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Social Entrepreneurship and Charismatic Leadership: Master Cheng Yen and

Tzu Chi Foundation

Article  in  International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development · July 2018

DOI: 10.1504/IJIRD.2018.10013233

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 Social Entrepreneurship and Charismatic Leadership:
Master Cheng Yen and Tzu Chi Foundation

Ho-Don Yan*
Department of Economics, Feng Chia University
100 Wen Hwa Rd., Taichung, Taiwan
e-mail: hdyan@fcu.edu.tw
*Corresponding author

Chi-Yin Wu
Department of Economics, Feng Chia University
100 Wen Hwa Rd., Taichung, Taiwan
e-mail: chiyinwu@fcu.edu.tw

Ruey-Fa Lin
Department of Cooperative Economics and Social Entrepreneurship, Feng Chia University
100 Wen Hwa Rd., Taichung, Taiwan
e-mail: rflin@fcu.edu.tw

Abstract
Successful social enterprises are usually accompanied with charismatic leadership, which is
instrumental to stimulate followers to help accomplish social missions. Based on three key behavioral
components of charismatic leadership, namely envisioning, empathy, and empowerment, we propose
an analytical framework to demonstrate how a faith-based organization, Tzu Chi Foundation under the
leadership of Master Cheng Yen, develops effective motivational strategies to help mobilize an
enormous number of followers to fulfill the goals of social missions. In order to capture the interaction
between leaders and followers and its performance, we use qualitative study method by focusing on
important details. Due to the inaccessible interview with Master Cheng Yen, data are adopted from
articles, reports, and researches of Tzu Chi Foundation and its followers. Notwithstanding, we take
stock of an earned-income social enterprise, DA.AI Technology, which is created by some successful
entrepreneurs following Master Cheng Yen, as a case to provide a way to avoid the tensions of mission
conflicts. We finalize to discuss that even Tzu Chi Foundation could not escape from the trepidation of
succession issue and group thinking as over-relying upon charismatic leadership might incur.

Key Words: social entrepreneurship, charismatic leadership, social enterprise, Tzu Chi Foundation,
empathy, empowerment, innovation

0
1. Introduction
Social entrepreneurs have been extolled as heroic, change-making individuals or

groups of people as they endeavor to combat entrenched economic and social

problems that are left unfilled or poorly addressed (Dees, 2001; Bornstein, 2007;

Kickul and Lyons, 2016). Despite the growing interest in social entrepreneurship, the

definition of it, like the research on entrepreneurship, remains elusive either from the

boundary or typology (Martin and Osberg, 2007; Choi and Majumdar, 2014).

Differing from commercial entrepreneurship, which focuses upon profit maximization,

social entrepreneurship is usually associated with compassion, which elicits pro-social

motivation and fosters more flexible thought processes and greater commitment to

action without taking profit-making as its aims (Austin et al., 2006).

With the motto of “reaching first, then considering how to grasp,” social

entrepreneurs risk facing more uncertainty, thus making the sustainability of a social

enterprise more challenging (Henton et al., 1997). It is suggested that social

entrepreneurship should be put within the framework of the strategic management

model (such as the capability model) of an organization (Porter and Kramer, 2002;

Mort et al., 2003; Apostolakis, 2013). As a result, aside from focusing upon nonprofit

entities, social enterprises nowadays encompass the profit-making activities of

organizations in order to utilize the earned income for pursuing their social mission

(Robinson, 2006: 95; Lyons et al., 2010; Bruneel tl al., 2016). Social entrepreneurship

is usually associated with compassion, which could act as a pro-social and emotional

motivator (Dees, 1998; Fowler, 2000). 1 With the compassion involved in social

venture, it usually needs to mobilize and stimulate people. Therefore, a social

1
Compassion manifests emotional connection, linking an individual to a suffering community, and
can contribute to collective capabilities. The compassion-triggered processes increase the likelihood of
social entrepreneurship by enabling individuals to do something arduous and challenging (Miller et al.,
2012).
1
entrepreneur equipped with characteristics of charisma, a concept first introduced by

Weber (1948), or charismatic leadership, could help attract followers to upscale and

accomplish social missions (Leadbeater, 1996).

To understand how charisma helps enhance social entrepreneurship, this paper

takes a case of one Taiwanese faith-based social enterprise, Tzu Chi Foundation and

its founder Master Cheng Yen to illustrate how a social enterprise stimulates and

mobilizes followers to successfully upscale its missions. Since its establishment as a

tiny grassroots charitable group formed for women in 1966, the Buddhist Compassion

Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (henceforth Tzu Chi, means compassionate relief) has

grown to the largest faith-based volunteer relief organization in Asia, with growing

branches criss-crossing 50 countries. As the organization has grown, so its mission

has evolved. The four initial missions (charity, medicine, education, and culture) have

expanded to include international relief, bone marrow donation, and then added

environmental protection, and community volunteers, in response to social needs (see

the milestones of these eight footprints in Table 1). Since 2004, the mission also

includes a concerted effort to elicit donations of cadavers for medical training,

something that traditional Chinese funerary beliefs had previously impeded (Jones,

2009).

The well-known contributions of Tzu Chi have drawn much attention from

various media (Chen, 2010; Montlake, 2010; Time, 2011), although underrepresented

in academia (exceptions include Ting, 1997; Laliberté, 2003; Jones, 2009; Brummans

and Hwang, 2010; Yan, 2012a). The purpose of this paper is twofold. We firstly

propose a conceptual framework and by using it to demonstrate how Master Cheng

Yen inspires followers through her charisma. The second is to show the establishment

of an earned-income enterprise, DA.AI Technology, which provides a way to

2
perpetuate streams of funding for Tzu Chi missions, and proffers a unique paradigm

for the development of a social enterprise.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly reviews the

concepts of charismatic leadership and proposes an analytical framework, expounding

three core components of charismatic leadership - namely, envisioning, empathy, and

empowerment to discuss how followers can be motivated for social missions. We then

elaborate the methodology of qualitative analysis adopted in this paper. Section 3

demonstrates charismatic stimulations in the interaction between Master Cheng Yen

and her followers. We focus on investigating the strategies applied by Tzu Chi to

mobilize followers. Section 4 discusses the case of the newly established

earned-income and eco-friendly corporation, DA.AI Technology. Section 5 concludes

and poses the possible shortcomings resulting from charismatic leadership by

discussing recent controversial issues of Tzu Chi and its implications.

2. Entrepreneurship and Charismatic Leadership in Social

Enterprises
The expansion of Tzu Chi is associated with Taiwan’s political democratization

and economic modernization (Yan, 2012b). Unlike the Peoples’ Republic of China

under the rule of communism, which restricts the freedom of religion, Taiwan, under

the rule of Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai-Shek did not suppress people’s right to

religious freedom. However, the freedom of association, assembly, and expression,

were restrained under Martial Law, which was promulgated in 1949. It was until 1987

when Martial Law was dismantled that religious activities were liberated, particularly

Buddhism, which has been one of the three systems influencing Chinese culture.

