Evolving a Model of Sustainable Leadership: An Ex-post Facto Research

Abstract

The cascading effects of globalization, changing business environment, economic uncertainties, technological advancements, heightened stress levels and increasing incidence of behavioural deviance have changed the workplace requiring sustainable leadership. Although there is plethora of literature on leadership, there is dearth of scholarly work on sustainable leadership as the subject is still evolving. This aroused academic curiosity and provided impetus to me to undertake this study to explore the ideology of the leaders in political and organizational contexts and study their attributes in the backdrop of extant literature on spiritual leadership and humanistic management to find answer to the question ‘does spirituo-humanistic ideology lead to sustainable leadership?’ The present research seeks to (a) study the link between secular spirituality and leadership, (b) examine attributes and behaviour of leaders of long standing in political and business contexts and (c) evolve a model of sustainable leadership for organizations with an operational definition. For a long-time spirituality and leadership were considered apart: one, a realm of intangible ideas and emotions; the other, a practical area of scientific inquiry, however, the article embraces a holistic view of secular spiritual leadership. It adopts anti-positivism paradigm (theory) focusing on qualitative analysis (Cohen et al., Research Methods in Education [5th ed.], London: Routledge Falmer, 2000). As research on sustainable leadership requires studying leadership behaviour over a period, the study adopted ex-post facto research for conducting two case studies of leaders in political and business contexts from India who provided leadership in their respective spheres for decades. Finally, the study contributes a spirituo-humanistic model of sustainable leadership for organizations.

Keywords

Sustainable Organizational Leadership Spirituo-humanistic Leadership Ex-post Facto Research Spirituo-humanistic Ideology Sustainable Leadership

Evolving a Model of Sustainable Leadership: An Ex-post Facto Research

The Context

The business scenario has undergone metamorphosis due to globalization, increasing complexity and uncertainty, technological advancements, pressure for high performance resulting in stress, burnout and increasing incidence of behavioural deviance during the past decade. In this volatile environment, organizations need sustainable leadership which is ethical, enabling, empathizing and empowering rather than commanding, demanding and distressing for the achievement of short-term goals. The focus of leadership research has been shifting with time from trait approach to behavioural approach, from task orientation to people orientation, from contingency leadership to transformational leadership, from strategic leadership to primal leadership (McShane, Glinow, & Sharma, 2011). When organizations required change, transformational leadership (Bass, 1985, 1998) gained prominence, however, when leaders adopted change as a strategy and began driving organizations for competitiveness, emotional intelligence-based theory of primal leadership (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002; Sharma, 2013) assumed significance. In the climate of uncertainty, empathy and driving collective emotions in the positive direction became important to alleviate fears and anxiety of the followers (Sharma, 2011a). Since the global economic crisis of 2008, researchers have been in search of a sustainable leadership model for the organizations. ‘The concepts of sustainable leadership remain complex and confusing for employees, leaders and organizations to grasp. It is a challenge for today’s organizations to define these concepts’ (McCann & Holt, 2010). ‘Sustainability takes place only when there is an active leader/manager within the company who champions this approach’ (Szekely & Knirsch, 2005). In the educational context Hargreaves and Fink (2003) have posited, ‘Sustainable leadership matters, spreads and lasts. It is a shared responsibility, that does not unduly deplete human or financial resources, and that cares for and avoids exerting negative damage on the surrounding educational and community environment.’

From the foregoing, it can be inferred that sustainable leadership is important to protect resources and prevent negative consequences on community and environment in the long run. But there is a clear gap about how sustainable leadership evolves, what is the ideology, values and attributes of sustainable leaders, how sustainable leadership leads to individual and organizational outcomes and what is the nature of sustainable leadership. The present study attempts to bridge this knowledge gap by adopting spirituo-humanistic ideology and a non-positivist paradigm (theory) which stresses on subjectivist approach to studying social phenomena with qualitative research techniques (like biographies, case studies and the like; Cohen, Lawrence, & Morrison, 2000) to study leaders who have demonstrated sustainability in their leadership behaviour to explore ‘what’ and ‘how’ of sustainable leadership.

The present research is aimed at (a) studying the link between spirituality and leadership, (b) identifying parameters of spirituo-humanistic ideology from secondary analysis of literature, (c) critically analysing attributes and behaviour of two leaders of long standing in political (Mohandas Karamchand [M. K.] Gandhi) and business context (Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy [J. R. D.] Tata1), (d) validating their attributes and behaviour against these parameters for spirituo-humanistic ideology, (e) evolving a model of sustainable leadership with spirituo-humanistic ideology and (f) deriving an operational definition of sustainable leadership based on the present ex-post facto research. The article addresses the following research questions:

Is there convergence between spirituality, leadership and humanism?

Were principles of Gandhi a path to sustainable leadership based on spirituo-humanistic ideology?

Was J. R. D. Tata’s leadership based on spirituo-humanistic ideology sustainable in the business context?

What is the operational definition of sustainable leadership based on ex-post facto research?

The evolution of spiritual leadership can be traced to servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1977, 1978) where Greenleaf intertwined the concept of service and meaning. Greenleaf posits that a leader listens to people, enables them to discover their inner spirit, places others’ interest over his own and enjoys their trust. Spiritual leadership has been defined as ‘the desire to find ultimate purpose in life and to live accordingly’ (Mitroff & Denton, 1999). Howard (2002) posits that defining spirituality becomes challenging as it is ‘intensely personal’ as well as inclusive and universal and some spiritual leaders have influence beyond national boundaries. Later, Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003b) developed the concept of workplace spirituality, involving values embedded in the organizational culture leading to employee experiencing transcendence, connectedness, joy and compassion, which became the foundation of spiritual leadership theory. Fry (2003) defined spiritual leadership as ‘the values, attitudes, and behaviours necessary to intrinsically motivate oneself and others so that they have a sense of spiritual survival through calling and membership’. Hegel gave the concept of labour on notion which describes labour as an economic activity and also an activity by which ‘human turns human, processing and refining the outer and inner nature and making it “human” inner and down lastly cultivating themselves when together recognizing each other in the product of their labour (Hegel names this Bildung)’ (cf. Ashton, 1999). This original concept of Hegel is relevant even at present: that is, in his choice to promote ‘an ethical regulation of the economy rather than a set of imperative rules as a means to achieve a more concrete form of subjective freedom through the market economy’. His theory regarding the necessity and the means of such ethical regulation finds its manifestation in call for a morally sound capitalism through corporate social responsibility. From the foregoing one can observe the link between spirituality and humanistic management, ethics and social responsibility.

Rationale for the Study

Sanders, Hopkins, and Geroy (2003) have advocated the need for a ‘comprehensive and integrated’ theory of leadership which deals with the complexity of a leader over a period involving cognitive, emotional, social and spiritual aspects in relation to transcendental task achievements. Wilber (2000) is of the view that spiritual development also passes through stages of development like cognitive and moral development. Fry (2005) extended spiritual leadership as a predictor of life satisfaction, organizational commitment and unit productivity mediated by spiritual well-being (Dent, Higgins, & Wharff, 2005; Fry, 2004; Fry & Matherly, 2006; Fry, Hannah, Noel, & Walumbwa, 2011). Spirituality and ethical integrity are perceived as similar, but these are different; integrity is a virtue based on an internally consistent framework of principles whereas spirituality is an internal process of connectedness to self and others (MacCallum, 1993; Pillai, 2011). Wharff (2004) has highlighted the need for a theory which integrates ‘spiritual beliefs, activities and practices of the leaders who transcend self and evolve through the various stages of human development’. The foregoing researches provide theoretical underpinning to spirituo-humanistic ideology adopted in the study.

Theoretical Framework

Effective leadership traits and behaviours associated with spirituality are found in all cultures. These are honesty, trustworthiness, justice, optimism, win–win problem solving, encouraging, motivating, communicativeness, excellence-orientation, confidence building, dynamism, team building and dependability (Den Hartog et al., 1999). Spirituality is considered as deeply held values (Gibson, 2000). Howard (2002) posits that defining spirituality becomes challenging as it is ‘intensely personal’ as well as inclusive and universal. Some spiritual leaders have influence beyond national boundaries and have international following.

Although followers across cultures agree on spiritual dimension of integrity and concern for others; among leaders, there were wide variations in expectations about social or cultural behaviour that is, sensitivity, risk-taking, ambition, autonomy, independence, directness, conflict avoidance, elitism, individualism and formality (Den Hartog et al., 1999). The negative leaders (who erode employee confidence and morale, leading to lower organizational productivity and customer dissatisfaction) were found to be ‘ruthless, asocial, irritable, loner, egocentric, non-cooperative and dictatorial’ (Den Hartog et al., 1999). Thus, the characteristics of negative leaders are incongruent with spiritual values of integrity and humility, and inconsistent with the spiritual practices of treating people with respect, appreciation and compassion. Smith (1992) found humility, charity, veracity and vision among spiritual leaders. Thus, the researches cited above have identified attributes of spiritual leaders based on their research and provide theoretical grounding for sprituo-humanistic ideology.

Since spirituality and religion are perceived to be related; discussion on spiritual leadership would be rather incomplete without a reference to the similarities and differences between the two and about secular spirituality.

Religious Spirituality Versus Secular Spirituality

Spirituality has historically been rooted in the religion although it represented different schools of thoughts with underpinnings of faith. Recent developments indicate ‘Spirituality is broader than any single formal or organized religion with its prescribed tenets, dogmas and doctrines’ (Zellers & Perrewe, 2003). ‘Spirituality does not apply to particular religions, although the values of some religions may be a part of a person’s spiritual focus. Said another way, spirituality is the song we all sing. Each religion has its own singer’ Neal (emphasis in original). This view finds support in works of Dehler and Welsh (1994), Mitroff and Denton (1999), and Butts (1999) who advocate spirituality in the contemporary secular world.

Secular spirituality emphasizes the inner peace of the individual rather than a relationship with the divine. Proponents make a case for a form of secular spirituality in which the motivation is to live happily and/or to help others (Wilkinson, 2007). Although there are a variety of definitions of spirituality ‘In its simplest form, “spirituality” means knowing how to live with meaning and purpose’ according to BK World Spiritual University (2015). Love and Talbot (1999) synthesized and summarized a number of definitions of spirituality from various disciplines as ‘spirituality was internal process of seeking personal authenticity, genuineness, and wholeness as an aspect of identity development, transcending egocentricity and deriving meaning, purpose, and direction in one’s life and connectedness to self and others through relationships and union with community’. Sadhguru2 clarifies that a spiritual seeker is neither a theist nor an atheist highlighting secular nature of spirituality. Secular spirituality, being the potential of all experience to assume a spiritual dimension, affects everyone. It is not confined to the religious or transcendent sphere but characterizes the profane, secular life world (du Toit, 2006).

For this study, the researcher has accepted the notion of spirituality not tied to a specific religious tradition. Thus, secular spirituality refers to the adherence to a spiritual ideology without advocating a religious framework. Accepting a secular perspective on spirituality the article presents the convergence of secular spirituality and leadership found in the literature.

The Convergence of Secular Spirituality, Huanistic Management and Leadership

For many years, spirituality and leadership were treated separately but one finds convergence between the two as spiritual values are found to be linked with leadership effectiveness and humanism. With a view to identifying parameters of secular spirituality and humanism, a meta-analysis of literature was done and based on recurrence of the attributes/behaviours found in spiritual leadership/humanistic literature, the following attributes were identified against which the ideology of the two selected leaders (as case studies) will be validated for their spirituohumanistic ideology. The parameters are: vision, character and integrity, work as a calling or altruistic goal, humility, conscience and values, charisma, trust, concern for others and motivation of followers.

