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Abstract
Leadership research in different Chinese contexts is growing rapidly with plentiful assessment tools emerging in the field. Using a cross-cultural study framework, this paper provides an overview of contemporary leadership assessment tools used in different Chinese contexts. The leadership assessment tools developed by the etic approach, emic approach and combined etic-emic approach all contribute to the knowledge advancement of leadership, yet their limitations should also be noted. This paper ends with a critique of Chinese leadership assessment tools and recommendations for future directions.
Keywords: Leadership assessment tools, culture, indigenous leadership, Chinese contexts
Introduction
Contemporary leadership theories commonly define leadership as a dynamic and reciprocal process in which one influences a group of people to achieve a collective goal (1, 2). Leadership has been regarded as a universal human behavior that has an evolutionary function for solving adaptive problems (3, 4). However, the relationship between leadership and culture is not uniform. On the one hand, some scholars believe that there are some fundamental components of leadership shared by different cultures (5). Additionally, the growing globalization over the world makes the leadership conceptualization and practices in Western and Eastern organizations become increasingly aligned over time (6). On the other hand, some scholars believe that how people understand and practice leadership may vary across cultures (7, 8). Cultural values may define what an ideal leader is in a specific culture, which influences how people practice their leadership in the organization and develop their leadership. Depending on their theoretical perspectives, researchers used different assessment tools to measure leadership in a particular culture.
There are three approaches to the inquiry of leadership in the Chinese contexts: the etic approach, the emic approach, and the combination of etic and emic approach (7). First, researchers translated and validated the existing scales developed in Western cultures in order to test the generalizability of the existing leadership theories and models to Chinese contexts (i.e., etic approach). Second, researchers developed an indigenous leadership scale based on the Chinese leadership construct in order to capture psychological constructs that are not present in Western cultures (i.e., emic approach). Finally, researchers developed and validated a new scale based on both Western and Chinese concepts (i.e., etic-emic approach).
In this article, we reviewed the commonly used leadership...