**5. Conclusion**

Chinese people believe that "sages" can be cultivated through self-reflection and deliberate

Moreover, the dark side of leadership can be more harmful in Asian cultures than that in Western cultures. This is because how people react to the dark side of leadership differs across different cultures. A recent study by Zhuang et al. [49] revealed that Chinese tend to be unwilling to report the unethical behavior of leader than peers. The authors suggested that a low tolerance of the unethical acts of peers may be attributed to collective loyalty to the organization, while the unwilling to report the unethical behaviors of leaders may be due to the respect for authority [49]. As stated earlier, the respect for authority has been linked to paternalistic leadership, which is a legacy of Confucian values and prevalent in Chinese cultures [38]. More specifically, the norms of individual behaviors and relationships are ruled by five cardinal relationships of Confucianism, which include emperorminister, father-son, husband-wife, elder-young and friend-friend relationships. As such, Chinese followers seldom challenge their leaders. An extreme case is that Chinese would even tolerate the corrupted leaders in late Qing dynasty. We could argue that the absence of fatherly benevolence, authoritarian supervision and moral integrity will deeply disappoint the followers in a Confucian society. Meanwhile if the followers obey destructive leaders possessing authorities, they may experience strong moral conflicts [38]. In **Table 5**, we summarize the Confucian virtues with reference to the related work in the leadership

practice if one strives for excellence.

140 Dark Sides of Organizational Behavior and Leadership

**Confucian virtues Related leadership literature** Loyalty ("zhong", 忠) Organization loyalty [40]

Trustworthiness ("xin", 信) Reliability [52]

Harmony ("he", 和) Harmony [42]

Integrity ("lian", 廉) Integrity [45]

Righteousness ("yi", 义) Fairness and justice [53]

Propriety ("li", 礼) Propriety, politeness [42]

Shame ("chi", 耻) Self-reflection and social emotion [48]

Committed to organization [50]

Affection ("ai", 爱) Paternalistic leadership [44], authentic transformational leadership [32]

Filial piety ("xiao", 孝) Respect of authority, paternalistic leadership [38, 44] Benevolence ("ren", 仁) Paternalistic leadership [44], servant leadership [51]

Integrity [42]

Conformity [43] Peace ("ping", 平) Agreeableness (tendency to be peaceful and gentle) [54]

**Table 5.** Summary of Confucian virtues with reference to the western scientific literature.

literature.

According to Chung and Bell [10], the Anna Karenina principle makes clear that no quantity of "good deeds" can make up for or prevent the consequences of one devastating error. Hence, a lack of any of the three fundamental qualities, namely competence, character and care, can constitute the dark side of leadership. Viruses arising from the POS also constitute to the dark side of leadership.

In the scientific literature, there are different conceptions of the dark side of leadership. Interestingly, most of the conceptions are related to the lack of competencies, character and care, echoing the emphases of the Service Leadership Theory, which highlight the lack of these qualities as well as the emergence of viruses as the dark side of leadership. Empirically, the negative outcomes brought by the dark side of leadership have also been well discussed in research studies. Finally, through the lens of Confucian virtues, one can further understand the dark side of leadership. In particular, linking the dark side of leadership to Confucianism allows us to understand this issue in a specific cultural and social context. Sim [55] argued that Confucian ethics can supplement Aristotle's insufficient discussion on human relations. In addition, the framework of the Service Leadership Theory addresses the limitations of many contemporary leadership theories, which often neglect the importance of cultural values [56].
