Abstract
Servant leadership is increasingly gaining interest inside and outside academia. This article builds and extends current theorizing by describing the process that introduces compassionate love as a practical translation for the need to serve, which was positioned by Greenleaf (Servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness, Paulist Press, New York, 1977) as the core of servant leadership. This article takes a virtues perspective and shows how servant leadership may encourage a more meaningful and optimal human functioning with a strong sense of community to current-day organizations. In essence, we propose that a leader’s propensity for compassionate love will encourage a virtuous attitude in terms of humility, gratitude, forgiveness and altruism. This virtuous attitude will give rise to servant leadership behavior in terms of empowerment, authenticity, stewardship and providing direction.
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van Dierendonck, D., Patterson, K. Compassionate Love as a Cornerstone of Servant Leadership: An Integration of Previous Theorizing and Research. J Bus Ethics 128, 119–131 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2085-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2085-z