Love as a Replacement for Fear in the Workplace

Fear is routinely used in organizations and interpersonal relationships as a source of motivation. Some research supports the use of fear to motivate employees to work and to change. However, fear has long lasting negative effects that outweigh the motivation that it produces. This paper proposes and supports the notion of love as a central motivator in place of fear. Inner texture exegesis of 1 John 4:18, along with recent research on love in organizations, supports the move from fear to love. Love produces long lasting effects of inspiration and heart level motivation, increased creativity and effectiveness, and a release of energy. It offers holistic health and growth to individuals. Although replacing fear with love requires a paradigm shift, the effort produces an organizational environment that is more productive and more attractive to employees

Learning Curve in Rwanda: A Long Journey of Transformation

This brief glimpse into one community visit offers a taste of what holistic community development through discipleship looks like. This community has studied issues of farming, salvation by grace, animal husbandry, financial management, discerning God\u27s will, health and cleanliness, and other topics over the last five years. They are learning how to identify the barriers that trap them in poverty, and they are learning to overcome these problems through a holistic discipleship process that teaches them to become problem solvers, to study God\u27s word, and to use the resources they have to address the problems their community faces

Daniel as an Example of Exceptional Cross Cultural Leadership

This paper presents Daniel as a prototypical model of an excellent cross-cultural Christian leader. The GLOBE project research on cross-cultural leaders is consulted and five cross cultural leadership qualities are identified based on their acceptance in all cultures studied: integrity, performance oriented, visionary, inspirational, and team builder as found in Dorfman’s research originating from the GLOBE project.1 God’s intervention in Daniel’s leadership is also considered as a significant factor in Daniel’s cross-cultural success as a leader. Exegetical analysis of Daniel 1 and 2 verifies that Daniel meets the criteria of an excellent cross-cultural leader as proposed by Dorfman. Daniel presents a strong model of a cross-cultural Christian leader who keeps his identity while respecting and embracing the host culture, staying in a vital relationship with God, and practicing exemplary cross-cultural leadership qualities

Comparison of Rwandan and American Followership Styles

Leadership research is plentiful and multifaceted yet followership, an essential component in leadership, attracts little research attention. This research paper measures followership styles in two cultural contexts: American and Rwandan. Although cultural aspects of followership have been studied to some extent, the literature in this area is lacking. Data are collected from two organizations of similar size and function, one in Rwanda, and the other in Oregon, USA. It is hypothesized that Americans’ cultural preferences influence followers to favor critical thinking and active engagement while Rwandan cultural preferences predispose followers to less critical thinking and less active engagement. Results of the research show no significant difference between the cultures on critical thinking and active engagement. However, followership type is significantly different by country. Kelley’s (1992) followership survey and the organizational contexts are probed for possible reasons that no significant differences were found between critical thinking and active engagement, while power distance is seen as the main reason for the difference in followership type. Presently little research has been dedicated to the cultural effects on followership and organizations that work internationally would benefit greatly from a deeper understanding of cultural effects on followership

The Shadow Side of Teaching Classroom as Organization

Classroom as organization (CAO) is an approach at the extreme end of an experiential learning intensity continuum (Sleeth & Brown, 1984). While proponents suggest they would never go back to a teacher-centered classroom, CAO has not become widely adopted since its initial description by Cohen (1976). We argue this is, in part, because of shadow elements that may discourage faculty in both initial adoption and persistence in the journey from novice to master. This article reports the authors reflexive process related to the shadow elements they encountered as early adopters of the CAO methodology. The paper begins with a brief background on CAO, followed by a discussion of shadow elements that manifest at the student and faculty levels. We include our recommendations for practice

The Moderating Effects of Power Distance and Individualism/Collectivism on Empowering Leadership, Psychological Empowerment, and Self-Leadership in International Development Organizations

The importance of finding appropriate leadership styles to use in cross-cultural situations is paramount. Development organizations and multinational organizations both struggle to find forms of leadership that are effective in mobilizing the workforce in highly diverse cultural contexts. In this article, the effects of empowering leadership on psychological empowerment and self-leadership are measured in two cultural contexts—Rwanda and the United States, representing both high and low power distance and individualism/ collectivism—to explore how empowering leadership behaviors affects the empowerment of subordinates. First, hierarchical regression analysis shows that empowering leadership has a significant positive effect on both psychological empowerment and self-leadership in both cultural contexts. Second, hierarchical regression analysis with tests for moderation shows that power distance moderates these relationships, especially in high power distance cultures, while individualism/collectivism moderates these relationships only occasionally. This article provides evidence that empowering leadership is an effective form of leadership that produces employee empowerment in diverse cultural contexts. It also provides new insights into appropriate forms of leadership for international development organizations when working in different countries

