Comparison of Chinese and Western Leadership Cultures

The leadership culture of human beings has experienced a long-term change process, and each process is constantly developing with the political, economic and cultural progress of society. This is the accumulation process and cognitive process of human leadership activities. In the whole human process, leadership culture has gone through four stages, namely, totem-worship leadership culture stage, authoritarian leadership culture stage, empirical leadership culture stage and scientific leadership culture stage.

1. Totem worship leadership culture stage

2. The cultural stage of autocratic leadership

3. Experience leads the cultural stage

4. On the conceptual level of leadership culture, Confucianism and Legalism, the two schools with the greatest influence in ancient China, played an important role in the emergence and development of ancient leadership culture in China.

China's traditional leadership culture has played a positive role in history. It played a positive role in social stability, political control, organizational mechanism and leadership efficiency in ancient China. Modern western leadership culture is based on the development of modernization. This foundation has three fulcrums: first, modern market economy; Second, modern democratic politics; The third is the modern social structure.

Market economy has laid a reliable economic foundation for modern western leadership culture. Democratic politics has laid a reliable political foundation for modern leadership activities. On the one hand, democratic politics emphasizes that sovereignty belongs to the people, which makes leaders have a sense of serving voters. The traditional paternalistic governance style of leaders does not meet the needs of modern society. On the other hand, the principle of separation of powers and checks and balances in democratic politics has changed the way in which power restricts society. The modern social structure, roughly from its dual social composition, can understand its significance to modern leadership activities. Modern society, state and society, personal field and public field, government and market are highly differentiated. As a leader who uses public power, interferes in public life and represents the country or the government, he can't command or order leadership at will. Power is limited and rights are guaranteed. The institutionalization and standardization of leadership has become the most distinctive feature of modern western leadership culture. In the process of historical development, both eastern and western societies have formed their own unique leadership cultural traditions, and each has its own merits. On the other hand, Chinese and western leadership cultures have their own shortcomings. It is an extremely arduous and huge social system project to build a new leadership culture that integrates ancient and modern Chinese and western cultures. It needs to be explored step by step in the historical process, learn from each other's strengths in mutual exchanges, and constantly innovate in the actual construction of leadership culture.