Abstract/Summary

This paper examines the effects of two-way congruences and incongruences between three components of paternalistic leadership, namely, benevolence, morality, and authoritarianism, on overall subordinate justice perceptions. We hypothesize that these dyad in-/congruences would differentially predict subordinate overall justice perceptions, with perceptions of renqing as a mediator. With data collected from two-wave surveys in the People’s Republic of China, the results indicate that dyad congruences and incongruences between benevolence, morality, and authoritarianism have significant impacts on subordinate perceptions of renqing and, ultimately, their overall justice perception. Our findings underscore that to fully understand the influencing processes of paternalistic leadership on subordinate outcomes, it is important to take into account the context and the different combinations of its three dimensions.