3
Vibrant competition renders different religious groups to expand their activities freely.

It is important to note that even within Buddhism there is big division of ways in

practice. One of the reasons driving the success of Tzu Chi is its following with

Humanistic Buddhism, hoisted by Venerable Yinshun, which places an emphasis on

integrating Buddhist practices into everyday life, and shifting the focus of ritual from

the dead to the living.2

Within the extant studies of Tzu Chi, most arise from the perspectives of sociology,

using an ethnographical approach to study how Tzu Chi is organized, or showing how

Tzu Chi mobilizes volunteer groups to implement its charity and relief efforts (Huang,

2009; Chu and Wang, 2012). In his study of Taiwan’s Buddhism development history

of the last three centuries, Jones (1996) posited that unlike the other two big

Buddhism associations (Fo Kuang Shan and Fa Ku Shan) in Taiwan, Tzu Chi was

founded by a nun and is a female-based organization, which also provided a vastly

different niche for Tzu Chi in the modem world of Taiwan’s Buddhism. Chang (2006)

investigated the functioning operations of Tzu Chi from the perspective of the theories

of social capital and focused on investigating its organizational operation, network

development, social norm in community interaction, and participation in public affairs.

Huang (2009) ascribed Master Cheng Yen’s behavior as a typical example of

charismatic leadership, which contributes substantively while implementing social

missions.

2
Chinese culture is influenced by three systems of thought, namely Confucianism, Daoism, and
Buddhism. Apart from indigenous Confucianism and Daoism, the Buddhism influence, which was
introduced from foreign country (India), has been for 2000 years (Wright, 1957; Guang, 2013). The
importance of Buddhism in Chinese culture has experienced with ebbs and flows. To show the
relationship between Buddhism and Chinese culture, Wright (1957) divided into four phases, namely
preparation, domestication, acceptance and independent growth, and appropriation. Within Buddhism,
there are different schools. Taiwan, along with other East Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea, etc.)
belongs to the Mahayana branch. Regarding the contribution of Yinshun to Taiwan’s Buddhism
development, see Bingenheimer (2007).
4
 Like corporate, which needs to explore strategies to grow and to survive, social

mission, organizational form, and business model are three key strategic choices for

social entrepreneurship to shape their actions (Johnson et al., 2010; Apostolakis,

2013). Noting that rarely have the study of Tzu Chi focusing on the role of

entrepreneurship, Yan (2012a) investigated Tzu Chi from the perspective of

entrepreneurial processes, consisting of opportunity discovery, institution organization,

and resource mobilization, and analyzed the social entrepreneurship of Tzu Chi and

its competitive strategies under the leadership of Master Cheng Yen. 3 Although

Huang (2009) drew up the characteristics of charismatic magnetism to describe

Master Cheng Yen’s hysteria power to attract followers and motivate them to do good,

there still lacks a systematic framework to illustrate how the charismatic leadership

interacts with and stimulates Tzu Chi followers to accomplish the social missions.

Given that there has been a vast amount of literature discussing social

entrepreneurship (Mair and Marti, 2006; Martin and Osberg, 2007; Short et al., 2009;

Zahra et al., 2009; Choi and Majumdar, 2014), the following literature review will

focus on charismatic leadership and its core components in order to understand the

interaction between charismatic leader and followers, and how it brings about better

performance (Choi, 2006).

2.1 Socialized Charismatic Leadership

Weber (1948) pioneered the study of the behavior of charismatic leadership.4

3
Yan (2012a) attributed competitive advantages of Tzu Chi to three factors, namely charismatic
leadership, effective organizational management, and incessant support from the public.
4
Weber (1948) suggested three types of leaders: bureaucratic, charismatic, and traditional. Up to
date, the study of leadership has focused upon two types: transactional and transformational.
Transactional leaders provide stable, risk-averse leadership in exchange for a follower’s effort and
performance, while transformational leaders exhibit charisma, provide inspirational motivation and
5
Later scholars classified charismatic leadership in two different forms: personalized

or socialized (Howell, 1988; House and Howell, 1992; Howell and Shamir, 2005).

The former is exploitative, non-egalitarian, and self-aggrandizing, such as Adolf

Hitler, while the latter is defined as being non-exploitative and as motivating

followers to maximize the gains for the organization without regard for the leader’s

personal needs (Howell, 1988; Conger, 1989; Choi, 2006). To be able to stimulate

millions of followers from so many countries for so long, it must involve with the

elements of morality and ethics, which create legitimacy and in turn help provide

social value and access to resources (Ruebottom, 2013).

Socialized charismatic leadership emphasizes a two-way influence and social

exchange relationship between leaders and followers. Messick (2005) describes

leadership as a mutually beneficial relationship predicated on psychological exchange,

in which leaders ideally strive to provide their followers with: vision and direction,

protection and security, achievement and effectiveness, inclusion and belongingness,

and pride and self-respect. In return, followers ideally provide leaders with: focus

and self-direction, gratitude and loyalty, commitment and effort, cooperation and

sacrifice, and respect and obedience (Jackson and Parry, 2011: 63). Socialized

charismatic leaders show concern for others, therefore reflecting real altruism, and use

empowerment instead of control strategies to bring about changes in followers’ core

beliefs and values as they move the organization toward its goals (Conger and

Kanungo, 1998: 215).

intellectual stimulation for followers in the organization, and thus create a vision for the future that is
meaningful and challenging (Bass, 1990, 1998; Howell and Avolio, 1993). Traditional leadership is
typically embodied in feudalism or patrimonialism and less useful in modern times. Bureaucratic
leadership behaviors are similar to those of transactional leadership, while charismatic leadership
behaviors are similar to transformational leadership.
6
2.2 Core Components of Charismatic Leadership

To understand how a charismatic leader could exert influence on followers, we

draw upon the analytical framework of Choi (2006), who proposed three key

behavioral components of charismatic leaders in their interactions with followers:

envisioning, empathy, and empowerment. Through the interaction of these three

components with charismatic leaders, followers can fulfill needs for achievement,

needs for affiliation, and needs for power.

Envisioning: Social missions start with a vision. Envisioning creates an overall

picture of a desired future state through which people can identify and which can

generate excitement (Choi, 2006). Charismatic leaders formulate a vision that clarifies

idealized goals for an organization and articulates values attractive to their followers.

In order to promote the visions, communication skills or a rhetorical scheme are

essential (Ruebottom, 2013). By dint of effective communication, leaders can align

their actions with values articulated in their vision. Through the process of

communicating a vision, charismatic leaders can also express a strong confidence in

their followers’ ability to achieve such a vision. Unlike private enterprises, which are

usually profit-oriented, social enterprises are noted for their creation of public goods

to fulfill those unmet needs in the society. For a faith-based social enterprise, it

usually envisions universal love, or compassion, which is essential to determine

whether it can attract and engage followers.

