Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Training Leaders in Honor and Shame Cultures

Training Leaders in Honor and Shame Cultures

Last updated on: January 22, 2020 at 7:44 am by Brad Vaughn

Training Leaders in Honor and Shame Cultures 2019-12-06T05:44:48-07:00 Brad Vaughn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Credit: Wikimedia/Poochan50

Most leadership training materials are written from an individualistic, Western perspective. Scholarly research typically focuses either on a Western context or is written for Western readers. This raises two questions.

What does this mean for training leaders in non-Western cultures?

How much more effective might Western missionaries be if they understood how to lead in a collectivist cultures?

Leadership is context dependent. Effective leadership is contingent on the people being led and the situation one faces. Certainly, various principles for leadership span cultural settings; however, they might be fewer than many people would expect.

Inside the Mind of Leaders

Leadership training requires more than acquiring information, although having knowledge is essential. If we want to learn how to lead in collectivist, honor-shame cultures, we’ll have to learn from one another. We will need to collaborate and share our experiences from across many contexts.

Even within East Asian contexts, leadership practices differ. For example, consider China, Korea, and Japan. Even though each society is marked by collectivist thinking, leaders think and behave in different ways. As one article aptly states, “collective leadership requires a collective identity.” Yet, not all collectivism is the same. I previously distinguished “categorical collectivism” from “relational collectivism.” How does leadership differ within both types of collectivism?

Larry Persons will help us think through these issues at the upcoming 2020 Honor-Shame Conference (@ Wheaton College). With over 35 years of experience living and working in Thailand, Larry is a leadership development expert specializing in multicultural contexts. His book The Way Thais Lead: Face as Social Capital is an excellent starting point for anyone thinking about the interaction between leadership and “face.”

Persons’ insights help readers grasp the internal logic that characterizes leadership in many contexts. Like all forms of leadership, the perspective of leadership he profiles is a mixed bag. The point is not to idealize a certain view of leadership, but rather to understand it. His book is rich with insights and so I will share some of my favorites in topical clusters.

The Relationship Between Leadership & “Face”

But common people do not practice face maintenance to the same extent as those who have prestige. Leaders must maintain face to a far greater degree than their followers because they face greater consequences should they fail to do so. They control greater amounts of social capital. They simply have more to lose. “The higher you are, the more you have to exercise caution,” says a university professor. (Kindle Loc 1428-1430)

Having prestige can be burdensome. That’s a strange sentence to write, but it’s true. “Those without prestige experience a freedom,” says a community leader. “They can wear rubber slippers or torn shirts. But those with prestige—no way! They have to maintain their image because society has expectations about how people with ‘face-eyes’ should speak, dress, act, and be.” (Kindle Loc 1431-1434).

If leaders do not continually gain face, they can lose their capacity to lead. (Kindle Loc 1536-1537)

Speaking and Quick Decision-Making

Leaders speak sparingly. They always watch their words. As we’ve already noted, misspeaking can damage their public acclaim. Even words spoken in jest can create problems if someone takes them seriously. Often leaders avoid making decisions on the spot because they fear making a mistake and losing face in front of others. (Kindle Loc 1440-1443).

Generosity & Reciprocity

One cannot merely put on a show, however. People doggedly monitor the generosity of their leaders. A decrease in a leader’s benevolence can lead to a decrease in his power over his entourage. Leaders at all levels of society must play the role of patron because being generous is one of the most common techniques for expanding power in Thai society. It is the primary reason why leaders must be so unflagging in their quests for financial resources. (Kindle Locations 1469-1472)

Kind acts of generosity often generate “feelings of loving indebtedness.”30 When pure bunkhun emerges in relationships, clients feel indebted but do not begrudge that indebtedness. Instead, warm feelings of connection surface to complete the bunkhun cycle. The recipient says, “Hey, this person was good to me. I want to reciprocate.” (Kindle Loc 1631-1635)

As you navigate relationships in Thai society, always remember: to accept a considerable act of generosity is to relinquish power to a patron. (Kindle Loc 1720-1721)

Perfection

Many leaders in Thai society seem to embrace a standard of utter perfection. They feel that they must never—under any circumstance—appear weak, incompetent, misinformed, or at fault in any way. They deal with constant anxiety that their prestige will depreciate due to bungled self-presentations. (Kindle Loc 1489-1492).

