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.