diligence to their owners. Thus, leadership structures are built as
solvers of large, complex, and dynamic problems.
Within these organizations, managers’ jobs are to make the routine
and stable production and service systems function efficiently and
improve continuously. In contrast, leaders’ positions are to go out-
side of the bureaucracy and deal with environmental issues that can
and do disrupt the bureaucratic process. Both managers and leaders
are required for the economic, social or political process to con-
tinue. It must be managed continuously,butitmustbesavedperi-
odically from a multiplicity of perils. While managerial structures
are common knowledge, leadership structures have changed for the
twenty-first century. Early in the twentieth century, leadership struc-
tures were designed for autocratic heroic individuals who saved our
routine and stable existence. Later in that century, they became
leaders of ‘‘special project teams’’; now they have become ‘‘leaders
of networks of leaders.’’ This is sometimes called the ‘‘network-
centric’’ approach to leadership (Graen and Graen, 2006 , 2007 ).
An example of a leadership network composed of many positions
is shown inFigure 9.1. The leaders are in the central positions of
the figure whereas their supporters are in the peripheral positions.
The lines between the positions indicate the presence of the neces-
sary preconditions for taking discretionary interdependent action
(shared leadership). Directions of the arrowheads represent the
directions of the judgments. Finally, the absence of a line means
that the necessary conditions have not been met. Only those dyads
with double arrowheads may share leadership (Graen and Graen,
2006 , 2007 ).
The necessary conditions for sharing leadership within a leadership
network are the big three of (1) mutual respect for competence, (2)
mutual trust in motivation, and (3) mutual commitment to partner’s
welfare, and training for sharing leadership within a leadership net-
work (Graen and Graen, 2006 , 2007 ). This SNL model of leadership
has been validated by a number of studies in both China and the
United States and was introduced to the US Army at West Point
Military Academy recently by Graen (2007b).
Based on all of the research on this LMX model of sharing network
leadership, we boldly state our rules for multinational LMX sharing
network leadership. These rules are not exhaustive, but they are a
beginning.
Linking Chinese leadership theory and practice to the world 289