Empathy: Empathy involves entering the other person’s perspectives and

indicates the ability to understand another person’s motives, values, and emotions

(Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Choi, 2006). Charismatic leaders have a strong tendency

to display sensitivity to their followers’ needs and emotions. They understand what

followers want and focus their attention on issues that are important to followers.

7
They also share followers’ feelings in a way that creates an emotional bond between

them. By doing so, they generate a feeling of oneness with followers. Individualized

consideration is deemed as an important characteristic of charismatic leaders, who

demonstrate that they pay individualized attention to followers, respond to their needs,

and encourage their personal development (Bass, 1985; Choi, 2006). A faith-based

organization, which embraces universal love, usually conceives of empathy. Therefore

the insiders will be more willing to grapple the social issues.

Empowerment: Empowerment is a process that leads to enhanced perceptions

of self-efficacy among followers for identifying conditions that foster a sense of

powerlessness and removing them through both formal organizational practices and

informal techniques (Conger and Kanungo, 1988; Choi, 2006). The purpose of

empowerment is to render followers to take an active, rather than a passive,

orientation to their work roles. With followers possessing the enhanced feelings of

self-efficacy resulting from the empowerment of charismatic leaders, they become

independent in the initiation and continuation of their work behavior and processes.

Whether a social enterprise can bring social impact depending upon if it can be

scaled-up. How to empower its followers turns to be critical. It is particularly

important for a faith-based social enterprise, since with the same value and belief it is

expedient for empowering the followers.

The three core components of charismatic leadership are particularly suitable for

the faith-based social enterprise inasmuch as their envisioning missions are tight-knit

with compassion, which is aptly to invoke empathy and to stimulate the needs of

empowerment. To link three core components of charismatic leadership with

followers’ three needs (achievement, affiliation, and power), we need to have

corresponding strategies to motivate followers in order to bring about the effective

8
outcomes for social missions. Choi (2006) proposed variant strategies that can

motivate followers to enable themselves to achieve social missions. For the needs of

achievement, charismatic leaders challenge followers’ capabilities, frame a vision

conducive to shaping positive self-perceptions, and prompt them to set specific and

challenging goals. As for stimulating followers’ need for affiliation, a charismatic

leader generates their trust in and identification with the leader, stimulates emotional

attachment with the leader, and emphasizes cooperative relationships among the

followers. The empowerment behavior of charismatic leaders is to stimulate followers’

need for power by enhancing the followers’ sense of self-efficacy and by promoting

observational learning of the leaders’ qualities.

2.3 Analytical Framework and Methodology

The evolution of a social enterprise is subject to complicated environments and

various contingencies. As a result, the study of the interaction between leaders and

followers and its performance should be qualitative-oriented by investigating why and

how and by focusing on important details (meticulous attention to details, relevant to

business practices, and access to multiple viewpoints) to help researchers to

characterize the complexities of strategy formulation. As Dana and Dana (2005)

argued, a qualitative research method is based on personal observation of situations,

events, individuals, interactions and transactions, as well as document analysis.

Qualitative data usually includes thick description and direct quotations from people

about their attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, intentions, actions and experiences. Master

Cheng Yen does not offer interview, therefore data of how Master Cheng Yen

interacts with followers adopted from this paper are mainly from related articles,

research papers, and reports of the Tzu Chi Foundation and interviews with its

9
followers. However, it bears noting that with only one case in study, there may be in

dearth of generalization (Harrigan, 1983).

The purpose of this paper is twofold. We firstly propose a conceptual framework

and by using it to demonstrate how Master Cheng Yen inspires followers through her

charisma. Following Choi (2006), we show that the corresponding interaction

between a charismatic leader and followers can be presented as the mutual

interdependence and is exhibited in the left-hand part (with a double-way arrow) of

Figure 1. In order to motivate followers to effectively achieve social missions, we

propose to bring satisfactory performance, group cohesion, and self-leadership by

adopting motivational strategies as shown in the right-hand part (with a one-way

arrow) of Figure 1. Based on this framework, we explain how Tzu Chi mobilizes

followers in section 3.

The second is to show the establishment of an earned-income enterprise, DA.AI

Technology, which was founded in 2008 under the auspice of five successful

entrepreneurs and determined to innovate eco-friendly products. With its 100% of

profits donating to Tzu Chi, the success of DA.AI Technology provides a way to

perpetuate streams of funding for Tzu Chi missions. The formation and operation of

DA.AI Technology provide a unique paradigm for the development of a social

enterprise. Section 4 is dedicated to this case.

3. Charismatic Leadership
Tzu Chi is known for its sweeping speed and efficiency when brings aid to victims

of natural disasters. Wherever calamities occur, Tzu Chi volunteers and experts arrive

promptly, dispensing food, medicine, blankets and warm clothing and in the long term,

10
rebuilding houses, clinics, and schools (Time, 2011). All these would not be possible

without Master Cheng Yen. Jones (2009) described that the charisma of Cheng Yen

manifests with her credibility and appeal resulting from her simple life and strict

self-disciplined life, and eloquent speaking of Taiwanese. Charismatic leaders gain the

admiration, confidence, and trust of their followers by communicating a strong sense

of vision and by their ability to transform this vision into specific missions and

strategies (Gardner and Avolio, 1998; Ruvio et al., 2010). Table 1 shows the initiation

of each mission and the milestones for each mission. Huang (2009) observed that

Master Cheng Yen is characterized with charisma, emanating from her frail body

combined with her calm voice. However, there still lacks of systematic analysis of

how exactly the interaction between followers and charismatic leader helps to create a

virtual cycle to accomplish its missions. Based on the conceptual framework

developed above, we analyze how Tzu Chi followers’ attitudes and behaviors are

influenced through variant motivational strategies and how Tzu Chi strengthens the

follower’s capabilities (as indicated in the right-hand part of Figure 1), which in turn

facilitate the accomplishment of social missions.

3.1 Envisioning strategies to motivate followers’ need for achievement

Vision guides entrepreneurs’ long journey to establishing new ventures (Ruvio et

al., 2010). The creation of a vision is the primary stage for charismatic leadership. In

order to attract followers, it is imperative to formulate a vision that clarifies idealized

goals and articulate values. As argued by Mintzberg and Waters (1982), a clear and

complete vision leads to entrepreneurial strategy-making. The visions of Master

Cheng Yen have been rooted since her inordinate under Venerable Yinshun of

Humanism Buddhism, which emphasize doing charity instead of only practicing

11
meditation and reading script. To promote created visions, a leader needs to have

effective communication, either through powerful oratory or effective media devices

(Ruvio et al., 2010).

