Western Theories Research Articles

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.

Psychobiography in sociocultural context: the application of culture-based theories of psychology on a culturally diverse historic subject pool

In recent years the historical subject base in psychobiography has expanded from a traditional focus on White (Caucasian) subjects to a broader more culturally inclusive population of significant personalities throughout history. A critical component of strong multicultural psychobiography is the inclusion of anchoring theories of psychology that are rooted in socio-cultural-political context. To psychologically profile culturally diverse individuals with only traditional Western theories of psychology and psychiatry (e.g. medical models, psychodynamic, existential, cognitive-behavioral) limits the ability of the research to accurately capture the erlebnis (lived experience) of extraordinary individuals in proper cultural context. This article reviews specific psychological theories that have recently set a foundation for more nuanced and culturally contextualised psychological profiles of historic personalities who represent diverse racial/ethnic/cultural backgrounds. Among the theories covered are the Integrated African Psychology Perspective (IAPP), an Indigenous (Native American) model of psychobiography, as well as theories and models on Psychological Nigrescence (Black racial identity development), Intersectionality, Politicised Collective Identity (PCI), Queered Black Racial Identity Development (QBRID), and Adultification of Black Children, among others. Examples of applications of these culture-centered theories to psychobiography, drawn from the present authors recently completed psychobiographies, as well as from other researchers internationally, are presented.

Do you really want to hurt me? The impact of contextual factors on the moderating role of dark leadership in the relationships between learning climate facilitation, employability and turnover intention in the Netherlands and China.

Both the Dutch and Chinese labor markets experience severe shortages of skilled personnel and high turnover rates, being distressing socio-economic factors. At the same time, large cross-cultural studies indicate that these national contexts are highly different from a socio-cultural perspective. When considering issues on employee development and retainment, the public debate opens for negative attributes as dark leadership, wondering if employees accept to be hurt. This study contributes to the employability research and, moreover, it contributes to the call for the ability to contextualize theories and to the convergence/divergence debate. We applied Western theories to investigate possible contextual differences in the relationships between learning climate facilitation and turnover intention, and to investigate whether this relationship is mediated by employability, and whether dark leadership is a possible moderator. To test our hypotheses, we collected data from 368 Dutch and 319 Chinese respondents who participate in an executive master's program, which was analyzed using PLS-Structural Equation Modeling. Employees in the Netherlands and China were found to interpret our study variables differently. Separate analyses revealed that, in both contexts, learning climate facilitation was both directly and indirectly, via the balance dimension of employability, negatively related to turnover intention. In addition, in the Dutch sample, dark leadership appeared to weaken the relationship between learning climate facilitation and the corporate sense dimension of employability, but the latter did not seem to be a mediator in the relationship with turnover intention. In the Chinese sample, no moderation effects were found. Our results show that both learning climate facilitation and dark leadership are important factors in the development and retainment of personnel and that particularly focusing on 'balancing group and individual goals' is important to retain personnel, regardless of national context. The latter may indicate the need for convergence of HR practices. At the same time, however, the different interpretations of the study's variables may indicate divergence in the meaning of HR concepts. In the discussion section, we elaborate on the study's implications for HR-researchers and -practitioners in national and global business contexts.

Sand Story Counseling for Korean Early Childhood and Young Students: Life History Research on Heesoon Cho's Life Works and their Meanings

This study centers on the dynamics of psychology theory. Drawing upon Heesoon Cho's life, we aim to extract and analyze sand story counseling in her personal and academic experiences. Additionally, we aim to investigate her process of adapting sand play techniques into Korean sand story counseling and explore how this adaptation of sandplay, along with its dissemination, contributed to early childhood development, counseling, and psychological exploratory behaviors in Korea. To avoid bias, we adopted a life history method, including collaborative interviews and triangulation. The results reflected Cho’s life chronologically, describing significant events in her life. Using existing Western theories, Cho transformed and acculturated the existing sandplay technique into sand story counseling in the Korean context. Cho observed significant positive outcomes through sand story counseling. Sand story counseling theory significantly contributed to professional counseling. This study strongly supports future culture-fit counseling research in Korea, as opposed to adopting Western theories.

Confucian Leadership in Millennial Character Building

The problems to be discussed in this research are based on the phenomenon of searching for millennial leadership character education in Indonesia. In recent years, Western theories have dominated the trend of studying leadership and are rarely derived from Eastern wisdom. These influenced leadership education taught in character education in the education curriculum. Meanwhile, the East has Confucianism, a leadership concept called Jun Zi. Jun Zi explained how a person has the virtue of acting as a leader for himself and others. The research method used was the interview method, with the main object of discussion obtained from a comparative analysis of Confucian literature. The limitation of this study is the need for more Confucian wisdom texts in Indonesian, so to facilitate the objectives of this study, it is necessary to develop studies in the original language texts of these teachings. Subsequent research described Jun Zi's suitability with the needs of leadership character education in Indonesia, especially for millennials who have experienced various choices of new leadership models.

