Andrew Ruble

In recent years, scholars have shown increased interest in contemporary applications of Han Feizi’s (韓非子) political theory. However, little is said in the English literature about the challenges his theory may face when confronted with current understandings of how a leader can best organize people and motivate them towards the goals of an organization or institution. Given the increased interest in his theory, the viability of his view warrants further investigation. The aim of this chapter is to articulate and then challenge Han Feizi’s belief that to motivate subordinates to do their job well, the ruler must only use their desire for rewards and fear of punishment. However, the chapter gives reason to believe that Han Feizi’s motivational framework would still benefit from incorporating ethical leadership. To demonstrate this, it introduces evidence from leadership studies on workplace motivation that shows a positive correlation between task performance and ethical leadership, as well as the relationship between task performance and intrinsic motivation. It concludes that any modern-day Han Feizian needs to adopt a current understanding of motivating subordinates in organizational contexts; otherwise, Han Feizi’s approach is effective for only certain types of occupations.

In recent years there has been an increase in scholarly discussion about the viability of Confucian political ideas in the contemporary world. Since the early 1990s, some researchers have proposed that there is an upper boundary to how many individuals a human being’s social network can contain. These limitations may threaten virtue-based political theories that rely on certain assumptions about the kinds and scope of human relationships. I argue that although Confucian views may initially seem vulnerable to this challenge, the Confucian sage-ruler need not worry about the limitations of one’s social network. I further argue that this problem can be overcome by using other contemporary empirical work on leadership influence, at least to some degree, while also potentially highlighting where the ultimate limits of the Confucian view might be. I aim to thereby also bring into focus organizational leadership literature that can enhance recent, empirically-informed discussions of Confucianism.