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The Yin-Yang Mind of Servant Leadership

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Abstract

Servant leadership was developed in the United States and proved the desired leadership style in the West. Despite the enormous cultural difference between Christian egalitarianism and Confucian social orders, recent research has shown that servant leadership is also very effective in East Asia. However, it does not reveal exactly why this is so. This chapter examined servant leadership theoretically and its philosophical linkage with Chinese cosmology and schools of thought such as the Yin-Yang doctrine, Confucianism, and Taoism. Further, we analyzed the cultural DNA that servant leadership possessed and shared across cultures. Based on this analysis, we developed a conceptual model of servant leadership transforming process to illustrate the development of the mind that enables servant leadership and its underlying logic of the Yin-Yang duality. Our findings contribute more generally to shed light on servant leadership as a universal model of intercultural leadership practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hult International Business School (Ashridge), Berkhamsted, UK

    Barbara **aoyu Wang

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  1. Barbara **aoyu Wang
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Correspondence to Barbara **aoyu Wang .

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Editors and Affiliations

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

    Gary E. Roberts

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Wang, B.X. (2023). The Yin-Yang Mind of Servant Leadership. In: Roberts, G.E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Servant Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-01323-2_24

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