Servant-Leadership through Bhagavad Gita: a review and synthesis of servant leadership characteristics and a conceptual model

Abstract

Leadership is one of the most comprehensively researched areas of all time. Countless new leadership disciplines are emerging, but the concept of servant leadership recently received more recognition. The term "servant-leadership" was first coined in 1970 by Robert K. Greenleaf. This approach prioritizes the goals and development of followers ahead of leaders. The idea of servant leadership is a primarily Western phenomenon. Even so, thousands of years before its presentation by Greenleaf, lord Krishna had already demonstrated it. No research into Indian scriptures has been done to support their interpretation in this regard. This study bridges the gap to conceptualize SL from the scriptures' perspective. The aim of this study is two-fold. First, it reviews and synthesizes the key characteristics of servant leadership from existing literature combined with a Delphi study to identify the key characteristics. Second, this study proposes a conceptual servant leadership model by employing hermeneutics to explore how Bhagavad Gita can inspire and instruct leaders not only in the Indian context but also globally.