Practice of compassion: The search for universal truth is the ultimate goal of all

religious faith. Buddhism pleads for universal salvation, although there are different

schools and approaches to reach this ultimate goal (Jones, 1996). Master Cheng Yen

teaches about Da Ai (meaning “great love” in Chinese), a love that embraces all forms

and shapes of existence and helps people in need without asking for anything in return

(Chou, 2012). When Tzu Chi began in 1966, it took as its first case an elderly woman

from mainland China who was unable to care for herself. In addition to assisting her

financially with medical costs, volunteers also went to visit her, clean her house, and

prepare food. The object was to give her total care and not just a one-time donation as

if she were a beggar (Jones, 1999: 206). Since its initiation, Tzu Chi’s missions focus

on giving material aid to the needy and inspiring love and humanity to both givers and

receivers. Humanism Buddhism emphasizes “practice instead of meditation only,” or

“you don’t do it, you don’t feel it,” and the emphasis on practicing helps pervade the

idea of Buddhism into the secular world (Soung, 2006). As taught in Jing Si (Still

Thoughts) Aphorisms, “The true Path is not reached by reading sutras or listening to

sermons……One must put what one has learnt into practice. Only through actual

practice can one understand the true Path.” (Master Cheng Yen, 1988) Under the

leadership of Master Cheng Yen and the principle of Tzu Chi’s simplicity and

frugality, the organization has won the trust and confidence from donors and

followers, helping to facilitate the implementation of “engaged Buddhism” and the

ability to mobilize vast social resources and to grow swiftly.

Effective communication: Effective communication is indispensible for the

12
successful leadership of a social entrepreneur (Leadbeater, 1996). Communication has

been deemed as a useful tool to shape social reality, validate an argument, and build

personal credibility (Ruebottom, 2013). Effective communication can help vindicate

the legitimacy of a vision, which comes from cultural alignment and is important in

proving social value and accessing resources. Ruebottom (2013) argued that

effectively promoting an inspirational vision needs to go through the communicative

tools of a powerful oratory and a rhetorical device (persuasive language, such as

metaphor and analogy). With physical frailty and a weeping voice carrying a crying

tune, Master Cheng Yen can be powerful and immediate enough to make followers

cry when first hearing her preach for a compassion mission (Huang, 2009). Being a

dedicated hard worker, Master Cheng Yen routinely communicates through the TV

channel of Da Ai every day and regularly tours various branches all over Taiwan to

meet followers. At the same time, through the Da Ai Channel, donors can see

volunteers give relief goods directly to victims and they appreciate what their money

has been used for - blankets for victims of fire, earthquakes, or floods. Donors can

monitor how their money is spent through commissioners’ reports and the Da Ai TV

station, radio, and print media. When told more about how their gifts are used, donors

are more generous (Economist, 2014). The use of mass media has galvanized the

capability of Tzu Chi to spread its message to its followers, to consolidate its

organizational capability, and to exert social influence.

Most religious associations have adopted visionary missions of compassion. Tzu

Chi provides an immediate way to achieve these missions by preaching “help the poor,

and educate the rich.” The teachings are simple, yet easily touch followers’ hearts.

Many followers have experienced transcending changes, as can be witnessed on the

increasingly popular Da Ai Channel. With the expansion of Tzu Chi into the

13
international arena, many foreigners have become followers as well. A senior editor of

Trouw, a national Dutch newspaper, Sybilla Claus said that “I am truly amazed at

Master Cheng Yen’s soft power. She does not need to raise her voice because

everyone automatically tunes in when she speaks. It’s so great to see a Buddhist nun

who can motivate thousands of volunteers to pitch in and help the needy lead a

happier life” (Liu, 2011).

3.2 Empathetic strategies to motivate followers’ group cohesiveness

An effective leader must essentially build trust and confidence among followers.

To win trust, one has to have empathy or put oneself into another person’s shoes.

When trust is built up between parties they are more eager to engage in cooperative

activity, through which further trust may be generated, asserted Fukuyama (1995).

Leadership cannot exist without trust. People will not follow a leader they do not trust,

and leaders will not get far if they do not trust people (Murnighan, 2012: 102). Trust

can be built in many ways, such as by working hard, maintaining a constant message,

and being available to solve followers’ problems. How the charismatic leadership of

Master Cheng Yen helped put her empathy into actions can be characterized by two

strategies: leading by example and creating collective identity.

Lead by example: Social enterprises with charismatic leaders can augment their

advantages, since they could reduce coordination costs within organizations. It is

often easier (less costly) for individuals to commit to a specific individual, the leader,

rather than an abstract set of complex rules governing an organization’s operations

(Langlois, 1998). Although Tzu Chi has collected a large amount of donations, all the

funds are used only for the four major missions and are separate from the financial

sources of donations used for the subsistent needs of the Still Thought Adobe. Master

Cheng Yen lives with 150 nuns, who strictly adopt a Spartan lifestyle that has not
14
changed - a 17-hour work day, sleeping no more than five hours at night, a strict

vegetarian diet, and no holidays (O’Neil, 2010: 187). Harris et al. (2009) observed

that a person with stronger self-regulatory characteristics is more morally aware,

resulting in an emphasis on personal integrity and interpersonal trust. Master Cheng

Yen has a considerate moral awareness, and as Rest (1986) argued that moral

awareness is an important feature of moral reasoning and moral decision making.

Creation of collective identity: Followers’ collective identity and group

cohesiveness directed toward their leader and co-workers are significantly affected by

their high need for affiliation (Choi, 2006). Tzu Chi emphasizes the distinction of the

behavior of Tzu Chi members. For instance, a Tzu Chi male is interestingly consistent

- no drinking, smoking, or other bad habits - and does not use profanity (Huang, 2009:

181). Tzu Chi women are tender and smiling. One devotee summarized it in Tzu Chi’s

terms: “They all wear Tzu Chi cream on their face - that is, contentment, gratitude,

consideration, and forgiveness” (Huang, 2009: 182). Apart from showing different

behaviors, Tzu Chi members also show a distinct identity by using unique logos and

symbols on their clothing and conduct activities in weeping and musical corporeality

(a sign language song) (Huang, 2009; Yan, 2012a). Women usually wear the

traditional dress of qipao and men wear suits for the more “formal” Tzu Chi events.

Active general members wear the gray jersey pants and blue polo shirts (Huang, 2009:

176). The well recognized uniform is like a logo of Tzu Chi and represents the Tzu

Chi collective identity.

Tzu Chi under the leadership of Master Cheng Yen illustrates that leading by

example and the creation of collective identity are effective strategies to solicit

followers to affiliate with the organization. Liu (2011) observed that what impresses

followers the most is that anyone at the Abode who does not work will not eat. The

15
nuns pray together only in the early morning, and then they work hard in the

vegetable garden, the candle workshop, etc. Different from some Buddhist monks and

nuns elsewhere who spend hours praying and meditating and then live on money

donated by the poor, Master Cheng Yen set a good example of self-discipline by

refusing to accept offerings and alms given by her followers. To better understand

empathy, the practice of helping the poor provides a useful way. Members of Tzu Chi

frequently find that engaging in relief work leads them to reflect on the quality of

their family relationships. With the promotion of empathy and through the practice of

relief work in helping the poor and those in need, Tzu Chi is able to create a cohesive

organization.