Cultural Studies in Interhemispherical Perspective. China, Africa, Asia and Australasia

Thematic assessment is offered with regard to Critical Arts’s incorporation into various Chinese trajectories and networks of cultural and media studies. The predominance of discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and comparative empirical studies of Western and Chinese media is addressed for the period 2016–2023, as is the recent location of Critical Arts within the global discourse analysis publishing sector, that is mapped in Wang and Sun (2023, “Bibliometric Study on Chinese Discourse (1994-2021).” Critical Arts 1–17). The reasons for this narrow discursive framing are offered in comparison with another trajectory that is evident in the pages of the journal, one that emerges out of Chinese literary studies in conversation with Western theories, Western philosophies and which addresses big epistemological questions rather than questions of comparative “us-them” differences/correspondences or of administrative or linguistic detail. Finally, in addressing the different methodological directions that have been experienced in the journal’s pages, this overview seeks to act as something of a manifesto in returning Critical Arts to a more general cultural and media studies position. Our method of analysis is to symptomatically track and frame the Chinese meta-narratives as published in the journal, to identify and describe the themes that have been of concern to our various Chinese authors and editors, to relate these to cultural studies as inherited from the field’s earlier origins across the world, and to offer a paradigmatic map for future authors through which to conceptually filter their submissions. Our analysis was pre-circulated to the four Critical Arts editorial board China specialists, amongst others, who were invited to contribute to our narrative.

Still Resisting Left Melancholy? Chinese New Leftist theatre’s inheritance and resistance in Che Guevara (Qie Gewala) (2000–1)

As the fin-de-siècle New Leftist champions of revolution, Zhang Guangtian, Huang Jisu and Shen Lin struck a melancholic note with their collaborative play Che Guevara (Qie Gewala) (2000-1) on the postrevolutionary, depoliticized Chinese stage. Why do these Chinese theatre-makers still carry on ‘left melancholy' amid the worldwide postrevolutionary arena that has bid ‘farewell to revolution'? Whose memories and histories do these artists attempt to reclaim and retrieve through this melancholy? How do affective and Marxist theories of ‘left melancholy' expand the perceptions of recurrent revolutionary pathos in post-revolutionary Chinese leftist theatre? How does the play's radical recuperation of leftist theatrical techniques, in turn, reinterpret ‘left melancholy' and resist the marketized, depoliticized trends? This article attempts to depart from and expand the current academic focus on ‘left melancholy', which has been largely confined to Western leftist theorists such as Walter Benjamin, Wendy Brown and Enzo Traverso, to the postrevolutionary Chinese context. Integrating Western theories with Chinese interpretations of the concept by New Left scholars such as Wang Hui, along with Judith Butler's theory of subjection (1997), I argue that Che Guevara extends the connotation of left melancholy as a ‘performative paradox’ between an existential, passive despair and a radical, active aesthetic agency of hope to counteract the depoliticized trend of commercial theatre, through an exploration of its affective, theatrical and ideological significance.

Koncepciya «svobodnoj shkoly» K.V. Ventcelya i V.N. Chekhova: k voprosu ob ispol'zovanii dorevolyucionnogo i sovetskogo opyta v sovremennyh rossijskih realiyah

Based on the analysis of the creative heritage of outstanding representatives of prerevolutionary and Soviet pedagogy, the article reveals the principles of building a “free school” based on taking into account the interests of each student and creating individual conditions for achieving the highest results. The concept of free education of the individual was adopted after the October Revolution, practically used in the practice of creating a “new school” in the first third of the 20th century, proving its effectiveness in the education and formation of the Soviet man. It is established that the theoretical postulates of a new type of pedagogy by V.N. Chekhov and K.N. Ventzel were the forerunner of the Western theory of a personality-oriented approach to education, the so-called transformative model of pedagogy, which became widespread in the late 20th - early 21st centuries. The authors substantiate the necessity and possibility of using the experience of prerevolutionary and Soviet pedagogy in modern realities.

