The Effect of Implicit-Explicit Followership Congruence on Benevolent Leadership: Evidence from Chinese Family Firms.

Xiao Wang,Jian Peng

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00812

Abstract

Benevolent leadership, a traditional Chinese leadership style generated under the influence of Confucianism, has been under growing discussion since its proposal. However, existing research has focused mainly on the consequences of benevolent leadership, and research probing into its antecedents is scarce. To fill such research gap, the current study aims to explore the effect of the congruence between implicit positive followership prototype (PFP) and explicit positive followership trait (PFT) on benevolent leadership. Polynomial regression combined with the response surface methodology was used to test the hypotheses herein. The results, based on a sample of 241 leader–follower dyads from four Chinese family firms, indicated the following: (1) benevolent leadership is higher when leader PFP is congruent with follower PFT than when they are incongruent; (2) in cases of congruence, benevolent leadership is higher when leader PFP and follower PFT are both high rather than low; (3) in the case of incongruence, there is no significant difference for the level of benevolent leadership in two scenarios: “low leader PFP – high follower PFT” and “high leader PFP – low follower PFT”.

Highlights

Traditional Chinese Confucianism has advocated harmonious interpersonal relations since ancient times; these relations are manifested in the context of power relations between a benevolent monarch and his loyal subject or a kind father and obedient children (Cheng et al, 2004)
The results indicate that both leader positive followership prototype (PFP) (r = 0.15, p < 0.05) and follower positive followership trait (PFT) (r = 0.21, p < 0.001) are positively correlated with benevolent leadership
We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to examine the discriminant validity of the variables, namely leader PFP, follower PFT and benevolent leadership

Summary

Introduction

Traditional Chinese Confucianism has advocated harmonious interpersonal relations since ancient times; these relations are manifested in the context of power relations between a benevolent monarch and his loyal subject or a kind father and obedient children (Cheng et al, 2004). As expressed in this type of harmonious ideology, a traditional style of leadership — benevolent leadership — was generated in Chinese social organization (Cheng et al, 2000).

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion