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Article
Publication date: 16 July 2020

Charles Keim and Masoud Shadnam

The authors examined the traditional leadership practiced by the Old Order Amish located in the Holmes and Wayne counties of America. Despite popular stereotypes, this community…

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Abstract

Purpose

The authors examined the traditional leadership practiced by the Old Order Amish located in the Holmes and Wayne counties of America. Despite popular stereotypes, this community is remarkably innovative and resilient. Amish leadership aligns with the central tenets of humanistic leadership and provides a rich illustration of how such a leadership paradigm can foster a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable community. Unlike current leadership models that focus on instrumental values like wealth, profit and growth, Amish leadership is concerned with faith, community and living a simple life with purpose and dignity.

Design/methodology/approach

The primary data required for this paper were collected by the lead author during a six-month ethnographic study on several Amish communities located in Ohio. The authors also consulted a large set of archival data, including think tank reports, census data, biographies, magazine features and academic publications, which helped in placing the primary data in perspective and reminding of the particularities of the contexts from which the primary data were collected. For the data analysis, the authors used a thematic analysis approach to allow the salient themes of Amish humanistic leadership emerge from the data.

Findings

A total offour themes emerged from this study: (1) leadership as local identity and practice; (2) leaders without benefits, chosen by the lot; (3) leaders present matters, followers discuss and decide; (4) community welfare as the yardstick for evaluation. These themes highlighted some of the key aspects of humanistic leadership eclipsed in the mainstream theories of management and leadership. They showed how the Amish respond to the encroachment of technology, which holds critical clues for how humanistic leaders can place the needs of their people before the demands of their shareholders. By examining Amish leadership in detail, this study demonstrated the potential of humanistic leadership for creating a strong and sustainable community while also contributing to the empirical foundation of humanistic management.

Originality/value

Given the closed nature of the Amish, only few academic studies exist, which examined their leadership style. Furthermore, the traditional and conservative nature of the Amish community has prevented critics from investigating their leadership as a model for revitalizing other communities.

Details

Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5794

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Article
Publication date: 30 March 2020

Masoud Shadnam

In recent years, organization scholars have engaged in several conversations about the process of theory development, and offered many proposals for building new theories of…

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Abstract

Purpose

In recent years, organization scholars have engaged in several conversations about the process of theory development, and offered many proposals for building new theories of organization. The purpose of this paper is to highlight a fundamental, fruitful and often neglected method for developing new theories of organization.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on Peirce's typology of reasoning: deduction, induction and abduction. This typology helps in analyzing and categorizing the extant proposals for developing new theories of organization, and also makes it visible what approach has been most often missing.

Findings

This paper shows that the offered proposals can be categorized into the following two models: (1) armchair theorizing; (2) present capturing. This categorization also highlights a third model – change sensitizing – that is based on shifting organization theories by sensitizing ourselves to macro shifts of organizational reality.

Originality/value

Although the change sensitizing model is an unusual, marginal practice in today's organization research, it has historically been used to develop many of the renowned theories in social sciences. If taken as a serious agenda, it has the potential to generate a host of new, valuable theories of organization.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

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