Leadership Ideals Across Asia

Hi everyone,

I attended the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations Academic Conference Academic Conference 2007. I was a member of the "Leadership Workshop" which was headed by the very capable Shannon Ashford from Harvard University. One of the panel sessions was entitled "Pan-Asian Leadership Ideals" and the panelists were Ms Ada Ho, Mr Sanjay Inamdar and Prof Edward J. Baker. I wrote a response paper to this panel session for a class in university and I reproduce it here in its entirety. Hope you enjoy reading it.

-Hozefa

Response paper on a HPAIR talk
Pan-Asian Leadership Ideals
By a panel consisting of Ada Ho, Sanjay Inamdar and Edward J. Baker


This was a very interesting talk that compared leadership styles and ideals across Asian societies and investigate how these styles influence people’s views on leadership and authority. The speakers spoke about the concepts of leadership in their home countries, which covered mainly India and China.

It was mentioned by Dr Baker that despite the western paradigm as Asians being one and the same, the leadership concepts in the two Asian giants, namely, China and India, are very different. The other two speakers made this point very evident when they started talking about leadership styles in their own country. I thought this was a very intriguing point as westerners would need to shed their paradigms on Asia as their economies become more and more dependant on the giants India and China and they will need to acquire the specific skills to deal with leaders, political and business, if they plan to do business with them.

Mr Sanjay Inamdar, who is the founder and president of FLUCON companies, a multi national company based in India, then spoke about the concept of leadership in his homeland, India. He said that Indians tend to make their natural leaders larger than life. The boss of a factory will appear to be a very important person who is highly capable and whose orders should never be questioned to the factory workers and coolies. This image is strengthened by the fact that the boss will hardly mingle with the factory workers and will be chauffeured to and fro from his home to the factory. I found this point rather true, as leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi were made to be larger than life and in many cases, this image was used for political gain. The early Congress party bosses in India milked this image of Mahatma Gandhi being the saviour of the Indian people for a long time to ensure their victories in elections.

Mr Inamdar stated that another danger of this leadership concept is that making leaders seem larger than life may confer upon them responsibilities that they may not be able to take on. I feel that this is a very valid point and an issue that needs to be addressed for a country to move forward. A parallel can be drawn with Singapore. Singaporeans have made their government to seem ‘larger than life’ and feel that there is no problem that the government cannot solve for them. In a country where people are the most valuable commodity, people refusing to take responsibility for themselves, their problems and their future is dangerous.

Ms Ada ho, the president of Nexus China, spoke next. She mentioned that people are not perceived as leaders unless they were in official positions. In China’s context, official positions could refer to communist party positions or positions in the organs of government. Thus the term leader is used very casually in China and can be used to denote “boss”. I felt that this definition of leadership definitely doesn’t hurt the Communist Party as it stifles democratic forces. In a democracy, people vote for candidates who they feel is best able to lead their country or represent their views. Thus, a person is a leader based on ability, not position. However, with leadership defined as people being in official positions, citizens of China may feel that they have no choice but to accept their so-called leaders whether or not they exhibit any leadership qualities.

Ms Ho mentioned, however, that views on leadership were changing in the country. Academics, artists and businessmen are starting to be regarded as leaders in their own fields. I felt that this could be due to the unraveling of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. During the Cultural Revolution, academics and artists were silenced. As our Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, mentioned in his memoirs, Mao was trying to paint over 4000 years of Chinese history etched in mosaic within his one lifetime. The rains will come, the paint will be washed away and the mosaic will re-surface. Perhaps the change in the concept of leadership in China is evidence of this.

Overall, I felt that this was a very insightful talk which offered very valid points on leadership concepts in Asia.

Author: Hozefa Aziz