3.3 Empowering strategies to motivate followers’ self-leadership

The use of empowerment helps achieve two desirable objectives. First, followers

internalize the beliefs and values inherent in the vision formulated by the leader.

Second, when followers feel empowered, their self-efficacy beliefs will be enhanced;

as a result, they feel more competent to handle tasks required for the realization of the

vision (Choi, 2006). In order to empower people, aside from serving as a role model,

charismatic leaders can either structure goals so that followers can easily experience

initial success before tackling successive gradual increments in task complexity, or

use verbal persuasion and personal recognition to help followers gain confidence in

their abilities, mobilize a greater sustained effort, and confirm their self-worth

(Conger, 1989). Strategic measures taken by Tzu Chi to empower followers are

chiefly manifested in the interaction between the leader and followers and the creation

of a learning organization.

Interaction between the leader and followers: Tzu Chi adopts a dual

16
interaction to fortify the internal relationship between its leader and followers. One is

the centrifugal flow, which is about Master Cheng Yen’s monthly tour, and the other is

centripetal flow, which refers to the followers’ “homecoming.” For the former, Master

Cheng Yen regularly tours around the island twice a month, while for the latter, there

are buses and Tzu Chi trains frequently going back to Tzu Chi headquarters in

Hualien (Huang, 2009). With its criss-crossing world-wide branches, Tzu Chi also

provides a learning scheme for a foreign branch, which can interact with the

headquarters in much the way like the anthropological concepts of deterritorialization

and reterritorialization. The former analyzes how Taiwanese diaspora to foreign

countries (such as Malaysia) adapted to local cultural and institutional environments

after leaving their motherland, while the latter describes how those diaspora

reconnected with their motherland through Tzu Chi to come back to Taiwan (Huang,

2009). These double links of interactions are useful for strengthening organizational

identification. Since 1998 when the Da Ai television channel was established, the

creed and events of Tzu Chi have been spread widely and expediently to every corner

of the world. A daily 15-minute address, Ren Jian Pu Ti (Practicing Buddhism), which

Da Ai broadcasts five times during the day and is required viewing for Master Cheng

Yen’s disciples, is the main link between her and her followers around the world

(O’Neil, 2010: 187).

Creation of a learning organization: Any social mission must have effective

internal networks to socialize new members and to train and educate people in the

philosophy of the mission (Clarke, 2009). One of the effective ways of learning is

through group learning. The actual core of Tzu Chi consists of six different-oriented

groups: commissioners, (male) Compassion Faith Corps members, honorary trustees,

and members of Tzu Chi’s friends’ club, teachers’ club, and college youth corps

17
(Huang, 2009: 65). Two important core sub-groups, Commissioners and Compassion

Faith Corps, have their outstanding role in executing the missions, and a continuing

learning process is embedded in the process of becoming a commissioner or member

of the Faith Corps. To be a commissioner, one needs go through a lengthy process,

such as a probation period of learning, attending classes and orientation, and most

importantly proselytization (Huang, 2009: 68).5 Until the late 1980s, Tzu Chi was

largely a woman’s group. In light of the rapidly increasing number of male

participants who did not pursue the commissioner track, Master Cheng Yen created

the Male Compassion Faith Corps. To become a certified Compassion Faith Corps

member, one has to go through a strict training process and most importantly must

abide by the Compassion Faith Corps’ 10 precepts (Huang, 2009: 72-77).6 Through

their well-connected network and regular meetings, Tzu Chi members can effectively

and expeditiously organize for any emergency calls. Supervised by veteran

commissioners, followers learn to accomplish missions through practical operations.

Apart from those formally involved as commissioners and members, in their

interviews with Tzu Chi volunteers, Chu and Wang (2012) also observed that Tzu Chi

trains and builds its organizational culture through community activities, book clubs,

morning meditation, fundraising, monthly activity, and education and training

programs. These regular activities induce closer cooperation among Tzu Chi

volunteers as well.

Through interactions between the leader and followers and with an organization

5
The mission of commissioners is to: (1) proselytize contributions, exemplifying the spirit of
compassionate contribution and the spirit of relieving suffering while bestowing joyfulness, in order to
educate the well-to-do; (2) investigate and follow-up on low-income households; (3) care for disaster
victims and patients, and (4) participate in local branch activities and commissioners’ club and attend
small group meetings.
6
The ten precepts include no smoking, drugs, or betel (or areca) nuts; no gambling or opportunistic
investments; must show filial piety, be soft-spoken, and have a gentle expression; must abide by traffic
regulations; must not participate in political activities, protests, or demonstrations.
18
that stresses learning-by-doing, followers of Tzu Chi are able to cultivate their own

self-worth and to be self-leaders. Significant changes in the attitude of Tzu Chi

members have been enormously documented. A good example is that Master Cheng

Yen promulgated ten precepts to discipline Tzu Chi men in order to steer them away

from the common bad habits of Taiwanese, such as indulging in smoking, chewing

betel nuts, etc. The ten precepts have been assimilated into Tzu Chi volunteers and set

up as examples for society. Through the constant interaction between Master Cheng

Yen and followers and the learning-by-doing mechanism embedded in the Buddhism

practice, Tzu Chi members can take the initiative to assist people. Every volunteer has

the ability to mobilize and motivate others and do not need to wait for headquarters’

orders, giving Tzu Chi the unprecedented ability to move swiftly (Chu and Wang,

2012).

4. DA-AI Technology Co. Ltd. - An Earned-income Social Enterprise

Although social enterprises are non- profitmaking organizations, how to create a

perpetual source of financial stream is important for their sustainability. Variant types

of social enterprise organization have been developed, as exemplified by Schwab

Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (2016) with three models: the leveraged

not-for-profit, and the hybrid not-for-profit, the hybrid for-profit.7 Social missions are

an enduring work and to ensure the sustainability of their initiative, financial

self-sufficiency is rather important for social enterprises (Mair and Marti, 2006).

Increasingly being noticed recently is the hybrid models, such as for-profits with

7
Leveraged not-for-profit organization involves a cross-section of society, including public and private
organizations, and it depends upon entirely on outside funding for its survival; the hybrid not-for-profit
includes some degree of cost recovery through the sale of goods or services to a number of
participating institutions; and the hybrid for-profit organization is not to maximize financial returns for
shareholders through profit generating (Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship).
19
non-profit subsidiaries, or nonprofits with for-profit subsidiaries (Kickul and Lyons,

2016). However, social enterprises, by adopting commercial activity to generate

revenue could result in mission conflict, or mission drift (Jones, 2007; Carroll and

Stater, 2009; Bruneel et al., 2016). How to manage the tensions arise from the

attempts to maximize both financial and social performance has posed a challenging

task (Zahra et al., 2009; Battilana and Dorado, 2010; Gidron, 2017).

