This article proposes and develops a theory of leadership that utilizes five levels of being as context for effective leadership: 1) the physical world; 2) the world of images and imagination; 3) the level of the soul; 4) the level of the Spirit; and 5) the non-dual level. We first explore how each of the five levels of being provides a means for advancing both the theory and the practice of leadership. Second, we utilize these five levels to create the foundation for a theory of leadership based on being that goes beyond current theory which emphasizes having and doing — either having appropriate traits and competencies or doing appropriate actions depending on the situation. We present propositions for future research as we discuss each of the five levels of being. Finally, we discuss implications for leadership development and future research that arise from such a being-centered leadership theory.
This paper proposes a set of universal values, drawn from the world's major religions, which are the basis for creating healthy organizations. These values are argued to be essential to enable both economic and spiritual ideals to thrive and to grow in modern organizations. In addition to articulating these values we propose a set of supporting activities which are necessary to foster these values. The paper is intended to shape and to guide the aspirations of organizations, their leaders and their members ± to help them to identify and to articulate desirable values and behaviors rather than reflect currently realized organizational norms.She:``What do you do for a living?'' He:``I work for a company that makes bottle caps, but it's not as exciting as it sounds'' from an unremembered movie. We are shaped and fashioned by what we love (Goethe).Today's organizations, both profit and not-for-profit, have to balance an increasing array of conflicting forces and values. Stakeholder demands are diverse and numerous. No individual is in a job without conflicting demands ± for innovation and stability, for quality and efficiency, for goal clarity and flexibility, for shortterm results and long-term effectiveness. How can individuals balance the outer demands of the workplace with their own inner needs and values?What we propose in the following paper is that each of the major world religious traditions, having endured the test of time, contains a set of values which are relevant, indeed necessary, for organizations in the twenty-first century. Collectively these value systems provide an inner, often invisible, governance system which can allow individuals and their organizations to stay on course in turbulent times.We argue that these values are necessary to enable both economic and spiritual ideals to thrive and grow. The values we have selected ± truthfulness, An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 8th International Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics (SASE) in Geneva, Switzerland in July 1996. The authors wish to thank Andre  Delbecq, Frank Elter, and Mary Jane Saxton for their early encouragement in the crafting of this paper as well as Barbara Gray and Oystein Fjeldstad for their timely and thoughtful comments which helped to shape the quality of the final version.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.