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In the Service of the Planet

Investigation into Servant Leadership for Sustainability

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The Palgrave Handbook of Servant Leadership

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Abstract

While the global earth system faces severe sustainability challenges such as climate crisis and biodiversity loss, new leadership paradigms are in need. Notwithstanding, environmental and sustainable leadership are gaining prominence. This chapter focuses on servant leadership. For one, the use of servant leadership is reviewed accompanied with the notion of sustainability. For another, the chapter offers empirical insights into the practice and relevance of servant leadership based on three cases. In the case organizations, top executives working for organizations with strong sustainability strategies in Finland are studied. The chapter contributes to a theoretical and empirical appreciation of the relevance of servant leadership in service of the planet.

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Acknowledgment

The authors appreciate the “From Innovation to Business Ecosystems (CICAT2025)” project (0245896-2018) of the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland, which has supported the work reported here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Turku School of Economics, Management and Organization, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Katariina Koistinen & Satu Teerikangas

  2. Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Katariina Koistinen

  3. The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Satu Teerikangas

  4. School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Tiina Onkila

Authors
  1. Katariina Koistinen
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  2. Satu Teerikangas
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  3. Tiina Onkila
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Correspondence to Katariina Koistinen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA, USA

    Satinder Dhiman

  2. Robertson School of Government, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, USA

    Gary E. Roberts

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Koistinen, K., Teerikangas, S., Onkila, T. (2022). In the Service of the Planet. In: Dhiman, S., Roberts, G.E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Servant Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69802-7_70-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69802-7_70-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69802-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-69802-7

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