To maintain this guise of perfection, leaders must embrace a level of hypocrisy. Especially when they harbor shameful secrets, they must put up a false front. “Part of maintaining face is lying,” states an office worker. “Lying to others and deceiving yourself. The most immoral thing is lying to yourself all the time.” (Kindle Loc 1497-1499).

Loyalty and Criticism

Some leaders seek protection from face loss by denying others the right to criticize. Consider the wealthy prime minister who, when criticized by a prominent newspaper, threatened to buy a majority stock in the company. Such tactics often backfire, however, because members of the public tend to dislike leaders who care too much about face. (Kindle Loc 1531-1533)

Patrons demanded explicit compliance and faultless loyalty. At the same time, they provided clients with a valuable hedge of safety. (Kindle Loc 1612).

Rather than simply lording power over followers, leaders can choose to nurture warm relationships with them. It is an approach that preserves and perpetuates the bond between leader and follower. It lends longevity to relationships, and it also arouses a valuable sense of harmony in local collectives. (Kindle Loc 1715-1717).

Relating to Subordinates

Leaders who show little honor toward close subordinates operate on the premise that authority alone is enough to gain the cooperation of underlings. But let’s remember something enormously important about power in this paradigm of leadership. It is impermanent.

As long as a leader maintains his position of authority, subordinates will show him respect and endure his self-centered or unreasonable behavior. But this honorific behavior can fade very quickly after he exits from the position. (Kindle Loc 1803-1807)

Leaders with Moral Strength

These leaders tend to be respectful of close subordinates because their approach to power is founded upon mutual respect. They rarely assume a competitive attitude toward leaders directly below. They grant them the right to express opinions. They have no desire to gain face by erasing the “face-eyes” of subordinates. They view members of this group as worthy of honor, and they give them honor.

We have already learned that it can be dangerous for leaders to show honor to subordinates. After all, honor, when recognized by others, is a powerful “lifter.” In most circles of society there is such stiff competition for face—such fierce battles for limited resources and titles—that leaders do not dare to support the successes of their close subordinates.

Yet leaders with moral strength consistently give honor to their associates. This extraordinary behavior demonstrates a commendable amount of trust in their associates, as well as a sense of security in their own treasures of social capital.

“The more his subordinates grow beyond where he is, the happier he is, because his foundation is goodness,” claims a religious leader.

Here are the words of a community leader who appears to have embraced this paradigm of power. “When we give honor to those worthy of honor, we don’t need to anticipate what we’ll receive in exchange,” he says. “Yet the truth is this. He who consistently gives honor to others is likely to receive honor in return. He who consistently tries to take honor away from others consistently loses honor.”

Leaders with moral strength accurately weigh the true merit of each person in their inner circle. They intentionally protect the “face-eyes” of close subordinates, showing more deference to their face than leaders in the other two paradigms. (Kindle Loc 1969-1984)

To join Larry Persons and others at the 2020 Honor-Shame Conference, click here.

For related resources concerning leadership in honor, shame, and collectivist cultures, check out the following:

Honor & Shame (Face)

honor and shame conference

Larry Persons

Leadership

Previous Post

January 15, 2020

Honor, Shame and Hospitality when Christ is King

Next Post

January 28, 2020 China’s “Biblical” Appeal to Shame Against the Coronavirus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atonement Biblical Theology Book Reviews China Chinese Church Chinese Culture Chinese Language Collectivism Contextualization Culture (General) Ecclesiology Evangelism Gospel Honor & Shame (Face) Interpretation/Exegesis Justification/Righteousness Missiology Mission Methods One Gospel for All Nations Other Practical Contextualization Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes Resources Romans Salvation (General) Saving God's Face Seeking God's Face The Cross in Context Theological Contextualization Theological Education Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I carried a letter from the king giving me authority and resources to rebuild Jerusalem. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nehemiah Ezra Zerubbabel Artaxerxes

Books by This Author Books by Brad Vaughn

See All Titles »