. These findings
suggest that the PL model could transcend Chinese cultural contexts
and generalize to other Asian contexts. Future research should empiri-
cally test the generalizability of the PL model beyond the Chinese
contexts.
Comparison with other leadership theories
Future research should also compare the PL model against other
established theories of leadership. For example, both the leader–
member exchange theory (LMX) and the PL model assume that
there is a personalistic relationship between a leader and a follower.
The two models differ in that LMX theory is predicated on social
exchange theory, whereas the PL model is based on hierarchical role
relationships rooted in traditional Chinese families and culture. Which
of the two models does a better job in accounting for the leader–
follower dynamics in contemporary Chinese society? Similar research
is needed to compare the PL model with the transformational and
200 Jiing-lih Farhet al.