From these teachings, it is clear that leadership of any size of a
collectivity starts with leading each and every individual. And the core
function of leadership rests in character-shaping followers and win-
ning their hearts and minds. The character-shaping process unfolds
primarily in the context of hierarchical and dyadic relationships.
Confucius and Mencius identified five cardinal dyadic relationships
and prescribed role requirements for each relationship. Confucius
said, ‘‘The duties are those between sovereign and minister, between
father and son, between husband and wife, between elder brother and
younger, and between friends’’ (Yang, 1958 : 135). Mencius specified
that between father and son there should be affection, between sover-
eign and minister, righteousness, between husband and wife, attention
to their separate functions, between old and young, a proper order,
and between friends, fidelity (Legge, 1971 ). These relationships pro-
vide a basic social structure for character formation and the duties are
the contents of character. One can see these duties as embodiments of
various Confucian virtues or as different applications of the central
virtue of benevolence to different relationships. As these relationships
are assumed to be hierarchical (even close friends model a brotherly
relationship) and the leader in a dyadic relationship is assumed to
be of superior character, the leader–member relationship is one of
teacher–student and mentor–prote ́ge ́, with the leader serving as the
role model of character and the member as the active learner. In
summary, while all organizational members are expected to cultivate
their own character it is leaders’ moral and organizational respon-
sibility to make clear that expectation and facilitate its accomplish-
ment. The superior character of leaders qualifies and enables them to
shape the character of the members they directly interact with and by
extension the character of the organization.
Building community from the bottom up.As indicated in the above
discussion, Confucian leadership boils down to the smallest unit of
society, the individual, the dyadic relationship, the family, the state,
the empire, and the universe. The most basic collective unit in the
Confucian social system is the family. Mencius said, ‘‘People have this
common saying, – ‘the empire, the state, the family.’ The root of the
empire is in the state. The root of the state is in the family. The root of
the family is in the person of its head’’ (Legge, 1970 : 295). If people
are filial toward their parents in their families, they may also respect
others outside. If they respect others outside their families, chances are
44 Xin-hui Yang, Yan-qin Peng, and Yueh-ting Lee