Does Paternalistic Leadership Style Really Exist? Evidence from Three Chinese Samples

Abstract

Proponents of paternalistic leadership argue that a paternalistic leader is authoritative and at the same time, a benevolent and moral individual, and this style is effective in non-Western societies. However, past empirical studies consistently found that authoritarianism related negatively to benevolence, morality and job outcomes. We posit that the original proposed style probably does not exist, or at least not being a dominant style, in modern Chinese business organizations. Applying the Latent Profile Analysis method on three independent Chinese supervisor-subordinate samples, we have three important findings. First, authoritarianism ratings are much lower than ratings of benevolence and morality. Second, none of the identified profiles is high on authoritarianism, benevolence and morality at the same time. Third, leadership style with low authoritarianism, but high on benevolence and morality leads to the best employee outcomes. Implications are discussed.