The Influence of Paternalistic Leadership on the Development of Oriental Critical Thinking

Abstract

In the context of globalization, critical thinking is still regarded as the core content of higher education. The difference between Eastern and Western cultures has a key impact on understanding critical thinking. When the current literature studies the influence of culture on critical thinking, it mainly considers from the macro level, mainly including ethnic history, traditional customs, religious beliefs, art, ethics, and so on. However, from a specific and micro cultural perspective, how critical thinking is influenced by a culture still lacks effective research. This paper studies the influence of Confucian paternalistic leadership on the development of critical thinking in the East from a specific cultural perspective. The study discovers that Asians are easier to understand how things change and they are more tolerant to conflict, which means that they see things as interrelated and interdependent. They are more likely to use intuitive and experience-based reasoning if there is a conflict between intuitive and logical reasoning. Benevolence and hierarchy in paternalistic leadership promote the formation of cooperative critical thinking in improving the operation of organizations so that the characteristics of oriental critical thinking can be analyzed more comprehensively.