Western Leadership Theories Research Articles

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL TO ENHANCE STUDENT TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR APPLICATION-ORIENTED UNIVERSITIES IN SHANXI PROVINCE, CHINA

In this research, the primary purpose was to create a model for developing transformational leadership skills for application-oriented university students in Shanxi, China. The aim was to help college students smoothly enter society and have better career prospects. This study utilized qualitative and quantitative methods, conducting content analysis on ideal AOUs student transformational leadership skills, which include a sense of responsibility, self-dedication, vision, teamwork, innovation, problem-solving skills, communication, and listening. The results of the content analysis were validated by five experts. The study also collected 1,002 survey questionnaires from AOUs students in Shanxi, China.
 The study found that five leadership activities influenced the level of transformational leadership skills: participation in leadership workshops, students’ councils, student clubs, volunteer activities, and social practice activities. Additionally, the study highlighted the similarities between Chinese Confucian thought and Western transformational leadership theory. The four philosophical ideas of Confucianism were found to be applicable in understanding Western leadership theories and guiding students' participation in related activities. The recommendations emphasize the prioritization of transformational leadership skills by stakeholders, recognizing their broad utility and crucial role in students' future success.

Views of African higher education scholars about effective leadership

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the views of African higher education scholars about effective leadership and if those views reflect a unique, African meaning of leadership.Design/methodology/approachThe study sought to explore the views of African higher education scholars about leadership in general and if those views reflect a unique, African meaning, that does not necessarily fit the widely accepted western theories. Using a researcher-designed questionnaire, higher education faculty and administrators were asked their understanding and beliefs about leadership. Data from quantitative responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test. In addition, qualitative answers, from one open ended question, were utilized to possibly triangulate with quantitative responses.FindingsThis study found that most research participants believe that the widely used western leadership theories are not fully applicable to Africa's context. However, the list of qualities of effective leadership, these participants suggest to be unique to Africa, included mixed attributes from Western, Non-Western and Culture-Neutral theories.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations. First, the data for this study was collected electronically which might have affected the potential responses from those with limited Internet connection or who have not updated their current email addresses. Second, the participants of the study are higher education professionals whose insight about leadership may not necessarily reflect the views of others from different background.Practical implicationsBy examining leadership effectiveness in Africa's context, this study adds to the body of literature on the ongoing discussion on the topic of culture and leadership. It is hoped that the findings of the study provide important insights regarding the debate on “western vs non-western” leadership theories.Originality/valueThe universal understanding of leadership and the application of leadership theories across cultures have been an issue of debate for leadership scholars and practitioners around the globe. Many authors argue that the widely used leadership theories are “too western” in value and character (Bass, 1990; Hofstede, 1993; House and Aditya, 1997). This study adds the perspectives of African scholars to the ongoing debate and expands the understanding about leadership across culture.

Educational Leadership in Chinese Higher Education

Despite the reforms to improve the quality of China’s higher education and to adopt certain Western leadership theories, the heroic leadership model is still dominant in Chinese higher education institutions. Therefore, employing educational leadership may be complex in traditional Chinese culture. Thus, this special issue brings four articles together to enhance our understanding of educational leadership within the Chinese context. Specifically, the issue begins by exploring educational leadership in terms of Chinese philosophy and considering its definition and role. The issue goes on to examine the gender issues related to educational leadership. This introduction discusses the topic, introduces the articles, and presents the contributions of the special issue articles.

Medical Leadership: Experiences in the Use of Shared and Parental Leadership to Improve Academic Performance in the Management of a National Plastic Surgery Unit in China.

Effective leadership is an integral component for optimal academic performance of surgical units. As one of the leading plastic surgery academic medical centers in China, the authors would like to share their experiences of using the combined parental and shared leadership approach in managing their surgical staff within the department. It has taken into account the essence of Eastern moral philosophies and Western leadership theories. The authors performed a review of the academic development of their staff and changes in the academic productivity of the department between 1999 and 2018. The difference between the first 10 years (1999 to 2008) and second 10 years (2009 to 2018) was analyzed to assess the effectiveness of the authors' leadership approach. There is an increase in the number of Science Citation Index articles published in the past decade with a higher impact factor and more articles published in international journals. The timing to promotion was on average 8.4 years. The average age of promotion to consultants has increased, likely because of a later start in the training. With similar average age, prior education, and gender ratio of surgeons in the unit, the department also received 14 times more in research funding and four times more in national key topic research topic. The effective application of this combined leadership approach has significantly improved the academic productivity and quality of the authors' residents and surgeons and the academic advancement of the unit.