Researchers report consistency between the values and practices highlighted in various spiritual teachings and those adopted by effective leaders, who inspire trust, ignite followers, promote a positive outlook and relationship, create ethical climate, achieve organizational goals and enhanced productivity and sustainability (Dent, et al., 2005; Klenke, 2007). Butts (1999) posits that values of truth, justice, trust, group harmony, higher purpose and deeper meaning develop synergy at work, and enhance profits and productivity. Spirituality manifests in spiritual values of integrity, honesty, trust, openness, humility, compassion, care and concern, active listening, appreciation of the contribution and reflective practice (Reave, 2005) and honest communication (Rego, Cunhal, & Souto, 2007). It is interesting to note that leaders from spiritual organizations scored higher on measures of leadership effectiveness than leaders in other settings (Druskat, 1994).

Milliman, Czaplewski, and Ferguson (2003) opine that people at work are motivated by their unique need of finding meaning and making a difference to their own and others’ lives through their work. Delbecq (2000) reports that teaching of ‘Spirituality and Leadership’ course contributed to spiritual development of its participants; Sharma (2011b) used spiritual intervention along with 360-degree feedback for enhancing emotional intelligence of managers and found positive results.

Figure 1 depicts convergence of spirituo-humanistic ideology with sustainable leadership, based on the secondary analysis of the published literature on leadership/spiritual leadership and humanism the following parameters for spirituo-humanistic ideology (with references) have been identified, discussed and later included in Table 1. These parameters will be used to validate the ideology of the two leaders, namely M. K. Gandhi and J. R. D. Tata under analysis and discussion.

Vision: Advance planning, goal clarification and task focus with value congruence generally refer to visioning behaviour of leaders (House, 1977; Rafferty & Griffin, 2004). Fry (2003) posits that as spiritual leadership theory advanced, it included ‘visioning process’ involving both leaders’ influence and followers’ empowerment. Spiritual leaders are expected not only to articulate an inspiring vision but also be ethical, compassionate and respectful to others (Fleming, 2007). Phattanacheewapul and Ussahawanitchakit (2009) reported positive relationship between spirituality and ethics in a study of 260 CEOs from advertising firms. Harmony, respect for others and collaborative processes are important for spiritual leadership and differentiate it from transformational leadership.

Character and integrity: ‘Walking the talk’, an attribute of integrity (Fry, 2003), is the main characteristic of the leaders noticed by the followers (Pfeffer, 2003). Based on their research on integrity on a large sample, Hendricks and Hendricks (2003) posit that leadership journey begins with integrity, ‘when people operate from integrity, personal and professional well-being accelerate tremendously’. Other researches also reveal that integrity and concern for others are two common expectations from spiritual leaders across cultures but there were wide variations in expectations relating to social or cultural behaviour that is, sensitivity, risk-taking, ambition, autonomy, independence, directness, conflict avoidance, elitism, individualism and formality (Den Hartog et al., 1999). Based on meta-analysis of 12 studies, Davis and Rothstein (2006) reported positive correlation between perceived leader integrity and follower outcomes (higher satisfaction with job, leadership and organizational commitment).

Honesty is equated with integrity (Fairholm, 1997) and is treated as a component of integrity (Elm, 2003). Honesty with self and others is essential for integrity, internal and external consistency and for spirituality based corporate culture (Wagner-Marsh & Conley, 1999). Relationship between self-awareness and leadership effectiveness has been supported by cross-cultural research (Dickson, Den Hartog, & Mitchelson, 2003; Rahim et al., 2003; Shipper, Kincaid, Rotondo, & Hoffman, 2003). Honesty emerged as one of the few positive leadership traits by GLOBE study of leadership prototypes endorsed globally (Dorfman, Hanges, & Brodbeck, 2004). Integrity is important but not enough for a spiritual leader who commits himself to a larger good.

