Paternal Leadership and Its Impact on Employees’ Job Satisfaction in the Chinese Differential Mode of Association

By Huimin Han and Yanan Yang, Ph.D. students in Educational Administration and Leadership program, Assumption University of Thailand

ABSTRACT

“Family culture” and “Guanxi circle” are two major features of Chinese traditional
culture. Family culture penetrates the leadership process and forms paternal leadership which
is rather common in China. Guanxi circle is a common Chinese structural phenomenon in the differential mode of association.

The Academic Article of Ph.D. Students from Graduate School of Human Sciences

It is China’s social structure under the deep Confucianism and affects organizational structure and behavior. The objectives of this study were to explore how paternal leadership influences job satisfaction in the Chinese context and the mediating role of Employee Guanxi.

The researcher analyzed the direct effects of paternal leadership on job satisfaction from three sub-dimensions, including authoritarianism, benevolence, and morality of the paternal leadership on job satisfaction and further tested whether paternal leadership affected employees’ job satisfaction on Employee Guanxi.

The Academic Article of Ph.D. Students from Graduate School of Human Sciences

This study findings confirmed that benevolentleadership and moral leadership had positive effects on extrinsic satisfaction of Employee Guanxi which further influenced positive job satisfaction, while authoritarian leadership hadnegative effects on employees’ intrinsic satisfaction and no significant effect on Employee Guanxi.

On the basis of the findings, the leaders were suggested to pay more attention to employee guanxi culture and adjust their leadership styles appropriately, showing morebenevolence, great morality, and less authoritarianism according to the development stages of the organization.


“Authoritarian leadership has negative effects on
job satisfaction, while benevolent leadership
and moral leadership have positive effects on job satisfaction.”

To cite this article:

Han, H.,& Yang, Y. (2021).Paternal Leadership and Its Impact on Employees’ Job
Satisfaction in the Chinese Differential Mode of Association. APHEIT, 10(1), 89-98.