Adoption of 3G/4G Technology in Pakistan: An Eastern Cultural Perspective

This study primarily focuses on enhancing the existing understanding of Pakistani consumers' intentions regarding the adoption of 3G/4G technology through empirical investigation. Furthermore, it attempts to develop a new theoretical framework focusing on factors affecting consumers' adoption intentions. It is designed to explain the barriers consumers face while adopting 3G/4G technology in an eastern culture like Pakistan. Although previous research has already explored similar topics and conducted studies in the same field. in the Western context but, Pakistani 3G/4G market needs more investigation to understand consumers' adoption behavior. This work acts as foundation for marketing managers to have a comparative comprehension between the Western and Pakistani consumers. Literature indicates Pakistani markets under umbrella of the eastern Culture, so the Western theories may conclude in different consumer behavior due to relatively different socio-economics dynamics. A cross sectional survey was designed and convince sampling was used. The model is tested based on 7-point Likert scale self-administered questionnaire and obtained results of 566 respondents from Pakistani mobile phone users by using AMOS. The conclusion of this study showed that perceived social outcomes, general perceptions, perceived social impacts and perceived barriers contributed positively to the behavioral adoption intention of 3G/4G technology among Pakistani mobile phone users.

Democracy In Islam from The Political to The Religious and Ethical Perspective: Turkiye as A Model

The study discusses the problem of democracy in Islam, from the political to the religious and ethical perspective in an Islamic country with a strict secular system (Turkiye). The study is aiming to monitor the role of democracy as a fair movement for peoples, especially Muslims, in secular regimes, in which it affects their lives by reconstructing the political system and its legislations and authorities in a way that consider their beliefs and moral ethics. Taking that into consideration as Muslims to answer the question: Can we, as Muslims, take a fair stance on democracy and other Western theories that can be benefited the lives of Muslims? As an analytical study, we will follow the Qualitative Methodology to achieve the goal of the study, which led us to the result of elaborating on the possible ways to benefit as Muslims from political concepts particularly democracy without allowing for these Western concepts to eliminate Islam and its ethics from our lives from one hand or make the extremists Muslims alienate others from this religion from another hand; by considering two main points: 1) Being convinced of the historicism of political practice in Islam and reconsidering the legal texts according only to Islamic ethics and the Shariah objectives. 2) Dismantling the relevant terms coming to us and activating the functional view of these interests and their abstract principles and giving them priority over the textual and idiomatic definition. Therefore, it is necessary for us as Muslims to develop new concepts in politics which are compatible with Islam and its ethical principles and stem from reality and civilizational requirements, to play the leading role in achieving both intellectual and applied advancement for the Muslim nation, which leads it to return to the forefront of its civilized role that combines Islamic values and civilized development.

Democracy In Islam from The Political to The Religious and Ethical Perspective: Turkiye as A Model

The study discusses the problem of democracy in Islam, from the political to the religious and ethical perspective in an Islamic country with a strict secular system (Turkiye). The study is aiming to monitor the role of democracy as a fair movement for peoples, especially Muslims, in secular regimes, in which it affects their lives by reconstructing the political system and its legislations and authorities in a way that consider their beliefs and moral ethics. Taking that into consideration as Muslims to answer the question: Can we, as Muslims, take a fair stance on democracy and other Western theories that can be benefited the lives of Muslims? As an analytical study, we will follow the Qualitative Methodology to achieve the goal of the study, which led us to the result of elaborating on the possible ways to benefit as Muslims from political concepts particularly democracy without allowing for these Western concepts to eliminate Islam and its ethics from our lives from one hand or make the extremists Muslims alienate others from this religion from another hand; by considering two main points: 1) Being convinced of the historicism of political practice in Islam and reconsidering the legal texts according only to Islamic ethics and the Shariah objectives. 2) Dismantling the relevant terms coming to us and activating the functional view of these interests and their abstract principles and giving them priority over the textual and idiomatic definition. Therefore, it is necessary for us as Muslims to develop new concepts in politics which are compatible with Islam and its ethical principles and stem from reality and civilizational requirements, to play the leading role in achieving both intellectual and applied advancement for the Muslim nation, which leads it to return to the forefront of its civilized role that combines Islamic values and civilized development.