Tzu Chi has collected the majority of Taiwan’s charity donations, with its

ever-expanding missions, but the needs for funds are always a great concern.

Suggestions that Tzu Chi could start earned income ventures have been in the air for

years. Considering that the pursuit of earned income opportunities by

non-profitmaking organizations could cause conflicts with social missions (Smith et

al., 2010), it was not until 2008 that Master Cheng Yen sanctioned the establishment

of a for-profit social enterprise, DA.AI Technology Co. Ltd.8

DA.AI Technology, founded purposefully to be an innovation-driven and

eco-friendly corporation, is one of the world’s first earned-income social enterprises

to donate 100% of its net proceeds to charity. The inchoation of DA.AI Technology

can be dated back to the inspiration from Master Cheng Yen’s teaching of “use the

applauding hands to do environmental protection work” in August 1990 when she was

invited to Taichung, central part of Taiwan, for a speech. Due to the trash that she saw

all over the place, she sentimentally encouraged the audience to turn their applauding

hands to do environmental protection work. Tzu Chi has been conducting its

Environmental Protection Mission ever since. For instance, the success of establishing

over 5,400 Tzu Chi recycling stations in Taiwan and mobilizing over 80,000 Tzu Chi

8
Smith et al. (2010) argued that non-profit social enterprises seeking earned income practices have the
potential to bring three tensions: organizational identity tensions, institutional form tensions, and
risk-related tensions.
20
recycling volunteers has been deemed as phenomenal (Su, 2011).

In 2003, Tzu Chi International Humanitarian Aid Association (TIHAA) was

formed in order to encourage a group of volunteers to research and develop products

related to food, clothing, housing, transportation, information, and communication

that can be used in international relief missions (see Table 1). In 2008, hoisting with

the concept of “Coexist with the Earth”, five TIHAA volunteer entrepreneurs set up

DA.AI Technology Co. Ltd. to develop technology used to produce all kinds of

clothes, blankets, and daily-use textile from the recycled plastic bottles collected by

Tzu Chi volunteers.

Two distinct features are worth noting of DA.AI Technology as a model for an

income-earned social enterprise. One is that its founders are composed of successful

entrepreneurs, and the other is that it is an innovation-driven and eco-friendly

enterprise. Those entrepreneurs are followers of Master Cheng Yen and the inspiration

for eco-friendly enterprise is stimulated by the sermon of Master Cheng Yen’s

environmental protection. To wit, the formation of DA.AI Technology manifests

practically the followers’ fulfillment of three needs (affiliation, achievement, and

power) in their interaction with the charismatic leader.

4.1 Founded by successful entrepreneurs

With many successful entrepreneurs serving as honorary trustees in Tzu Chi, it

helps generate a network of shared entrepreneurship. For example, prominent

entrepreneurs in civil engineering or the construction industry have formed a

construction committee to regularly help Master Cheng Yen supervise construction

projects for Tzu Chi’s establishments (Huang, 2009: 79). One example is Wei

Yin-Chun, an early disciple of Tzu Chi and one of the four founding brothers of Ting

21
Hsin Group (Master Kong, which is the largest beverage and instant noodle brand in

mainland China).9 Wei, deeply touched by stories in a Tzu Chi publication, started to

make a donation in 1988. In 1995 he started working with Tzu Chi in China, doling

out relief and building schools in remote villages. When disaster strikes, he puts aside

work at the family business to focus on relief efforts, as he did for Haiti earthquake of

2010 while on business in China (Chen, 2010).

DA.AI Technology became Taiwan’s first earned-income company dedicated to

producing eco-friendly products. It was established by five entrepreneurs, coming

from different industry backgrounds, represent five necessity industries respectively

- Wei Yin-Chun (Master Kong – food industry)10, Walter Huang (Texma - ladies

fashion manufacturer – clothing industry), Kao Min-Sun (Min An Building Material

Co. Ltd. – construction industry), James Lee (Shipair – transportation industry), and

Lin Ka-Ho (one of the founders of Acer – information industry). With 100% of DA.AI

Technology’s stock ownership donated to Tzu Chi, it makes DA.AI Technology a

unique, socially responsible business. Initiating with the capitalization of NT$75

million, by 2014 it has jumped to NT$126 million. In 2014, with total revenue

reaching NT$340 million, DA.AI Technology’s net proceeds from the sale of

eco-friendly products and its investments are all donated to Tzu Chi (DA.AI

Technology, 2015). In 2015, due to its innovative products, TA.AI Technology has

continuously won the Taiwan Excellence Awards for the fourth year.

9
Master Kang, a brand name of the beverage and food corporation, is the flagship brand of Ting Hsin
International Group. Master Kang, founded in Taiwan in 1958, is currently the leading brand in
mainland China.
10
In 2013, Wei Ying-chun was engulfed into the tainted cooking oil scandal. Wei was found guilty of
fraud, faking product labels and breaches of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation. The tacit
response from Tzu Chi to Wei’s crime instigated the criticism from the public.

22
4.2 Focusing on eco-friendly products

Adhering to Master Cheng Yen’s concept of “Coexist with the Earth”, DA.AI

Technology uses recycled PET bottles as raw material to manufacture recycled

eco-products, activates a new life cycle for the PET bottles, and reduces the

consumption of natural resources. By dint of developing recycled textile raw materials,

such as recycled poly chips, recycled polyester fibers, and recycled fabrics, DA.AI

Technology uses them to produce eco-products such as clothing, beddings, and other

everyday textile products. 11 DA.AI’s production process has received a “Global

Recycling Standard” (“GRS”) certification from the Netherland’s Peterson Control

Union.12

One eco-friendly fleece blanket made by DA.AI Technology, Gray Eco Blanket,

plays an important role in Tzu Chi’s international relief efforts. Made with 100%

recycled polyester, this blanket has received both the Water Footprint and Carbon

Footprint Certifications from the TÜV Rheinland Group - the world’s first textile

product to receive the highly exulted Water Footprint Certification. By developing a

sustainable closed-loop process to advance industry recycling processing, scraps from

DA.AI Technology are easier to recycle, achieving the goal of “Cradle to Cradle.” In

addition to PET bottles, DA.AI Technology also promotes the widespread recycling

of six other types of materials: other plastic, paper, household appliances, and 3C

products. With relentless research efforts, DA.AI’s mobile application is one of the

11
DA.AI Technology works with 5,600 Tzu Chi recycling stations in Taiwan. Each year, nearly 2,000
tons of post-consumer PET bottles are collected and recycled by over 200,000 recycling promoters
(regarded as Bodhisattvas). As of today, over 499,127,472 PET bottles have been recycled and
regenerated. See the website of DA.AI at http://www.daait.com/index.php/en/abouten (accessed on July
21, 2016)
12
In order to gain GRS process certification, all stages of production, from obtaining raw materials to
the manufacturing and trading of the products, have to be in compliance with the GRS standard.
23
2016 Red Dot Communication Award winners among participants from 46 nations.13

A virtuous circle is formed as DA.AI uses PET bottles collected and sorted by

recycling volunteers to generate eco-friendly products to be sold to the consumers.

