Paternalistic Leadership And Employee Performance:Empirical Evidence From China And Pakistan

Based on theoretical framework of social exchange theory,researcher examined the relationship of paternalistic leadership with employee performance in Chinese and Pakistani organization.Social exchange theory provide basis for this relationship of paternalistic leadership and employee performance.Social exchange theory(1964)states that social behavior is the consequence of exchange,which occur to minimize cost and maximize benefits.According to social exchange theory perspective,when leaders act like a father by showing benevolence,authoritarianism,and morality,in exchange employees show good performance.For that reason,the relationship of paternalistic leadership with subordinate performance is measured.Social cognitive theory and social identity theory provide basis for two psychosocial mechanisms namely self-efficacy and follower leader identification as mediators in a relationship among paternalistic leadership and employee performance,respectively.Social cognitive theory(1986)states that individual acquire knowledge by observing others? actions and the outcomes of that actions.Self-efficacy could be placed in the center of social cognitive theory of Bandura.As Bandura(1989)illustrated that knowledge acquisition occurs when observe possess high level of selfefficacy,which results from vicarious experience,physiological states,performance accomplishments,and verbal persuasion.These sources of self-efficacy are similar with paternalistic leadership dimensions especially benevolence and morality.Also,previous studies concluded that self-efficacy is predecessor of performance.Hence,one of the objectives of present study is to measure the mediating effect of selfefficacy in the relationship of paternalistic leadership and performance of workers.Social identity theory(1986)suggests that identity is individuals sense of to whom they are dependent and belong to in the group.In perspective of social identity theory,employees who categorize their leaders as paternalistic leaders(who show authoritarianism,benevolence,and morality)start identifying their leader by acting like an obedient employee,think that the leader is a part of family and,also think that leader act morally at work.This identification results in greater performance of subordinates.Therefore,another objective of this study is to measure the mediating effect of follower leader identification in the relationship of paternalistic leadership and subordinates performance.Chen,Eberly,Chiang,Farh,and Cheng(2014)suggested measuring the paternalistic leadership and performance in cultures which share similar or different cultural characteristics to China,to examine the effect of culture.Accordingly,culture is also incorporated to examine the relationship of paternalistic leadership with followers? performance.In high power distance and more collectivistic cultures paternalistic leadership is practiced(Aycan,2001).So,the moderating effect of power distance and collectivism is measured in the relationship of paternalistic leadership and performance of subordinate.Rigorously,the moderating effect of power distance and collectivism in the indirect(via self-efficacy and follower leader identification)and direct relationship of paternalistic leadership with follower performance is measured.Highly professional employees working in the manufacturing and service sector of Chinese and Pakistani organizations were the participant of this study.311 Chinese and 411 Pakistani professionals completely filled the supervisor-subordinate dyad questionnaire.Amos 18,SPSS 21 and Microsoft excel 2013 are used for statistical analysis of both Chinese and Pakistani data.Hierarchical multiple regression is conducted to measure the direct and indirect(via self-efficacy and follower leader identification)relationship of paternalistic leadership and performance in the presence of control variables.Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to measure the conditional indirect effects of self-efficacy and follower leader identification(Preacher,Rucker,& Hayes,2007).Moderated moderation analysis was conducted to compare the strength of relationship of paternalistic leadership and follower performance in China and Pakistan on the basis of culture as moderator.Results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis suggests that in both Chinese and Pakistani organizations paternalistic leaders boost the performance of subordinates by showing morality,benevolence,and authoritarianism.Results of Chinese and Pakistani samples also indicate that self-efficacy and follower leader identification mediate the relationship of paternalistic leadership and subordinate performance.The results of moderated mediation show that in high power distance the conditional indirect effect or moderated mediating effect of paternalistic leadership for self-efficacy and follower leader identification is high,supporting that in Chinese and Pakistani organization power distance moderate the strength of mediating relationships among paternalistic leadership and employee performance via self-efficacy and follower leader identification.Similarly,the moderated mediation results of collectivism show that the conditional indirect of paternalistic leadership for self-efficacy and identification is high when collectivism is high,supporting that collectivism moderate the strength of mediating relationships among paternalistic leadership and employee performance via self-efficacy and follower leader identification in Chinese and Pakistani sample.The results of moderated moderation show that the effect of paternalistic leadership on subordinate performance was high in high power distance country i.e.China as compared to the Pakistan which scored comparatively low on power distance.Similarly,results of current study showed that the effect of all the paternalistic leadership dimensions on subordinate performance was high in Chinese organizations as compared to Pakistan.This research effort contribute to the existing literature by exploring the direct and indirect(via self-efficacy and identification)relationship of paternalistic leadership and subordinate performance in the presence of culture as moderator.This study will help the management to understand the significance of paternalistic leadership style in Asian cultures.After understanding the significance of paternalistic leadership style,managers can get benefit from it by boosting employee?s self-efficacy,identification,and performance in high power distance and more collectivistic cultures.