China's manufacturers talk a lot about the "craftsman spirit": the patience, precision and pride that turn a worker into a master. Many still pass it on the old way, from a shifu, a master, to an apprentice. A new study asked which kind of master does this best.
Huanhuan Zhang and Fan Li surveyed 343 master-apprentice pairs in China's manufacturing sector, an industry that is changing fast. They looked at two sides of how masters lead: kindness, meaning real care for the apprentice, and authority, meaning control and a demand for obedience. Then they analyzed how different mixes of the two related to the apprentices' craftsman spirit.
Three findings stood out. When masters showed the same level of kindness and authority, it made little difference whether both were high or both were low. When the two were out of balance, kindness came out ahead: a caring master with a light hand went with more craftsman spirit than a strict master with little warmth. And loyalty was the link: apprentices who felt cared for were more loyal, and loyalty went with a stronger craftsman spirit. The data come from a survey, so they describe associations rather than proof of cause.
The authors recommend that companies choose and train masters for this kind of balanced leadership, and pair masters with apprentices on purpose, with attention to the personal side of the relationship.
A large meta-analysis of 152 studies in fourteen countries found a similar pattern: kindness went with better results, and strong control with weaker ones.
Sources
Zhang, H., & Li, F. (2026). Exploring the connection between authoritarian-benevolent leadership and craftsman spirit: The mediating role of loyalty. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, 1456088. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1456088
Hiller, N. J., Sin, H.-P., Ponnapalli, A. R., & Ozgen, S. (2019). Benevolence and authority as WEIRDly unfamiliar: A multi-language meta-analysis of paternalistic leadership behaviors from 152 studies. The Leadership Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.11.003