Harmony and Patriarchy: The Cultural Basis for 'Paternalistic Headship' Among the Overseas Chinese

Abstract

This paper outlines a model of leadership attuned to the cultural specificities of the Overseas Chinese (OSC) context. The model is developed in a contrastive mode to U.S. approaches to leadership which are depicted as being culturally bounded and non-transferable to the OSC situation. The model is extrapolated from the persisting cultural values and traditions still prevalent in OSC organizations and management style. The concept of headship is heuristically adopted to demarcate the underlying orientation towards legitimized influencing of followers by leaders and the structuring of relationships among the OSC. Chinese organizational 'heads' are seen to function on the basis of meeting the mutually reinforcing dual requirements for legitimized order and compliance achievement and the maintenance of social harmony. The cultural basis for meeting these requirements is examined in detail. The resulting 'leadership' orientation is depicted as 'paternalistic headship', the behavioural and attitudinal elements of which are explored. The arguments are situated in the context of a burgeoning interest in, and recognition of a distinctive OSC management and business orientation.

Is there a Spirit of Overseas Chinese Capitalism?

“…A number of authors make a similar case for the Diaspora Chinese in Southeast Asia (e.g. Freedman 1979b;Redding 1990;Kao 1993;Redding 1996;Koon 1997;Westwood 1997). Different dimensions of Confucianism have been identified (for overviews of traditional Chinese values see Hofstede and Bond 1988;Redding 1990;Kao 1993).…”

“…These practices entail a distinct organisational form (Redding 1990, p. 3, 42) and leadership model (Westwood 1997) and Hughes 1996, pp. 52-53).…”

Chinese Philosophy Ethnical, Paternalistic and Aesthetic Leadership in Global Business World

“…Paternalistic leadership, proposed by Farh and Cheng [4] on the basis of studies from Redding [33], Cheng [34], and Westwood [3], is widespread in Chinese society. Paternalistic leadership could be defined as a style of leadership characterized by high discipline and authoritarianism, fatherly benevolence and high moral standards [4].…”

“…From a historical viewpoint, Spence and Chin [2] suggested that the 20th century was the century of China, and we believe that they referred to the significant political, social, cultural, and even economic transformations which China has had since the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. As a typical style of leadership in the Chinese community, paternalistic leadership has already attracted a great deal of attention [3][4][5], and could be strongly explained in high power distance and collectivist cultures [6][7][8]. Current studies on paternalistic leadership tended to focus at the individual level of the organization.…”

Comparative work values among future managers in China and the USA

“…Decisions are made at the top (Lu, 1998;Scarborough, 1998), and interaction among individuals and organisations is built upon trust and is highly personalised (Schermerhorn and Bond, 1992). As such, participative management approaches are not as common (Pun et al, 2000;Redding and Richardson, 1986;Westwood, 1997). Chinese managers tend to be more people-and relationship-oriented than US managers (Lockett, 1988;Wah, 2001).…”