Servant leadership across cultures

Servant leadership is anchored in the human drive to bond with others and contribute to the betterment of the society. An emphasis on service motivation, as demonstrated by empowering and developing people with empathy and humility, differentiates servant leadership from other leadership frameworks....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of world business : JWB 2012-10, Vol.47 (4), p.555-570
Main Authors: Mittal, Rakesh, Dorfman, Peter W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asia
Cross cultural studies
Cross-cultural analysis
Cross-culture
Cultural differences
Cultural values
Culture clusters
Egalitarianism
Empathy
Employee empowerment
Empowerment
Endorsements
Equality
Europe
GLOBE
Leadership
Management styles
Morality
Organizational behaviour
Personnel management
Servant leadership
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Summary:Servant leadership is anchored in the human drive to bond with others and contribute to the betterment of the society. An emphasis on service motivation, as demonstrated by empowering and developing people with empathy and humility, differentiates servant leadership from other leadership frameworks. In this study, we analyzed the degree to which five aspects of servant leadership, Egalitarianism, Moral Integrity, Empowering, Empathy and Humility were endorsed as important for effective leadership across cultures. While each of these dimensions was found to be associated with effective leadership, there was considerable variation in degree of endorsement of components of servant leadership across different GLOBE culture clusters. The dimensions of Egalitarianism and Empowering were endorsed more strongly in Nordic/European cultures but less so in Asian and similar cultures. On the other hand, servant leadership dimensions of Empathy and Humility were more strongly endorsed in Asian cultures than European cultures. Further, significant relationships were found between several societal cultural values and aspects of servant leadership which help us understand why nations differ in endorsing this leadership construct.
ISSN:1090-9516
1878-5573
DOI:10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.009