Leadership Ethics as a Political Instrument – Normative Challenges of Global Chinese Expansion for Western Enterprise Cultures

Chinese enterprises with a global focus are emerging as strong competitors in the international market while simultaneously acquiring foreign companies or substantial stakes in them. Distinct leadership paradigms intersect during interactions or within change processes under Chinese influence, significantly impacting goals, strategies, and actions in leadership culture. Chinese businesses are exporting a leadership culture previously unknown in the West. Its ideal follows the large-scale cultural policy of Sinicization, promulgated by state and party leader Xi Jinping. As an ideal model of Sinicized leadership, it is rooted in Sino-Marxist values and infused with Confucian and market-oriented elements. This article deciphers the concept of Sinicized leadership for the first time as a leadership ethics paradigm, drawing predominantly on Chinese sources. It sets the stage for meaningful comparison with established alternative schools of thought. It addresses a significant desideratum in the field of leadership ethics and introduces a previously lacking systematic framework and conceptual term for Sinicized Leadership as its own approach. It also positions this approach within the context of geopolitical interests, allowing it to be understood as a strategic tool. Consequently, the interest in a values-based understanding of the model primarily lies in the field of foundational research in leadership ethics, which takes important geopolitical contexts into account.