20 Years of Chinese Leadership Research: A systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

As the Chinese economy has grown over the past decades to take a prominent place on the world stage, so has research on Chinese leadership. The growing research provides much needed breadth in our understanding of Chinese leadership. However, the research is quite fragmented as it has developed in several largely disconnected areas. This study develops an integrative framework of Chinese leadership, based on a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles published in the last 20 years. We synthesize insights from 169 articles to develop a comprehensive understanding of traditional Chinese leadership practices and Western leadership theories applied in Chinese organizations. Furthermore, we advance research on Chinese leadership by proposing five areas of future research that build on our integrative framework.

The Effects of Environment Uncertainty and Leadership Styles on Organisational Innovativeness

The paper aims to better understand the importance of a company’s external environment uncertainty level and the CEO’s leadership style for innovation. Different leadership styles were assessed in the context of a full range leadership theory, namely: transformational (Tfl), transactional (Tsl) and passive leadership (PL). Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model was developed, tested and validated to explain the effect of environment uncertainty and leadership style on organisational innovativeness. The hypotheses were tested using responses of managers from 159 medium and large organisations in the Republic of Serbia during 2017. The results suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between environment uncertainty and organisational innovativeness, while transformational leadership was described as important leadership style that cannot be ignored if organisation wants to improve organisational innovativeness. Influence of transactional leadership was not statistically significant, while passive leadership style was found to have the negative influence on organisational innovativeness. Based on the results of the study, practical implication of creating a more supportive workplace for all types of innovation is emphasised. Encouraging managers to predominantly use proactive leadership, i.e. transformational style, facilitates significant innovative capacity. The effective use of leadership style and its innovativeness in South-eastern European countries is vastly unexplored. Thus, the results of the research fill the literature gap between Western leadership theory and South-eastern European context.

EXPLORATION OF ASIA LEADERSHIP THEORY: LOOKING FOR AN ASIAN ROLE IN THE FIELD OF LEADERSHIP THEORY

This study begins with the question of whether Western leadership theory is universal and where is Asia's contribution to this theory of leadership. Studies show that the theory of Asian leadership is local and influenced by the cultural influences of Asian local communities. Harmony and stability are the essences of Asian local culture. The leadership process is voluntary, collectivity, and is in a traditional or informal social structure. The effectiveness of traditional leadership is more concerned with aspects of guarding and achieving an atmosphere of harmony and stability. Furthermore, Western leadership theory is built from an organizational perspective that is competing to gain resources and maintain the organization's life. The West leadership process is mechanical, formal and transactional. Leadership effectiveness is the ability to win the competition and defend itself in a strong position in the competition. The differences in the approaches to Asian and Western leadership theory are in line with the concept of low-context and high-context perspective. This is also in line with the contingency approach for effective leadership. The study states that the position of Asian and Western leadership theory is the same, both groups of theories are on a practical level that emphasizes contextual conformity. The globalization paradigm has strengthened Western "influence" hegemony about effective leadership. However, this dominance will be temporary according to the human perspective or learning organization because of the contextual conformity. On the other hand, modern society has a stigma over the concept of Asian local leadership above. The things above reinforce the dim role of local Asian leadership in modern Asian society itself.

Distributed Leadership in Drainage Basin Management: A Critical Analysis of ‘River Chief Policy’ from a Distributed Leadership Perspective

Water resources management has been more significant than ever since the official file stipulated ‘three red lines’ to scrupulously control water usage and water pollution, accelerating the promotion of ‘River Chief Policy’ throughout China. The policy launches creative approaches to include people from different administrative levels to participate and distributes power to increase drainage basin management efficiency. Its execution resembles features of distributed leadership theory, a vastly acknowledged western leadership theory with innovative perspective and visions to suit the modern world. This paper intends to analyse the policy from a distributed leadership perspective using Taylor’s critical policy analysis framework.

Contrasting Acclaimed Leadership Variants of Three Iconoclastic Chinese Companies.

Mounting evidence suggests that the leadership of Chinese companies does not seem to follow conventional western leadership theories and practice, as these companies increasingly out-compete wester...