REALIST SCULPTURE IN CHINA - DISCOVERY AND FORMATION OF ART METHOD

Chinese sculpture has a long history and is a world-renowned art treasure and cultural heritage. With the changes in the global political structure and China's internal social system in the past two hundred years, they have directly affected the development direction of Chinese sculpture. The traditional Chinese sculpture system has gradually weakened. In line with the trend of 'learning from the West' at the end of the Qing Dynasty, students, policymakers, and practitioners of sculpture-related industries began to reach a tacit agreement, with many factors contributing to a new choice for Chinese sculpture, which had long been closed to the outside world and self-development. During the Republic of China period, the popularization of Western theories of sculpture and the cultivation of Westernized talents made Chinese sculpture present the budding trend of realism in this period. These include the enlightenment of European sculpture, the establishment of art schools and the self-cultivation of talents, and the staged upsurge of studying abroad. This article explores the origin and development of realism art in China by describing the history of modern Chinese sculpture art in the context of a specific historical period from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Of course, Chinese realism has its special presentation and historical significance. There is no necessary connection between the birth of realism consciousness and the germination of Chinese realist sculpture. The realist sculpture from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China was the natural choice of artists who learned from the West and met the needs of society. Therefore, this article will not cover a broader discussion of the origins of realism.

Criminology and Crime Science in the Arab World.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, Western criminological thought was preoccupied by theories of modern criminology, which were concerned with the question of why individuals commit crime. Since the late 1970s, however, the Western world has experienced new reconfigurations in the crime control field, one of which is the transformation of Western criminological thought. New crime theories have emerged in which the focus has shifted from the 'criminal' to the 'criminal activity'. Despite their importance, these developments have had no impact on the criminological thought in the Arab world, which is, to this day, is dominated by Western theories of modern criminology. This paper has three purposes. First, it discusses the status quo of criminology in the Arab world. Second, it suggests plausible explanations that help understand the current status of criminology in this region. Third, it discusses the relevance of some criminological developments (notably crime theories and environmental criminology) in the Arab context. In that eventuality, it argues that the Western developments might bring insightful crime prevention lessons for the Arab world.

Indigenous Post-Secondary Institutes in British Columbia, Canada: Exemplars of Indigenous Control over Indigenous Education

Indigenous post-secondary institutes are a significant topic of study when considering Indigenous learners, Indigenous knowledges, and Indigenous self-determining efforts in places of higher education. Profiling three of these institutes in British Columbia, this article describes the promises and challenges they experience when weaving Indigenous knowledges into the academy. Using Indigenous and Western theory to support a case study design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 participants including Elders, academic leaders, instructors, staff, and current/former students. Four prominent themes emerged regarding Indigenous post-secondary institutes: (1) Elders have a core role in supporting the integration of Indigenous knowledges, (2) the institutes impact Indigenous identity and a sense of belonging in the academy, (3) they lead in partnership and relationship building, and (4) they demonstrate resiliency despite systemic challenges. This study offers an important understanding of how Indigenous post-secondary institutes exemplify Indigenous control of Indigenous education while simultaneously modelling decolonization and reconciliation in higher education.

Re-opening an Asia-Scar: engaging (troubled) emotions in knowing, knowledge production and scholarly endeavors

In this article, I bring to the center of inquiry the role of emotion in scholarship, knowledge production, and scholarly endeavors. I discuss the ways in which emotion, in varied forms and intensities, shapes how one may respond to particular bodies of knowledge and academic initiatives. In a complex manner, I engage with Kuan-Hsing Chen’s “Asia as Method” (Chen in Asia as Method: towards deimperialization, Duke University Press, Durham, 2010). I take it as an inspiration as well as a source of critique and expansion of ideas to advance scholarly arguments and to shed light on the process through which certain knowledge can be produced and/or restricted by particular emotions. At the same time, I critique varied uncritical endorsements of Asia, Asia as Method, and of ungrounded accusations of Western theory and hegemony. I lean into emotion/affect as a possible means of complicated knowing, productive scholarly writing, and knowledge production. I also emphasize the importance of engaging (with) rigorous and diverse historical knowledge as scholars produce education research. An important part of this article is what I refer to as an Asia scar incident and my reopening of that scar. To put this scar conversation in perspective, via narrative research, I present my recollection of the context leading to the scar as well as my reflection on the incident and how my scholarship has come along. I also request that scholars be open to multiple voices and multiple forms of scholarly participation to enable a more democratic recognition of nuanced knowledge production in transnationalized higher education. I argue that realizing and embracing such a democratic recognition can nurture and enable what I would call justice of voice and justice of participation.