Work as a calling or altruistic goal: ‘Calling’ is described as a transcendental experience involving meaning in life through service to others or mastery of self-actualization (Pfeffer, 2003). Spiritual leaders show personal mission and commitment to a higher goal than to profit or self-gratification. Exceptional leaders ‘subjugate their own needs to the greater ambition of something larger and more lasting than themselves’ (Collins, 2001). This sense of a higher purpose or ‘work as a calling’ can inspire and sustain business leaders in turbulent times. While focusing on the leader’s ability to inspire and motivate, it is equally important to examine the leader’s intentions whether he/she is trying to manipulate others for vested interest or is pursuing larger good (Bass & Steidlmeir, 1999; Howell, 1988). A study of moment of leader’s transformation attributed the ‘cause’ to an experience of ‘grace’, ‘magic’, or ‘a miracle’ implying the influence of a higher power (Neal, Lichtenstein, & Banner, 1999).

Humility: Humility, the manifestation of spiritual values, enables one to accept negative feedback and leads to leadership effectiveness. People with high self-esteem and bloated ego were ‘more likely to irritate, interrupt and show hostility to others’ (Colvin, Block, & Funder, 1995). Research reveals that high self-esteem would severely limit the ethical, diplomatic and interpersonal skills of leaders (Den Hartog et al., 1999). The managers who overrated themselves were perceived to be less effective by followers (Van Velsor, Taylor, & Leslie, 1993). Atwater, Roush, and Fischtal (1995), Van Velsor et al. (1993) compared self-ratings of leaders with followers’ ratings of them. The results showed that the lower the ratings of leaders for themselves, the higher were the ratings by their followers for them (Fleenor, McCauley, & Brutus, 1996).

Figure 1.

Source: Sharma (2018).

Conscience and values: The conscience and values are referred to as inner voice. Research on transformational leaders reveals that with idealized influence and inspirational motivation they derive internalized values, conscious commitment (Bass, 1998) and have mature moral development (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987). Kurth (2003) posits that leaders and followers require self-awareness, respect for others and their beliefs and trust. Also important is engagement in spiritual practices such as prayer, yoga, meditation, reading inspirational literature and writing spiritual texts.

Charisma: Charisma encompasses trust, respect and admiration for the leader’s ethics as well as extraordinary capabilities (Bass, 1998). It entails being a role model for beliefs and values and articulating ideological goals with moral overtones (Weber, 1947). Charismatic leadership is ‘a fire that ignites followers’ energy and commitment producing results above and beyond the call of duty’ (Klein & House, 1995). It affects followers’ self-concept (Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993) and their perception of the leader’s extraordinary identity (Conger & Kanungo, 1998). It also influences follower’s higher-order needs (Bass & Avolio, 1993; Conger, 1999). Research yields that charismatic leadership generally evolves in individualistic cultures (Howell, 1988). Transformational leadership comprises idealized influence or charisma, inspirational motivation (ability to inspire and motivate followers), intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration (Bass, 1985, 1998). Twigg and Parayitam (2007) and Green, Kodatt, and Duncan (2011) studied the relationship between a leader’s self-assessed spirituality and the followers’ ratings on the leader’s transformational leadership and found high correlation between the two. Despite some unconventional results many recent studies (Fry & Cohen, 2009; Karakas, 2010; Rozuel & Kakabadse, 2010; Smith & Malcolm, 2010) have reported positive impact of spiritual leadership in organizations. Over a hundred empirical studies demonstrated positive effect of charismatic leadership on followers and organizations (Den Hartog et. al., 1999; Fiol, Harris, & House, 1999). According to Burns (2003), leaders derive their power through their responsiveness to the followers’ needs for security, self-esteem and personal development, putting themselves in a position to ‘create and expand the opportunities that empower people to pursue happiness for themselves’.

Trust: Trust in the leader has positive relationship with the follower’s satisfaction with the leader (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). A meta-analytic study reveals that trust is important not only for follower’s perceptions but also for measurable organizational outcomes like performance (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). Similarity of beliefs between leader and the followers, and unquestioning acceptance of the leader is the result of trust (House, 1977). Trust was found to have a significant positive correlation with worker job satisfaction, performance, organizational commitment and turnover intentions.