Effect of paternalistic leadership style on subordinate’s trust: an Indian study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of paternalistic leadership of the boss on the trust of the subordinate. Design/methodology/approach The present study adopted survey method to test the hypotheses. Paternalistic leadership style was measured by a 24-item scale developed by Cheng et al. (2004). Trust was measured by a four-item scale by Schoorman and Ballinger (2006). Data were collected from a sample of 253 respondents. Findings The results show that in India, paternalistic leadership style leads to subordinate trust. The result further found that though benevolent and moral leadership leads to trust, authoritarian leadership does not lead to formation of trust. Practical implications The study has important implications in areas like managing leader–member relations, leadership training and team efficacy. Originality/value Leadership researchers in Indian context have largely adopted etic approach which attempts to generalize Western leadership theory to Indian context. However, uncritical adaptation of techniques developed in Western context may not be effective in the Indian cultural environment. The concept of paternalistic leadership was developed in Chinese context, but as India scores high on paternalism, the present study uses the paternalistic leadership style to study its effect on subordinate’s trust on leader.

Spiritual leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: relationship with Confucian values

Spiritual leadership is achieving universal recognition as an effective tool to measure the interactive relationship between leaders, followers, and organizational performance. However, the construct needs robust investigation of the relationship to positive organizational behaviors in diverse country contexts. This study examined the relationship of spiritual leadership on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through the well-being of workers and the impact of Korean Confucian values with results fully supporting the relationship of employee well-being on OCBs. Furthermore, Confucian values, operationalized as Confucian mindset, also influenced and partially mediated the relationship between spiritual leadership and OCBs. The results of this study lend support to the enabling influence of spiritual leadership on positive organizational behavior such as OCB. Moreover, the study increases our understanding of the emic manifestations, like Confucian values, of leadership theory in generalizing western leadership theories to outside cultures.

Leadership Development Programs: Investigating the Impact of Contextual and Cultural Factors on LDP Effectiveness in the United Arab Emirates

The interest in leadership continues to grow over the past few decades. Leadership Development Programs (LDPs) have become a priority for all sectors, especially for the public sector. However, LDPs tend to be based on Western leadership theories, and predominantly utilize Western leadership development approaches, and do not consider the influence of national culture in their utilization, namely high-context cultures, as exists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This exploratory study focuses on elucidating leadership conceptualizations among Emirati leaders identifying their perceptions of the factors that impact on LDPs and leadership outcomes in the UAE public sector. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 leaders from three Dubai government organisations and data were analyzed using NVivo 10. The significance of the findings of the study are: (1) leadership conceptualizations were based on the common themes of inspiring others and communication, (2) mentoring and coaching were noted to be among the best mechanisms utilized in LDPs, (3) leadership challenges included access to financial resources, adapting to ‘smart’ government, and building and retention of leaders– hence the need for effective LDPs. The study provides a unique and significant contextual contribution highlighting improvement in opportunities for leadership development programs in the UAE public sector.

Authentic Leadership on the Frontline and Its Effects on Korean Restaurant Employees

Few studies examine whether Western leadership theories apply to Asian companies. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of authentic leadership on perceptions of Korean restaurant workers. Results suggest authentic leadership components correlate with followers’ extra effort and perceptions of leader effectiveness. These variables, in turn, correlate with intrinsic job motivation and job satisfaction. Findings of this study are discussed in light of future research directions.

The view from the crossroads: Brazilian culture and corporate leadership in the twenty-first century

The transfer of western leadership theories and practices across the globe has inspired criticism in recent years, suggesting the need for local/indigenous theories of leadership. Such search, however, is troublesome in countries with a heterogeneous cultural background where the constant influence of outside cultural/social/economic parameters abound. The purpose of this article is to identify local/indigenous practices of leadership in one country with a heterogeneous cultural background – Brazil. In this conceptual article, we explore selected literature to investigate the topic of Brazilian culture and its particular style of corporate leadership.

Relationship of Confucian Values to Spiritual Leadership in a South Korean Context

Spiritual leadership is an emerging holistic leadership construct that has been validated in several cultures outside of North America. However, these studies have failed to examine the underlying relationship of embedded cultural values and spiritual leadership. To address this problem, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of Confucian values to spiritual leadership within a South Korean context. Data was gathered through surveys from three firms within Korea’s financial sector. Factor analysis of Confucian values found a two-factor solution, including social order and harmony. Harmony was excluded from analysis due to poor inter-scale correlations. Social order showed a positive, significant relationship to spiritual leadership variables, suggesting Confucian values comprise a portion of the inner life of Koreans and support the emergence of spiritual leadership within a Confucian context. The results of this study increase our understanding of the importance of emic manifestations of leadership theory in generalizing western leadership theories to outside cultures.

