Leadership attributes, culture and communism: analyses of cases 1998‐2008 from China

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to track the changes of leadership attributes during the process of social development from 1998 to 2008 in China, and then to explore whether the significant events have potential impacts on the changes of leadership attributes during this time.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted two studies through qualitative approach, based on data collected from Chinese official newspapers (People's Daily and Guangming Daily) covering 216 stories (90 stories in Study 1 and 126 stories in Study 2). The first study focuses on comparing the leadership attributes in 2008 with those in 1998 and 1988 presented in previous research to find out the changes. In the second study, the most significant events are selected during the period of 1998‐2008 and their effects on the changes of leadership attributes are examined.

Findings

The findings show that leadership attributes changed during the ten years and some new attributes are advocated in China. Furthermore, the changes of leadership attributes, especially for non‐business leaders, relate to the occurrence of significant events and reflect the changes of government policies.

Originality/value

Although some literature has explored leadership attributes in China, this study contributes to the extant research in two ways. First, it promotes the use of existing documents as data sources of longitudinal study to track the changes of leadership attributes. Second, it advances the line of inquiry of leadership attributes in China by concentrating on the factors driving those changes.

Citation

Liang, Q., Meng, Y., Li, S. and Yuan, B. (2012), "Leadership attributes, culture and communism: analyses of cases 1998‐2008 from China", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 610-646. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506141211280290