The Moderating Effects of Power Distance and Individualism/Collectivism on Empowering Leadership, Psychological Empowerment, and Self-Leadership in International Development Organizations

The importance of finding appropriate leadership styles to use in cross-cultural situations is paramount. Development organizations and multinational organizations both struggle to find forms of leadership that are effective in mobilizing the workforce in highly diverse cultural contexts. In this article, the effects of empowering leadership on psychological empowerment and self-leadership are measured in two cultural contexts—Rwanda and the United States, representing both high and low power distance and individualism/ collectivism—to explore how empowering leadership behaviors affects the empowerment of subordinates. First, hierarchical regression analysis shows that empowering leadership has a significant positive effect on both psychological empowerment and self-leadership in both cultural contexts. Second, hierarchical regression analysis with tests for moderation shows that power distance moderates these relationships, especially in high power distance cultures, while individualism/collectivism moderates these relationships only occasionally. This article provides evidence that empowering leadership is an effective form of leadership that produces employee empowerment in diverse cultural contexts. It also provides new insights into appropriate forms of leadership for international development organizations when working in different countries

The Moderating Effects of Power Distance and Collectivism on Empowering Leadership and Psychological Empowerment and Self-Leadership in International Development Organizations

This study used quantitative research to investigate the acceptability and effectiveness of empowering leadership in various cultural contexts. The importance of finding appropriate leadership styles to use in cross-cultural situations is paramount. Development organizations as well as multinational organizations struggle to find appropriate forms of leadership that are effective in mobilizing the workforce in highly diverse cultural contexts. The effects of empowering leadership on psychological empowerment and self-leadership are measured in two cultural contexts representing both high and low power distance and collectivism to explore how empowering leadership behaviors affect the empowerment of subordinates. This research is located within five intersecting theoretical frameworks: empowerment, psychological empowerment, empowering leadership, cross-cultural studies, and African leadership studies. Two hundred forty-five surveys were collected—121 from Rwanda and 124 from the United States. The self-report surveys assessed followers’ perception of their leader’s empowering leadership, as well as the followers’ cultural values and psychological empowerment and self-leadership. First, hierarchical regression analysis showed that empowering leadership has a significant positive effect on both psychological empowerment and self-leadership in both cultural context. This research contributes to the field of empowerment by offering empirical evidence that empowering leadership is appropriate and effective in both high and low power distance and collectivism cultures. Second, hierarchical regression analysis with tests for moderation show that power distance moderates these relationships, especially in high power distance cultures, while collectivism only moderates occasionally. This contributes to the field of cross-cultural studies by indicating that power distance is a cultural value that can have a moderating effect and needs to be included in future cross-cultural studies. This thesis provides evidence that empowering leadership is an effective form of leadership that produces employee empowerment in diverse cultural contexts, and it provides new insights into an appropriate form of leadership for international development organizations to implement when working overseas

Jesus\u27 Cross-Cultural Model of \u27Leader as Servant\u27 in Luke 22:24-30

This article presents a model of leadership proposed by Jesus that contributes to outstanding leadership in cultures throughout the world. A review of the literature on servant leadership and power distance reveal that although resisted, servant leadership is a desired and appropriate form of leadership even in cultures with high power distance. A socio-rhetorical interpretation of Luke 22:24-30 is presented focusing on Jesus’ command to ‘lead as a servant’. The modern-day conception of servant leadership is found to parallel Jesus’ teaching of leader as servant. Power distance, one of the dimensions in the GLOBE Study (Chhokar, Brodbeck, & House, 2007), relates directly to Jesus’ teaching on leadership, and the GLOBE Study confirms that Jesus’ form of ‘leader as servant’ is appropriate to use in cultures across the world and that leaders worldwide desire more of this form of leadership

Conceptual and Theoretical Frame (Chapter Two of Classroom as Organization)

Excerpt: Sam had just finished teaching a class and was feeling discouraged. Her students seemed disengaged, sleepy, and uninterested. Their participation in the discussion was lackluster. They appeared eager to leave class and get on with their day. She felt unsure whether her teaching was connecting with the students: Did they get it? Were they really learning something useful? Did her teaching matter? For what seemed like the millionth time, Sam wondered aloud how she might build more engagement while making the course more practical and impactful for students. As Sam returned to her office, she heard a commotion coming from Maria’s classroom. She paused at the classroom door to see what was happening. Her mouth fell open in surprise. Students were talking, interacting, and moving around the room. They seemed 100 percent engrossed. Sam assumed that Maria was leading an activity, but she had to look around the room to find Maria observing the class from the back. The students were leading the class on their own. This classroom did not look like any Sam had ever seen before; in fact, it looked more like a typical workplace environment with multiple teams engaged in projects. What could Maria be doing to make her classroom function that way? Sam made a mental note to talk to Maria to learn more