Concern for others: Leaders cater to the follower’s needs for spiritual survival by motivating them through the values of charity, humility and veracity. They serve the followers and relevant others (Smith, 1992) and involve them in decision-making (Shamir, Zakay, Breinin, & Popper, 1998). Individualized consideration, a component of transformational leadership (Bass, 1985, 1998) is significant to spiritual leadership. Howard (2002) views that spirituality includes four types of ‘connections—with self, with others, with nature or environment and with a higher power’. Recognition and praise of others by leaders show their concern for them and this has been examined by Kouzes and Posner (1999) and Rafferty and Griffin (2004). Under the construct of altruistic love, Fry (2005) has suggested a model which encompasses compassion, kindness, patience, acceptance and appreciation for self and others.

Motivation of followers: Leaders’ focus on spiritual values often evokes latent motivation in others that enhances their satisfaction and productivity. Leaders’ perception of their work as a means of spiritual growth leads to improved organizational performance (Fry et al., 2011), Himmelfarb, 1994) and the leaders who enable workers express their spiritual values through work, promote workers’ job satisfaction. People look for avenues to express spirituality in their work (Mitroff & Denton, 1999). Paloutzian, Emmons, and Keortge (2003) report ‘When work is seen as a calling rather than a job or as an opportunity to serve God, work-related strivings take on new significance and meaning’ (Benfeil, 2005; Davidson & Caddell, 1994; Fry, 2005; Fry & Matherly, 2006; Novak, 1996; Paloutzian et al., 2003). Emmons, Cheung, and Tehrani (1998) found ‘Individual differences in spiritual goals predicted well-being more strongly than any other category of striving that had been studied, exceeding those for intimacy, power or generativist goals’ (Emmons, 1999).

Recent developments in the field of positive organizational behaviour emphasize the role of training and development in creating psychological capital involving, hope, optimism confidence and resilience (Gardner & Schermerhorn, 2004). Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) have summarized the level of analysis in positive organizational psychology at three levels (a) subjective level (flow, contentment and happiness for the present and hope and optimism for the future), (b) the micro (individual) level and (c) the macro level. The positive traits of forgiveness and spirituality have been highlighted at the individual level. ‘Happiness’ associated with an optimal experience has been labelled by Csikszentmihalyi (1990) as a ‘flow state’ in which the individual effortlessly immerses in an enjoyable activity (Dehler & Welsh, 1994). According to him, ‘the activity most often associated with flow experiences was “work,”’ with flow occurring more than three times as often in work as in leisure’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1982; Csikszentmihalyi & LeFerve, 1989). Thus, spiritual leadership is a significant source of motivation and happiness for followers who get influenced by the leader’s flow state. The article further integrates spirituality with humanistic management because of commonality of the concept of integrity, concern for others, compassion, human dignity and well-being which constitute spirituo-humanistic ideology.

Humanistic Management

Humanistic management is a paradigm shift away from current economistic towards a humanistic economic model. It recommends understanding of human nature that goes beyond the reductionist homo economicus model (Rittenberg & Trigarthen, 2009) which supports the concept of an economic human. Many economic theories treat humans as rational and narrowly self-interested actors who have the ability to make decisions toward their subjectively defined ends. Humanistic management rests on three pillars:

Unconditional respect for human dignity

Integration of ethical reflection in managerial decision-making and

Corporate responsibilities contingent upon engaging with stakeholders

A leader has dignity and respects human dignity. ‘Human dignity’ renders one worthy or justifiable of respect (Donnelly, 2009). The dignity of the human being lies in its capacity to define autonomously the purpose of its existence and human freedom. Beitz (2013) posits that the notion of human dignity essentially includes moral ‘values’ element from the human rights perspective. He further opines that social institutions that promote dignity would be instrumental in raising ‘regard’ for their people as well as for themselves. The role of business ought to be grounded in the need for market activities to serve people rather than only focusing on market societies to make profits. It has been observed that firms that focus on people/stakeholders have a sustainable future. The businesses will be embracing social responsibility when they have a dialogue or engage with stakeholders. The present research, therefore, focuses on spirituo-humanistic ideology for studying sustainable leadership.

