A Comparison of Worldviews of Business Leaders from Disparate Geographic Cultures

Leadership functions within the context of multiple perspectives. Business leaders naturally possess a worldview that is influenced by today’s global society and economy. Although interacting with business leaders of disparate worldviews can create challenges, the better these various worldviews are understood, the more positive the outcomes of leadership will be. Global business organizations require leadership that recognizes their own foundations, along with those of the leaders with whom they interact -- especially leaders emanating from other cultures and geographic locations. This paper explores the concept of worldview and its underlying core values and present the results of interviews of four business leaders from different countries with distinct philosophical perspectives, identifying, comparing, and contrasting each leader’s understanding of leadership

The Relationship of Servant Leadership Attributes to Sales Performance of Salespersons in the Healthcare Industry in 2011

Problem. Servant leadership scholars have claimed that servant-led business organizations are more financially viable, but these claims are based on anecdotal evidence. This quantitative study examines the relationship of servant leadership to revenue generation in business organizations by analyzing the predictability of servant leadership attributes on sales performance. This was accomplished by studying salespersons in the healthcare industry. Method. One hundred ninety-four study participants completed questionnaires providing quantitative measurements of the seven factors of servant leadership: (a) developing and empowering others, (b) humility, (c) authentic leadership, (d) open participatory leadership, (e) inspiring leadership, (f) visionary leadership, and (g) courageous leadership, utilizing the Servant Leadership Profile—Revised (SLPR). Sales performance was measured by sales ranking within each respective salesperson’s company, and broken down into three categories; (a) Top 20%, (b) 21% - 40% and (c) 41% and below. Results. Discriminant function analysis generated two discriminant functions that were significant. The first discriminant function was labeled Voice and had the strongest relationship with the following factors of servant leadership: developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership. The first discriminant function was a good predictor of sales performance. The second discriminant function was labeled Human Resource Management and had the strongest relationship with the following factors of servant leadership: open participatory leadership, courageous leadership, and inspiring leadership. The second discriminant function predicted membership in the 21% - 40% sales-ranking group, mediocre sales performance. One factor of servant leadership, humility, was eliminated as a predictor of sales performance. Conclusions. Developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership are good predictors of sales performance. Open participatory leadership, courageous leadership, and inspiring leadership predict mediocre sales performance. Humility was eliminated as a predictor of sales performance. Business leaders with high mean scores for developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership are likely to have a positive impact on the financial viability of a business organization