Chinese paternalistic leadership and non-Chinese subordinates'psychological health

摘要

Past research on Chinese leadership, a style which is different from that practiced in theWest, has demonstrated that paternalistic leadership within Chinese society issignificantly related to employees' psychological health. This research contributes tothe literature by providing results from the interaction between Chinese and non-Chinese society and examining the moderating role played by the cultural value ofuncertainty avoidance (UA). Based on the bottom-up model of the subjective well-being theory, this study aims to disclose the relationship between Chinese leadershipbehavior and its effects on the psychological health of non-Chinese subordinates fromcross-cultural and multi-national backgrounds. Results from the study sample of 160non-Chinese subordinates from 31 overseas branches of the selected, large, Chinesemultinational enterprise (MNE), showed that the moral and authoritarian styles ofthe Chinese paternalistic leadership contributed negatively to psychological health inthe workplace, a different pattern of results from studies completed with Chinesesubordinates in previous research. In addition, it also showed that UA partly moderatedthis unique leader-follower relationship. Specifically, when non-Chinese followers hada higher UA value orientation, the negative effects of their superior's moral style ontheir psychological health was weakened.