Research Design

The article adopts ex-post facto research design which is defined by Kerlinger (1964) as that research in which the independent variable or variables have already occurred and in which the researcher starts with the observation of a dependent variable or variables. The researcher then investigates the independent variables in retrospect for their possible relations to, and effects on, the dependent variable or variables (p. 360). Thus ex-post facto research is ‘an alternative method for establishing causal relationships between events and circumstances in historical perspective’. While the historical research finds out the causes of past events, the causal-comparative deals with the present events only (Lord, 1973). According to Salkind (2010), ‘Ex-post facto research is the process beginning with a phenomenon and going backward in time to identify causal factors.’ Silva describes it as ‘a category of research design in which the investigation starts after the fact has occurred without interference from the researcher’. The ex-post facto research design was considered most appropriate for the present study as the research on sustainable leadership would be possible only when the phenomenon has demonstrated its existence over a period.

Having chosen the research design, the next step was to select a research method which would work in the historical perspective to study sustainable leadership. From this point of view, case study method was considered the most appropriate one. Case studies are rich, empirical descriptions of particular instances of a phenomenon that are typically based on a variety of data sources (Yin, 1994). Case study is defined as ‘an empirical inquiry that investigates a case in depth and within its real-life context’. It relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data needing to converge in a triangulating fashion giving another result (Yin, 2014). Many scholars have used case studies to develop theory on subjects like group process (Edmondson, Bohmer, & Pisano, 2001), strategy (Mintzberg & Waters, 1982) and internal organization (Galunic & Eisenhardt, 1996; Gilbert, 2005). Also, papers building theory from cases are often considered to be the ‘most interesting’ research (Bartunek, Rynes, & Ireland, 2006). ‘The theory building from case studies is that it is one of the best (if not the best) of the bridges from rich qualitative evidence to mainstream deductive research’.

The researcher thus selected two late Indian leaders M. K. Gandhi and J. R. D. Tata from political and business contexts respectively for the case study research as both the leaders had spirituo-humanistic ideology. The other rationale for choosing them was that a lot of text has been written about them and this would enable the researcher to get secondary data from multiple sources, over a period to conduct an in-depth analysis to answer the research questions. Also, these two have been accepted as effective leaders in political and business spheres and some have treated Gandhi as a spiritual leader without a systematic research. J. R. D. Tata has been known for his concern for stakeholders even before the concept of corporate social responsibility was conceptualized. Having selected the two late leaders, the researcher carried out critical analysis of their attributes and behaviour and benchmarked these against the parameters of spirituo-humanistic ideology derived from the literature to determine the validity of their ideology for sustainable leadership.

Although there are some theories of spiritual leadership by Greenleaf (1977, p. 78) and Fry (2003, 2005), these have not been used in a political context; Fry et al. (2011) have used it in a military context and Greenleaf (1977, p. 78) used it in the social context. Also, the earlier research has used different variables like spiritual leader and spiritual followers; servant leadership; hope and faith as independent variables and well-being as mediating variable, to name a few. No theory or model in the past has used spirituo-humanistic ideology and mapped the attributes and behaviour of leaders from political and business contexts using ex-post facto research design to evolve a model of sustainable leadership.

Analysis of Leadership of Gandhi

Before analyzing the ideology and leadership of M. K. Gandhi (Gandhi), it is important to discuss the context which contributed to its development. Born in 1869 in British India he studied law at University College, London to train as barrister and to practice in India. Not being able to cope with discriminatory practices prevalent in India at that time, he took up a 1-year assignment in South Africa. After a few racial discriminatory experiences (non-approval for wearing native turban in the court, ‘pushing out of the train’ with baggage at Maritzburg on refusal to shift from the first class to ‘the van compartment’ (Gandhi, 1927) and various incidents/experiences of his acquaintances), he felt compelled to work against these practices. To quote from his autobiography, ‘The year’s stay in Pretoria was the most valuable experience…. Here it was that the religious spirit within me became a living force’. During his prolong stay in South Africa he worked for civil rights and established Indian Natal Congress in 1894 to mobilize Indian community together. The following presents an account of development of spirituo-humanistic ideology in Gandhi based on secular perspective.

