Search

Influenced by family characteristics and pan-familism in Chinese organizations, Chinese leaders tend to treat their subordinates as family members and give them care, opportunities, and believe that taking care of subordinates is a duty-bound obligation. According to the cultural tradition of Chinese relations, scholars interpret the possible impact of the relationship between leaders and subordinates in Chinese business organizations from the perspective of “the interactive dual model of the benefactor and the beneficiary.” They called it “benevolent leadership,” which means that the leader cares for the personal well-being of subordinates individually, comprehensively, and for a long time. Benevolent leadership is rooted in paternalistic leadership theory. There have been many review articles or metaanalysis papers on paternalistic leadership. It is not difficult to see the importance and significance of benevolent leadership. However, there has yet to be a paper that specifically and systematically reviews benevolent leadership and explores its particularity and effectiveness. Given this, this article attempts to re-examine the past achievements, current situation, and future directions of benevolent leadership theory with a longitudinal investigation and a thematic analysis. To sum up, this article would review and discuss the research results of benevolent leadership in the order of the following key points. First, it would review the concept and cultural roots of benevolent leadership. Second, it would present the theoretical development, definition, and dimension evolution of benevolence. Third, it would analyze benevolent leadership theory from different perspectives. Fourth, it would clarify and compare the similarities and differences of benevolent leadership with similar leadership theories. Fifth, it would examine the relevant research results of benevolent leadership in the context of the triad model of paternalistic leadership, including the direct effects on subordinate attitudes and behaviors, as well as the mediating and moderating variables. Finally, after systematically reviewing the research on benevolent leadership, this paper would propose future research prospects to clarify unresolved issues further and comprehensively present the validity and importance of benevolent leadership theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]