Production Team Leader: Expanded Analysis on Role Theory

This article applies the role of the production team leader as an analytical perspective to the study of the commune, using the role of the production team leader as a perspective to describe and explain the relationship between the production team leader and team members as “father and son” and the production team leader and commune cadres as “son and father.” It is believed that the People’s Commune system operated according to the hierarchical system and was subject to the unified management of the state; i.e., all levels of management personnel followed the administrative principle of subordinating to superiors, and farmers put on the hat of commune members and submitted to the unified management of production team cadres. The hierarchical operation of the commune determined the formation of top-down commands and obedience. Although state power expanded to all areas of rural society through the principle of “command and obedience” of the hierarchical system, the relationships between production team leaders, as grassroots cadres, and between team leaders and commune cadres were more like father–son relationships incorporated into the hierarchical system.