•  
  •  
 

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Abstract

The greatest leader forgets himself and attends to the development of others. -Lao Tzu (600 BCE) This paper addresses four global leadership challenges that demand different leadership theories, models, and philosophies because of how these challenges affect and will continue to affect what the future portends for a changing world. They are persistent, potentially destructive, life-changing, and have been for many decades; they are also opportunities for corporate leaders to use their power to create possibilities throughout the world to minimize poverty, facilitate the acquisition of clean drinking water, decrease illiteracy, and diminish greed. What is the role of corporations regarding these global challenges? Corporations are less likely to create such possibilities, since they are legal entities. Meaning, their leaders are bound by law (Bakan, 2004) to maximize shareholders' investments, desires, and whims. So when it comes to developing countries where many corporations make their money, chances are conditions for the poor in those countries will remain: living without clean drinking water, struggling through life not knowing what they don't know or experiencing illiteracy, enduring the consequences of greed, and lingering in poverty. Given the laws governing corporations, foresight-the central ethic of leadership (Greenleaf, 1977, p. 37) might be an approach for them to gain a different perspective on how their decisions affect citizens of developing nations.

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.