•  
  •  
 

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Abstract

Over a century ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson bragged to Henry Thoreau that "at Harvard they teach all branches of learning." Thoreau responded, "Yes, but they don't teach the roots" (Jacobs, 1991, p. 277). This sort of commentary continues to this day as a growing number of scholars and practitioners argue that the roots of effective leadership are grounded in the spiritual dimension of individual leaders ( e.g., Conger, 1994; Marcie, 1997; Mitroff & Denton, 1999). While hundreds of articles and books about spirituality and the workplace are now appearing, most are theory-based or anecdotal (Strack, 2001). Very little quantitative and empirical research exists in this subject area. Part of the problem is that spirituality is a complex, abstract, and multidimensional construct that has little consensus among leading scholars. However, Gibbons (1999) has pointed out that no matter which concept of spirituality is espoused (e.g., mystical, religious, or secular), they all involve beliefs, values, and practices that must be lived out by an individual with consistency to be spiritual.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.