PERSONALquarterly 03 / 24 40 NEUE FORSCHUNG_FÜHRUNG exercise promoting their own and others’ growth demonstrated their firmness and expression of strength in guiding followers’ transformation. "If you have a good team of people who are close-knit, who share the same goal and who want to make a good impression, who are ambitious but not greedy, there is a risk of doing well." – A. Balocco "Always have as a fixed point the dignity of man, the dignity of work, because work elevates dignity. (...) Have humanity as the noble goal of your life at work." – B. Cucinelli Japanese servant leadership summary. The Japanese leaders focused on follower needs related to Japanese culture. They emphasized the relevance of belonging (addressing uncertainty avoidance and collectivism) and self-realization (addressing masculinity). Guided by the normative standard of harmony, which is core to the Japanese culture, they aimed to create conditions for the display and development of everyone’s interrelational self, as means to integrate collectivism, masculinity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Specifically, they seemed to leverage the positive sides of collectivism, while controlling problematic inertia and status quo maintenance that collectivism promotes, by balancing the focus on the group with a focus on the self, and showing exemplary courage and humility, especially when handling individual failures that could threaten harmony. They seemed to channel masculinity by conveying that the right way to unravel and get recognized one‘s own potential was to associate with others, and by demonstrating effort in establishing multigroup and cross-generational cohesion in light of such belief. Considering power distance, they flattened hierarchy by building tight, intra-firm and extra- firm relationships based on reciprocity according to a "student- spearhead" ideal. Addressing uncertainty avoidance, they emphasized the importance of group support to allow individual risk-taking, and authentically expressed their willingness to respect shared, social norms that regulate their behaviour. In sum, the Japanese servant leaders’ approach can be pinpointed, and contrasted to the Italian servant leaders’ perspective, along the following four dimensions. Japanese stewardship: The student and spearhead. The Japanese servant leaders’ stewardship was evident in their specific self-perception and aspiration that seemed to match the Confucian "exemplary person". With diligence to their own duties, they aspired to be an exemplary person reaching personal betterment by associating with and learning from others. "I’ve started to learn talking to rank and files, corporate executives and even clients so that I got to know the value. I was a good student and a spearhead."– T. Niinami ganization, aiming for a peer relationship. The Italian servant leaders were combining personal values (ambition, humility, respect, sacrifice, honour, and dignity) and Italian ideals (family) with tangible actions of sharing. They intended to promote identification and tightness among followers. "The presence of (the leader) (…) – and I believe things have not changed to this day – has always been the presence of a father (…). In other words, the relationship with people has been resoundingly equal."; "The company does not belong to the shareholder but to all the people who work there." – A. Balocco Italian empowerment: Individual, personal, and economic betterment. Italian leaders promoted followers’ empowerment in emphasising individual uniqueness and talent. They also cared about wide-spread investment in the social and economic development of everyone, in the virtue of dignity. Their intention seemed to be demonstrating that recognition of individual credits does not exclude the security and protection of developmental conditions for everyone. That way, they addressed masculinity and individualism, while being inclusive. "Go back to being respectful of humanity. (...) Believe in human relationships, be geniuses of human relationships because it is in them that everything is created. If I give you esteem and dignity, how do you feel tomorrow? More responsible. If you are more responsible you are more creative because the human being is creative when everything around him is better." – B. Cucinelli Italian humility: Self-restraint, focused on dignity. The Italian servant leaders were practicing humility, even though humility could be a potential threat to their authority in their hierarchical, masculine society. Authenticity and humility seemed to be necessary to respond to the self-realization needs of followers: they reasoned that, without giving credits and space to others, they would have triggered intra-firm competition and would have contradicted their resolution against greediness. "I did not expect to be in this ranking. If it‘s a recognition of the work of the whole company then I‘m really pleased." – A. Balocco "I‘m talking about the real work, not the manager‘s work." – B. Cucinelli Italian forgiveness: Reconditioning. The Italian servant leaders aimed to achieve a humane social structure through followers’ transformation. They went for a sympathetic, indulgent approach. Beyond just forgiving and accepting followers’ tendency for self-concern, they proactively indicated paths they should follow and expected them to adopt new mindsets (which seemed to be accepted in the masculine, power distant culture that admires the strong). Making followers see work as an
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