Dialogue With China

The Presence of Humanistic Leadership in the Pandemic Era

Abstract

The intrinsic humanistic leadership attributes defended by Confucianism in its doctrine of the cultivated gentleman, also known as Junzi , and its virtues formulated within the 5 constants (Ren, Yi, Li, Zhi, Xin ), are deeply analyzed in this article, moreover, the distinctions in relation to non-Confucian leadership traits are also demonstrated through a comparative review, with the main ideas from Western views of leadership presented for that purpose. Humanism is introduced to support the derivation of Junzi morality. “What it is to be a humanistic leader? How does it differ from the non-Confucian leadership models?”. This paper performs a comprehensive literature review to explain different leadership concepts; furthermore, COVID data were collected, and the performances of four leaders of nations were assessed through online journals and news reading. Follow-up studies may be conducted to
investigate the leaders’ ongoing responses to the COVID pandemic, for the purpose of highlighting the positive aspects of Confucian and non-Confucian leadership aspects, particularly
emphasizing the traditional Junzi pedagogy.