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Mediating Role of Intra-Team Conflict between Paternalistic Leadership and Decision-Making Quality among China University’s CMT during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Kenny S. L. Cheah

    (Department of Education Management, Planning and Policy, Faculty of Education, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Zuraidah Abdullah

    (Department of Education Management, Planning and Policy, Faculty of Education, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

  • Min Xiao

    (Department of Education Management, Planning and Policy, Faculty of Education, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
    School of Public Finance & Public Administration, Jiangxi University of Finance & Economics, Nanchang 330013, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

Universities across China have set up crisis management teams (CMTS) to deal with the crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focuses on how the paternalistic leadership practices of a Chinese university CMT influence crisis strategic decisions by managing conflict. These relationships were verified using hierarchical regression analysis on 312 samples from the surveyed university during the pandemic and found the following: benevolent leadership and moral leadership have positive effects on decision quality. However, unlike most studies on paternalistic leadership, in crisis situations, the negative effects of authoritarian leadership disappear under the mediating effect of affective conflict. This means that affective conflict within CMT fully mediates the relationship between authoritarian leadership and decision quality, and partially mediates the relationship between moral leadership and decision quality, while cognitive conflict partially mediates the relationship between benevolent leadership and crisis decision quality. It indicates that a CMT must stimulate and maintain a certain level of cognitive conflict while suppressing affective conflict to achieve high-quality crisis decision-making. This state can be achieved by practicing lower levels of authoritarian leadership and maintaining high levels of moral and benevolent leadership practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenny S. L. Cheah & Zuraidah Abdullah & Min Xiao, 2022. "Mediating Role of Intra-Team Conflict between Paternalistic Leadership and Decision-Making Quality among China University’s CMT during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-19, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11697-:d:916896
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    References listed on IDEAS

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