Management Review ›› 2021, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (9): 211-223.

• Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A Research of Developing Humble Leadership Scale in Chinese Context

Feng Jingming1, Liu Shanshi2, Wu Weijiong1   

  1. 1. School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510520;
    2. School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640
  • Received:2018-09-27 Online:2021-09-28 Published:2021-10-09

Abstract: As business environment changes rapidly, traditional leaders' wishes about "leading at the top of pyramid" are more and more difficult to fulfill. On the contrary, the "bottom-up" humble leadership conforms to the requirement of the time. Although the Western researchers put forward the concept of humble leadership, it always fails to apply in China due to its poor structural validity. Therefore, this research plans to develop a scale of Chinese humble leadership, which will help to fill in such research gap. First, based on the theory of humility and Chinese culture and thoughts, this research deduces the dimensions and construct of Chinese humble leadership. Second, we use qualitative research method to form initial scale. Third, according to the pre-survey, we analyze and modify the initial scale, and then finally generate the formal scale. At last, we examine the criterion-related validity of the new scale. This research successfully develops a three-dimension scale with 19 items, and finds that the Chinese scale can measure the true humility. Besides, the Chinese scale has a better structural validity than the Western scale.

Key words: Chinese humble leadership, Chinese culture and thoughts, scale developing