Diversity in Western vs Eastern Transformational Leadership

Those that follow a transformational leadership framework believe that leaders possess many of the aforementioned qualities, but the focus is on one’s ability to inspire and empower others (Ross, Fitzpatrick, Click, Krouse, & Clavelle, 2014). These leaders literally ‘transform’ their followers by inspiring enthusiasm and performance towards a

Many countries that are not in the Confucianism sphere also share the same high-context styles that are contrasting to the West. The conditions of these

Confucianism promotes a social hierarchy that is important to the stability of the society. It creates a social order that ensures that there is order and a hierarchy within society. So people respect the rank of the people above them, and

Confucian culture, also known as Confucianism, was founded by Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was developed gradually after the Han Dynasty with benevolence as the core. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology and the basis of mainstream ideology in the vast majority of historical periods of China, and it also influenced many southeast Asian countries in history. After a variety of shocks, Confucianism was still the core values of China's social public, and represented the Chinese culture and national tradition in the world (Littlejohn, 2010). In the contemporary society, the Confucian culture in China increasingly spread, at the

Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 8, 19-31.

Confucianism was no way an extreme philosophy. Instead, it features as a moderation balancing the power of majoritarian citizens and that of rulers. Confucianism focused on a conservative social order in which people were assigned specific roles and citizens should conform to the political authority. Rulers were superior to commoners, commoners should observe the social order. However, Confucianists also constrained the rulers by a sound ethical conduct in order to justify the hereditary right of rulers. Confucius argued that rulers should improve his virtue and content the society. Rulers had to a be junzi, or gentlemen with decent qualities to govern the people. Mencius expanded the exercise of ethics. He said the rule of the king should be full of his benevolence toward people and rulers should gain support by providing for the people’s well-being. Confucianists also addressed the importance of the power of the people, as Xun Zi said the water (people) bears it (ruler) up is the same swallows it up. Therefore, Confucianists focused on a relativistic thinking to seek a middle path between people conforming the government and the government caring the

The effectiveness of transformational leadership has been proven in a number of settings and in many countries around the world (Judge & Piccolo, 2004).

In 1985, Bernard Bass expanded upon the work of Burns by attempting to determine and define how transformational leadership impacts follower outcomes. Bass postulates that transformational leaders are able to share their vision with followers and resultantly influence inspirational outcomes, and he identified four elements of transformational leadership: individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence (1985). In a departure from Burn’s belief that transactional and transformational leadership are mutually exclusive styles (1978), Bass suggests that truly effective leadership must demonstrate both transformational and transactional style (1985).

The domain of leadership theory and research has had many conceptualizations proposed over the last few years (Avolio & Bass, 2003). These conceptualizations seem to have generated recent interest in the distinction among transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership research (Bass, 1990). Yukl (1998) noted that transformational leaders get followers to do as they desire by transforming them or changing the followers themselves. According to Barlow, Jordan, and Hendrix (2003), a transformational leader generates an image that awakens trust from subordinates and develops relationships that enable subordinates to move toward goal attainment using their knowledge, skills, and material resources to accomplish that end. Unlike transformational leaders, transactional leaders pursue a cost benefit exchange approach that does not change subordinates and uses portion or organizational resources to meet subordinates needs in return for contracted needs rendered by the subordinates (Bass, 1990). Although these forms might appear diametrically opposed, most theorists agree with Bass that they are not mutually exclusive. While transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership are conceptually distinct, the same individuals on a continuum might display these leadership behaviors by different amounts and different intensities (Bass & Avolio,

Confucianism has its roots in the life of the average Chinese, be it subtle or pronounced. This philosophy can be defined as a system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by Confucius and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct. It is important to clarify that for the purpose of this paper Confucianism will be viewed as a philosophy and not as a Religion. A close glance at the current Chinese communities and how Chinese operate will give the impression that Confucianism has died and is no longer relevant to the way of life in China. However, a changing society has given rise to a change in the way of life; and so Confucianism has taken on a new form. In

Mencius and Xunzi, who both lived during the end of the Zhou Dynasty, were powerful advocates who influence the teachings of Confucianism that still lingers in China to this day. Confucianism is a philosophical ideal way of reality that inspires an integrity mindset. These principles were taught and created by man a name Confucius. To be more detailed, Confucianism stood on three pillars, Ren, Li and Xiao. Ren is the principle of human’s behavior of kindness that makes man distinctively human which gives us our humanity. Li is principle of gain, organization, propriety which guides humans specially in society leaders in their actions. Xiao is principle of piety, respecting those who in authority over you, particularly the Elders in one’s family.

Confucianism heavily influenced East Asia’s family structures and principles. In general, when people think of families in East Asia, often their characteristics differ from thinking of families in Western Europe or America: people think that Western society emphasizes the values of individuals, while Eastern society emphasizes the values of family and group as a whole. The reason why East Asian family – definitely China, Korea, and somewhat Japan – put such an importance on family unity is because Confucius’ teachings emphasized harmony; Confucianism taught that being harmonious with their big family and others of society ultimately results in creating harmonious government and country. In Confucian family, individuals work for harmonious

Over the past twenty years, an abundant body of researches have been done to review transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Burn (1978) was the first person to introduce and conceptualize the concept of transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Bass (1985) based on Burn’s concept and deepened his notion with modifications, which stated that one of the best frameworks of leadership is transformational or transactional. Following Bass and Avolio (1994, p. 4) provided the idea of these two leaderships and generalized them into the development of global economic world. Bass and Avolio (1997) also suggested that there was no need to view transformational and transactional leadership as

Power Distance is the dimension that deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. At 80 China sits in the higher rankings of power distance a society that believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable, therefore subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and there is no defence against power abuse by superiors. Individuals are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for leadership and initiative. People

A large amount of credit is given to Bass 's transformational leadership theory identifies four aspects of