Linking Power Distance Orientation and Education Level to Authoritarian Leadership

Abstract

Little attention has been paid to the antecedents of leadership. In the present study, we aimed to fill this gap by identifying two antecedents of authoritative leadership, a dimension of paternalistic leadership which is a prevalent leadership style in Chinese business organizations. Specifically, we proposed that a leader's power distance orientation and education level were associated with his or her authoritarian leadership. We also proposed that certain context such as team job tenure may moderate these relationships, the relationships were stronger when team job tenure was lower, rather than higher. Implications and limitations were discussed, and empirical studies were called for to examine our propositions.