Since May 2016, DA-AI Technology was certified to be the members in the B Corp

(Benefit Corporation) community in Taiwan.14

With the influence of Master Cheng Yen, many entrepreneurs from commercial

sectors join the Tzu Chi Movement and by reorienting the missions toward social

value creation, seasoned entrepreneurs could contribute its business acumen and

managerial skills to make the most value creation for the society. It is worth noting

that not all religions provide opportunities for entrepreneurship, some may hamper

entrepreneurial spirits, yet religions have built-in mechanisms for the perpetuation of

values (Dana, 2009). The living style of Master Cheng Yen is consonant with the

values of asceticism, frugality, and thrift, which Weber (1930) suggested to encourage

successful entrepreneurship. As noted in Dana (2009), apart from co-religionist

networks that provide credit and preferential treatment for employees, they also

provide information networks and supply networks. Co-religionists shared the same

language, holiday, believe systems, dietary restrictions; all this in turns reinforced the

networks. Apparently, the faith-based social enterprises provide opportunity for

entrepreneurship. The case of DA.AI Technology not only demonstrates the

fulfilments of the followers’ three needs from the interaction with the charismatic

leader but also indicates that charismatic leadership could stimulate its followers with

13
DA.AI applied with its newly developed Heart Purifying Mobile Application under APPs category,
Recycle to Recycle (R2R) under corporate social responsibility (CSR), Eco Concept Store under retail
space, Corporate Film under corporate identity, as well as two side projects. See the website at:
http://www.daait.com/index.php/en/mediaen/daai-news/10160-daai-winner-of-the-2016-red-dot-comm
unication-design-award. (accessed on September 15, 2016)
14
B Corp is a type of for-profit corporate entity, which brings positive impact on society, workers, the
community and the environment in addition to profit as its legally defined goals
(https://www.bcorporation.net/community/daai-technology).
24
entrepreneurial acumen to enhance the advance for the social enterprises and create

profits to accomplish social missions.

5. Concluding Remarks and Discussions

The scaling up and spreading of social missions are critical for social

entrepreneurship. Accordingly, it is imperative to stimulate followers. Charismatic

leadership, with its three key behavioral components (envisioning, empathy, and

empowerment), furnishes important elements to enhance the capability of social

entrepreneurs. The analytical framework proposed in this paper links these three core

components of charismatic leadership with followers’ three needs (achievement,

affiliation, and power). Taking Tzu Chi as the case study, we demonstrate how to

strategically motivate its followers to practice compassion, provide effective

communication, lead by example, form a collective identity, interact with its leader

and other followers, and create a learning organization. Motivational effects show that

Tzu Chi followers trust leaders, empower themselves to create self-efficacy, and

cultivate self-leadership, all of which help accomplish the foundation’s social

missions. Notwithstanding, it was under the influence of Master Cheng Yen, many

entrepreneurs from commercial enterprises dedicate their experiences to promote the

social missions, as the case of DA.AI Technology demonstrates.

There are two implications from the case study of Tzu Chi under the leadership

of Master Cheng Yen for the development of social enterprises. First, a charismatic

leader like Master Cheng Yen, with strong self-regulative characteristics of moral

awareness, is instrumental for gaining the legitimacy of a development in social

enterprise. Leading as a role model sets an example for followers, and the bond of

25
trust and confidence with and among followers can be duly established. Although

motivational strategies are contextually dependent, fundamental strategies, such as

effective communication and the creation of a learning organization, are essential to

enable and empower followers to upscale social missions. Under the charismatic

leadership of Cheng Yen, Tzu Chi attracts people by achieving results and building a

community what people want to join. By building a strong social capital, a network of

relationship yields benefits to those who are part of the network. These networks lead

to other forms of essential capital (financial, human, and political) that allow

organization to increase its impact and influences even more, beginning a continuing

cycle of impact and growth (Sagawa and Jospin, 2008: 4-5).

Second, Tzu Chi builds a platform that unleashes human potential and provides

opportunity to contribute their talents to the world. The followers of successful

corporate entrepreneurs can be resourceful for tapping the pool of corporate operating

knowledge, managerial skills, and innovative capabilities for facilitating social

missions. The establishment of DA.AI Technology provides one of the promising

paradigms for the development of a social enterprise. The possible conflicting

institutional logics of pursuing simultaneously social and financial aims can be

avoided. By transferring the whole stock ownership to Tzu Chi, donating 100% of the

profit to Tzu Chi, and emphasizing eco-friendly innovation, DA.AI Technology has

simultaneously met the three bottom lines of a social enterprise: economic, social,

and ecological.

Case studies of social entrepreneurship focus inadvertently on the heroic deed of

the founder. A qualitative researcher must not be contented by a sole explanation;

several explanations must be provided, as argued by Dana and Dumez (2015).

Although Tzu Chi accomplishes well under the leadership of Master Cheng Yen, the

26
recent incidences of inappropriate land-utilization, lack of transparency in financial

disclosure, and the scandals from its prominent honourable members (such as Wei

Yin-Chun), stir many criticisms in the society. From what Tzu Chi has been

implicated, there are two issues worth discussing for social enterprises relying upon

charismatic leaders. First, with the growing of the organization, how to discipline all

the members becomes a big challenge. Master Cheng Yen dedicates her life to preach

“great love,” and the daily meticulous works are delegated to a top management team.

In 2015, the burst of an inappropriately land-using scandal implicated Tzu Chi

Foundation of using “doing goods” as an excuse to avoid mundane legal regulation on

the unrighteous land development project in one of Taipei’s nature reserve (Kung,

2015).15 The controversy stoked heated public debate and since then Tzu Chi has

faced widespread public criticism, and igniting more accusations, such as its financial

activities that may violate regulations, cult-like worship, organizational structure with

caste system of promoting up rand by donating certain amount of money, and

claiming Tzu Chi’s portfolio includes foreign stocks, along with notorious companies

such as Monsanto (Lo, 2015). While at the heat of social criticism, Master Cheng Yen

immediately held an advisory meeting by inviting external members of prominent

community leaders, such as Stan Shih (Yo, 2015).16 Master Cheng Yen’s ethereal

quality has made her the spiritual leader of Tzu Chi and has long won the public trust.

