Moral Leadership: Where the East Meets the West

Abstract

This paper examines various theories of leadership of such major theorists such as Michael Fullan, Max Weber, Chris Hodgkinson, James Collins and Thomas Sergiovanni, in respect to how they distinguish and categorise different types of leadership. It is found that although these theorists have various definitions of leadership, administration and management, when they have to distinguish types of leadership, they invariously place leadership over administration and management, and that within leadership, the moral imperative of leadership is the most significant and highest level of leadership, as compared to technical-rational leadership. There are some differences in perceiving whether professional leadership is close to or as a part of moral leadership, but the moral imperative of professional leadership is at the core of leadership, which is the source of insight, foresight and will provide vision and direction that would attract followership and transformational leadership. After the review of major leadership theories in the West and leading to such an observation, the author has found that this is also the essence of leadership ideas in Confucian philosophies, thus concluding that emphaising moral leadership is where Eastern and Western leadership thoughts concur.