Western leadership development and Chinese managers: Exploring the need for contextualization

▶ Contextualizing Western leadership development in China. ▶ Philosophical roots of leadership in China. ▶ Adjustment of cross-cultural leadership development practices. ▶ International MBA program development. This paper explores if, and how, Chinese managers perceive Western theories of leadership and leadership development as useful in their business environment. Based on a text analysis approach analyzing term papers of 171 MBA students, this study finds that virtuous leadership is valued the most, whereas authoritarian leadership is valued the least. The respondents are oriented both towards traditional Chinese philosophy and Western leadership theories, and predominantly view leadership development as a necessary contribution to the improvement of Chinese organizations. Concerning the identification and assessment of leadership potential, Western techniques are predominant; sometimes with controversial effects. The study concludes that leadership development techniques need to be adapted to the national context and recommends the role of espoused leadership in cross-cultural MBA classes for future research.

Interrogating orthodox voices: gender, ethnicity and educational leadership

Research in educational leadership and management, while comprehensive in its scope and direction, has considerable imbalances that have contributed to what Blackmore (1999) has termed the monoculture of the powerful. The focus on the apparent intractability of leadership as a male domain and ways in which women have negotiated the gendered nature of their professional lives has provided opportunities for debate and the emergence of (oppositional) discourses that account for women's ways of knowing and leading. Yet, as this article argues, these discourses of privilege and opportunity have not accounted for trajectories of ethnicity and diversity. The critique of Western ethnocentric notions of leadership presented in this article is informed by debates on issues such as gender and educational leadership that have produced meta-narratives that explore and explain women and men's ways of leading. One of the troubling aspects of Western leadership theories is the claim that the functions and features of leadership can be transported and legitimated across homogenous educational systems. Despite changes that have been made in definitions and descriptions of educational leadership to provide a focus on gender, there is the implicit assumption that while educational leadership might be practised differently according to gender, these discourses essentially remain both raced and classed. Thus, the construct of educational leadership needs to be more broadly theorised in order for cross-cultural discourses to emerge.

Changing the deafening silence of indigenous women's voices in educational leadership

The critique of western ethnocentric notions of leadership presented in this paper is informed by debates on issues such as gender and educational leadership that have produced meta‐narratives that explore and explain women and men's ways of leading. One of the troubling aspects of western leadership theories is the claim that the functions and features of leadership can be transported and legitimated across homogenous educational systems. Despite changes that have been made in definitions and descriptions of educational leadership to provide a focus on gender, there is the implicit assumption that while educational leadership might be practised differently according to gender, there is a failure to consider the values and practices of indigenous educational leaders. Thus, the construct of educational leadership needs to be more broadly theorised in order for knowledge of indigenous ways of leading to emerge.

Leadership behaviour in Eastern Europe: Finnish expatriates' experiences in Russia and Estonia

Radical transformation of East European economies has caused extensive pressures on local organizations and managers to adapt to the requirements of free markets. It has also been reported that some fundamental changes in management principles have already appeared within this area, but mostly our understanding of East European managerial methods and behaviour is very limited. Furthermore, more and more Western companies are operating in East European markets and strive to produce required changes in the attitudes and behaviours of the local work force. Against this background, the present study reports experiences of Finnish expatriates on typical leadership styles of Russian and Estonian managers. On the average, these managers are reported to be less active than their Finnish colleagues in most forms of leadership behaviour proposed by Western leadership theories. In the end, pressures faced by expatriates to change their own leadership style when leading Russian and Estonian employees are presented.

Exploring the limits of Western leadership theory in East Asia and Africa

Contends that the vacuum left by the collapse of colonial empires has been filled by new forms of cultural and ideological imperialism conceived largely in the West. Signs of the new imperialism are to be found in many fields including human resource management. Explores this theme, focusing particularly on ideas about leadership. Examines leadership patterns in East Asia and Africa. Suggests that no single model of leadership can accommodate significant variations in societal culture and their influence on organizational behaviour.