Servant leadership across cultures

• 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
• ISSN: 1090-9516; 1878-5573
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.009

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.