in subordinate outcomes beyond that predicted by well-established
Western leadership theories. In two of these studies (Cheng, Shieh, and
Chou, 2002 ;Chenget al., 2004 ), transformational and transactional
leadership were included along with PL to examine this question
empirically. Results showed that PL did account for unique variances
in subordinates’ outcomes after controlling for transformational and
transactional leadership. The strongest evidence was presented in
Cheng, Shieh, and Chou ( 2002 ) in which the teacher’s OCB was
regressed on the principal’s transformational and transactional leader-
ship along with PL dimensions and demographic control variables.
Results showed that benevolent and moral leadership emerged as the
only leadership variables that had significant positive effects on
the teacher’s OCB. These results suggest that PL can explain unique
variances in subordinate outcomes that go beyond those explained
by Western leadership models.
Summary and discussion
Empirical research thus far has shown that Farh and Cheng’s ( 2000 )
model is a viable framework to conceptualize PL in Chinese contexts.
When operationalized by PLS, the three dimensions of PL are concep-
tually and empirically distinct. They also account for a significant
amount of variance in subordinates’ psychological responses and atti-
tudinal and behavioral outcomes beyond those explained by Western
leadership theories. While these findings are encouraging, this stream
of research does have major limitations that need to be overcome in
future research.
Theoretically speaking, the content domain of each PL dimension
was derived inductively from the management style of owners/
managers of Chinese family businesses in the 1960s to 1980s. Some
of the behaviors observed are now outdated due to the pace of
modernization throughout the Greater China region. Inclusion of
outdated behaviors in the content domain of PL makes the model less
relevant to the modern context. This is particularly serious for the
dimension of authoritarian leadership. The strong negative overtone
of some of the behaviors illustrating authoritarian leadership causes
it to be negatively correlated with benevolent and moral leadership.
Clearly, there is a need to revisit the content domain of each PL
dimension and to develop a second-generation research instrument
for PL that is better suited to the twenty-first century.
180 Jiing-lih Farhet al.