Although the criticisms has tapered off, it taught a lesson that even a successful

15
In 1997, Tzu Chi purchased a land in Taipei’s Neihu reserve and planned to change the property
name to social benefit property to accommodate recycling factory. However, due to the fear the
construction may affect water drainage that create potential hazard, Tzu Chi faced strong opposition
from environmental groups.
16
On April 12, 2015, Master Cheng Yen summoned seven prominent community leaders, one of them
is Stan Shih, crowned “God father of Taiwan’s PC industry”, to form the Reform Advisory Committee
of Tzu Chi to start the change management. By inviting outside members to serve in the board of
directors, Tzu Chi attempts to follow a transparent approach in organizational management and
financial statement disclosure.
27
organization like Tzu Chi, could not avoid falling prey to complacency and group

thinking in its management team.

Second, charismatic leaders are able to induce the emotions in others and their

empathy to the follows adds to their attractiveness. In essence the relationship

between followers and the leaders are personal; when the charismatic leader passes

away, the relationship might end as well (Sagawa and Jospin, 2008: 5). It is important

that Tzu Chi needs to transform its individual-cult to organization-centric charisma.

As Master Cheng Yen gets older, the trepidation of bracing for the successor to the

leadership of Tzu Chi has accelerated. Social enterprises usually are unable to last

long if they do not have an orderly way of ensuring succession management.

Although the charisma of Master Cheng Yen contributes enormous positive influence

for promoting Tzu Chi missions, overwhelmingly depending upon one person can

result in the foundation’s own cause of failure. This dilemma will not disappear for a

charisma-centric social enterprise.

28
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 Table 1: Milestones of Tzu Chi’s Missions and Footprints
Mission/Footprint Major Events

1. Mission of Charity Tzu Chi started with charitable work in Hualien in the late 1960s. In 2003, Tzu Chi became the first NGO charity
group in Taiwan associated with the United Nations Department of Information. In 2008, Tzu Chi was allowed to
be the first foreign NGO permitted in China. Up to 2015, Tzu Chi has provided long-term assistance to a total of
49,451 households and handled a total of 252,005 cases of short-term crisis aid in Taiwan. Tzu Chi’s charitable
missions have been carried out in over 48 countries across the continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, North America,
South America, and Australia.
2. Mission of The Tzu Chi Free Clinic was launched in Hualien in 1972. In 1986, the first Tzu Chi General Hospital opened. In
Medicine 1996, Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) was formed. In 2000, Tzu Chi Hospital received ISO
certification. In 2008, TIMA provided medical service across 15 countries/regions with more than 10,000 TIMA
members in 58 district offices. In 2015, TIMA provided medical professionals to more than 147,118 people
worldwide. Tzu Chi has built a total of six hospitals in Taiwan and established a comprehensive medical network.
3. Mission of In 1989, the Tzu Chi Nursing College was established, and in 1992 the Tzu Chi Teachers Association and Tzu
Chi Collegiate Association were established. In 1996, Tzu Chi University implemented the Silent Mentor
Education program to provide medical education with humanistic appreciation. Tzu Chi accomplished a complete education
system from kindergarten to graduate studies in 2000. In 2012 the Silent Mentor program was launched in
Malaysia, collaborating with University of Malaya. Tzu Chi’s mission of education has extended overseas and
schools have been set up in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the United States.
4. Mission of Culture In 1967, Tzu Chi published the first issue of Tzu Chi Monthly magazine to advocate Buddhism culture. A radio
show, “The Tzu Chi World,” was first broadcast in 1985 and in 1986 the Tzu Chi Cultural Center was opened in
Taipei and its biweekly magazine (Tzu Chi Companion) was published to report charitable works. In 1990, the
Tzu Chi Cultural Publishing company was established. In 1998, Tzu Chi launched its own cable television
station, DA-AI TV. In 2005, the Tzu Chi Humanitarian Center opened in Taipei and has been in charge of Da Ai
TV, Da Ai Radio, Chinese and foreign language publications, Rhythms Monthly, and Jing Si Publications.
5. International Relief In 1991, Tzu Chi started on its international relief efforts by providing assistance to flood victims of Bangladesh.
In 2003, Tzu Chi International Humanitarian Aid Association (TIHAA) was established to provide systematical
support and to research on disaster relief aid. TIHAA continued transporting logistic supply in disaster areas in
the 2004 South Asia tsunami, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2012 Japan tsunami, 2015
Nepal earthquake, etc. Tzu Chi has conducted disaster relief in over 68 countries.
6. Bone Marrow In 1993, the Tzu Chi Marrow Donor Registry was established. In 2002, the Tzu Chi Bone Marrow Stem Cell
Center opened up and accomplished its milestone of 1000 patients in Taiwan in 2012. In 2010, the center was
Donation accredited by the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA). Up to 2015, the center has helped patients in 28
countries receive bone marrow or stem cell transplants, with 402,876 potential donors registered in Tzu Chi’s
registry.
7. Environmental In 1990, Master Cheng Yen encouraged people to sort out recyclables with the hands they were applauding her
with during a public speech. In 2008, DA.AI Technology was established to continue Tzu Chi’s environmental
Protection protection efforts. Up to 2015, there have been over 86,594 Tzu Chi recycling volunteers and over 8,626 Tzu Chi
recycling stations in Taiwan and the recycling mission has been extended to other 14 countries. From 1995 to
2015, Tzu Chi has recycled an amount of paper equal to 25,482,299 twenty-year old trees (1,274,114,874 kg; one
twenty-year old tree = 50kg).
8. Community In 1966, the group of Tzu Chi Commissioners was formed with fewer than 10 members. In 1992, the Male
Compassion Faith Corps was formally established with about 834 males. In 1997, Master Cheng Yen regrouped
Volunteerism the commissioners and Compassion Faith Corps members based on geographical locations and communities. In
2015, the total number of commissioners had grown to 59,030 (49,783 in Taiwan). The total number of the
Compassion Faith Corps had reached 31,833 (28,339 in Taiwan). The community volunteering work has been
divided into several categories and provides assistance and support to local communities and overseas.
Note: Starting with 4 missions, Tzu Chi has expanded into four more functions within social change-making, for a total of the so-called eight
footprints. For detailed evolutions of the Eight Footprints, see Huang (2009), O’Neill (2010), Tzu Chi Culture and Communication
Foundation (2010), and Tzu Chi Almanac (2016).

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Figure 1: The Motivational Strategies of Charismatic Leadership from Tzu Chi

Needs of Followers Charismatic Leadership Motivational Strategies Motivational Effects

Achievement Envisioning Practice of compassion Task performance
Effective communication Job satisfaction

Affiliation Empathy Lead by example Trust in leader

Creation of collective identity Group cohesion

Power Empowerment Interaction between leader and followers Self-efficacy

Creation of a learning organization Self-leadership

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