Servant Leadership in Diverse Contexts Principles of servant leadership are evident in most cultures and religions: this paper will discuss similarities and differences in Latin American culture and separately, in the Hindu religious perspective. Latin America is one culture with varied similarities to servant leadership, but an aversion to the term servant leadership as Irving (2010), states. There is a cultural blurring as to the differences between the words slave and servant. Hinduism shares a vast comparability with servant leadership, as one of the major figures in Hinduism, Mahatma Ghandi was quoted as having said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. There are many cultural themes present
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Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with major holy sites being in India. Servant leadership is evident throughout all aspects of Hinduism researched. According to Ertel (2017), Hindu scripture emphasizes selfless acts by promoting service for the welfare of the world and deems that those who ignore the needs of others and instead indulge in pleasure for oneself have wasted their life. This religious perspective of service over self is epitomized in servant leadership and successfully creates an environment where subordinates feel valued and that they are part of the team. Ertel (2017), speaks of Hindu leadership writings advising leaders to ‘step out of their ivory towers’ and adopt an open-door policy, along with building a caring, happy, well trained employee group with high morale. These are highly sought after traits in a servant leadership model as …show more content…
After attending law school in England in 1888, he returned to India and led the Indians to non-violently force the British to declare India’s independence. Ghandi lived by many servant leader characteristics. Barnabus & Clifford (2012), listed Ghandi leadership qualities in relation to the servant leadership behavior scale model and they are as follows: voluntary subordination (voluntarily giving one’s self to service to others), being a servant, acts of service, authentic self, humility, integrity, accountability, collaboration, equality, availability, sense of mission, and empowerment. All of these traits make Mahatma Ghandi, a role model for servant
Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with major holy sites being in India. Servant leadership is evident throughout all aspects of Hinduism researched. According to Ertel (2017), Hindu scripture emphasizes selfless acts by promoting service for the welfare of the world and deems that those who ignore the needs of others and instead indulge in pleasure for oneself have wasted their life. This religious perspective of service over self is epitomized in servant leadership and successfully creates an environment where subordinates feel valued and that they are part of the team. Ertel (2017), speaks of Hindu leadership writings advising leaders to ‘step out of their ivory towers’ and adopt an open-door policy, along with building a caring, happy, well trained employee group with high morale. These are highly sought after traits in a servant leadership model as …show more content…
After attending law school in England in 1888, he returned to India and led the Indians to non-violently force the British to declare India’s independence. Ghandi lived by many servant leader characteristics. Barnabus & Clifford (2012), listed Ghandi leadership qualities in relation to the servant leadership behavior scale model and they are as follows: voluntary subordination (voluntarily giving one’s self to service to others), being a servant, acts of service, authentic self, humility, integrity, accountability, collaboration, equality, availability, sense of mission, and empowerment. All of these traits make Mahatma Ghandi, a role model for servant