Abstract:

As an interdisciplinary research area, leadership is an important research issue in the disciplines like psychology, sociology, and political sciences. Leaders play a key role in the development of team, organization, and society. However, due to cultural differences, leadership theories vary in western countries and in China. Thanks to the unremitting efforts of many scholars, indigenization of leadership theory has won a significant progress. The authors provide a systematic review of moral leadership theory which is considered as the most typical Chinese theory in the leadership research over the past four decades. They reviewed the state of art at home and abroad, involving the aspects of research tracks, concept evolvement, structure, measurement, and effectiveness of moral leadership. Based on this review the authors reflected the existed studies of moral leadership from the perspectives of origins, integration, comparative studies on China and foreign countries, and latest development trends. Moreover, suggestions and prospects for future research were also included.

Key words: leadership theory, moral leadership, culture, indigenous research