Compassionate Love as a Cornerstone

Compassionate Love as a Cornerstone

  • Submitted By: dannyh23
  • Date Submitted: 05/30/2016 3:47 PM
  • Category: Business
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J Bus Ethics (2015) 128:119–131
DOI 10.1007/s10551-014-2085-z

Compassionate Love as a Cornerstone of Servant Leadership:
An Integration of Previous Theorizing and Research
Dirk van Dierendonck • Kathleen Patterson

Received: 2 December 2012 / Accepted: 29 January 2014 / Published online: 13 February 2014
Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

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.
Keywords Servant leadership Á Compassionate love Á
Virtues Á Meaningfulness Á Humility
Servant leadership theory has received increased attention
in the current leadership field (van Dierendonck 2011)
being noted by top writers and implemented in top organizations (Northouse 2013). This growth and attention in

D. van Dierendonck (&)
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University,
Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
e-mail: DvanDierendonck@rsm.nl
K. Patterson
School of Business and Leadership, Regent University, 1333
Regent University Drive, Ste. 102, Virginia Beach, VA 23464,
USA
e-mail: kathpat@regent.edu

the...

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