PENGEMBANGAN PANDUAN KOMPETENSI MULTIKULTURAL BERBASIS NILAI MODERASI AN-NAHDLIYAH BAGI CALON KONSELOR

The concept of multicultural competence of counselors is dominated by Western theories which are loaded with value content so that in practice they often encounter obstacles. Therefore, adaptation efforts are needed into the Indonesian context by taking into account socio-cultural and religious values. The purpose of this study is to develop multicultural skills for prospective counselors who meet the criteria, accuracy, accuracy, and propriety that have been tested by experts and user tests. In addition, the guide can be used in the development of multicultural skills of prospective counselors. This research uses development research design. The results showed that the multicultural competency guide was based on the value of moderation and met the criteria, accuracy, accuracy, and appropriateness. Based on the results of the pre-test and post-test, it shows that there is a significant difference between before and before being given a multicultural competency guide based on an-Nahdliyah moderation values. This is evidenced by the difference in the mean at the time of the pre test with the difference in the mean at the time of the post test and also from the results of the Paired Sample T Test which shows that the value of Sig (2-tailed) is 0.000.

Daoism Concepts in Kristevas Chora

Kristeva, in her publication Revolution In Poetic Language, refers to the concept of chora to reconstruct the demolition of emotionality and rationality in humankind. Chora is a space constituted of the Semiotic and the Symbolic for the preparation to generate humanity. I noticed that Kristevas chora functions not only in a semiotic way but also interpenetrates into the thoughts of Chinese Daoism. I believe this discovery is beneficial for us to understand Kristevas psychoanalysis in a different way with some cultural exchanges; in addition, we can come up with a new perspective on the traditional discussion of Daoism from western theories. I first reanalyzed Kristevas chora in a semiotic way. Then I argued that chora assimilates Chinese Daoism in two pieces of evidence: Chora can be valued as a Daoist matrix where drives or motivations are generated. More, chora shares the common features of Laozis potentiality and Zhuangzis obscurity.

Beyond Comparative Poetics: An Evaluation of The Nucleo-genre Paradigm

The dominance of Western theories in an age of globalization and swift technological advances, which brought to collective consciousness manifestations of literary and artistic genres in distant geographical places that were once viewed as primitive or exotic, necessitates raising the question of comparative poetics anew. During the second half of the twentieth century, scholars such as James J.Y. Liu, Earl Miner, Stephen Owen, and Wai-lim Yip engaged in comparing Western to Eastern poetics. However, their work fell short of reaching a unifying approach to the study of world poetics. This is the gap that Alaa Abd al-Hadi, a thinker, poet and postcolonial critic, came to fill out. Abd al-Hadi’s Nucleo-genre Paradigm is universally oriented. Based on qualitative logic and Lutfi Zadeh's fuzzy sets, it posits that there are essential elements common to various cultural manifestations of a single genre across time and space. It is these common elements, which help decide whether a certain manifestation belongs to a certain genre, that allow for cross cultural communication and understanding while respecting cultural specificities, manifested by an infinite number of aesthetic elements. Unlike the other approaches to the field of comparative poetics, Nucleo-genre Paradigm distinguishes between two levels of genre, the poetic level of production and the aesthetic level of reception, and gives primacy to reception, which is often disregarded in genre theories. In this paper, an attempt is made to evaluate the contribution of the Nucleo-genre Paradigm beyond comparative poetics.

Quando o captor é cativo

In the 1970s, the Malaysian sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas proposed an analysis to account for the teaching of social sciences in the developing world, and especially in Asia. He coined the phrase “captive mind” to describe those students whose training was biased towards Western theories, concepts, meanings and authors taught to them by “captor minds”, the latter being either Asian social science instructors reproducing what they had been taught in the West or Western teachers merely transplanting their “universal” sociology to students wherever they may be. Even if Alatas wrote in 1974 that “there is no counterpart of the captive mind in the West”, we may wonder whether, in the past and also nowadays, sociological teaching in the West has not suffered from the same drawback, almost constantly reproducing both the same kind of visual bias (hyperopia in the South and myopia in the North) and the same form of almost continuous reliance on the same canon. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that this “hegemonic” gaze also relies on a specific end of teaching in the West, examines its effects and proposes an alternative centered on a new understanding of universalism.

Does commerce promote theft? A quantitative study from Beijing, China

Commerce, as both an environmental and a social factor, is essential to the study of the causes of urban crimes. This paper aims to comprehensively propose research hypotheses based on these two types of commercial factors and optimise statistical tools with which to analyse commerce’s impact on the level of theft in Beijing. Combining criminal verdicts, census data, points of interest, and information on nighttime lighting, this paper first applies a hierarchical regression model to verify the effectiveness of using commercial environmental and social factors to explain theft statistics and then constructs a structural equation model to analyse the joint influence of multiple commercial factors on those statistics. This paper finds that Beijing’s commerce does not significantly promote theft, verifies the effectiveness of two types of commercial variables and the corresponding Western theories in explaining commerce’s impact on theft in Beijing, and provides empirical data for the study of the causes of theft in a non-Western context.