Evolution of Spirituo-humanistic Leadership in Gandhi

Self-discipline: Gandhi learnt his lessons of self-discipline and sacrifice from his mother, Putlibai, who observed fast, abstained from meals before prayers and had one meal a day during specific months irrespective of her health. Gandhi practised self-discipline as he believed ‘strict preliminary discipline was necessary to enable a person to make experiments in spiritual realm’, control of mind and self-improvement. In his view, diet influenced one’s nature and he observed fast for self-purification; later he switched to one meal a day. A teetotaller and a strict vegetarian Gandhi believed, ‘Purification of self leads to purification of surroundings’. In his ashram (place of stay) interest in fasting grew as a means of self-restraint. He observed ‘silence’ once a week for ‘inner peace’, and communicated in writing, if required, that day. According to Gandhi, purification was ‘infectious’ and influenced one’s surroundings.

Inspiration from texts: Gandhi derived inspiration from books that is, ‘Shravana Pitribhakti Nataka’ (depicting Shravana’s devotion to his blind parents, taking them to pilgrimage on his shoulders; and parents’ mourning of his death when hit by an arrow), and Harishchandra suffering miseries for upholding the truth (Gandhi, 1927). The story goes that Harishchandra, a custodian of a cremation ground, did not allow cremation of his son without payment of tax by his wife who, in dire circumstances, gave a part of her saree (Indian dress) for the tax to allow the last rites of their son. He read spiritual and inspirational books/texts and tried to imbibe values of truthfulness, integrity and transparency. His autobiography ‘Experiments with Truth’ not only reflects his transparency but also shares instances where he incurred anger of others for pursuing truth. Plotkin posits: ‘Gandhi’s actions seemed extremely unorthodox to many Hindus’.3 These influences laid the foundation spirituality in Gandhi.

Community service as a calling: Gandhi was aspiring for a spiritual life unconsciously. His spiritual journey began with his faith in prayers, reading the literature of other faiths that is, Christianity and Buddhism and assimilation of their teachings. In his autobiography, he confessed that he travelled to South Africa for livelihood but, ‘I found myself in search of God and striving for self-realization’ and ‘I had made religion of service my own as I felt God could be realized only through service’ (Gandhi, 1927) and during his stay in South Africa he engaged in public service and found it to be a spiritual experience. Gandhi was not an orthodox; but based on his values he had evolved some principles and lived by these throughout his life, although all the principles may not have been of equal importance, Gandhi used these as his guiding principles in both personal and political life. Figure 2 presents how Spirtuo-humanistic ideology evolves in leaders.

Figure 2.

Source: Sharma (2018).

Having identified the attributes of spiritual-humanistic ideology from the literature the following will address the research question. To have strong support for the qualitative analysis, triangulation was used for both the case studies as will be discussed in the following paragraphs. Triangulation is a powerful technique that facilitates validation of data through cross verification from two or more sources (Bogdan & Biklen, 2006). This was done with the thought that a single source can never adequately shed light on the phenomenon.

Were principles of Gandhi a path to sustainable leadership based on spirituo-humanistic ideology?

For answering the research question, Gandhi’s attributes will be critically analyzed against the earlier parameters derived from the secondary literature. Alavi and Leidner (2001), Voelpel and Han (2005), and Kulkarniur (2007) advocate the importance of manual analysis, specifically when the context is an important variable for the study.

Testing the Validity of Gandhi’s Leadership Against Spirituo-humanistic Parameters

Several sources of data, that is, biography, historical records, magazine and newspaper reports, published critiques, awards and recognitions from national and international organizations, have been used to have triangulation-based analysis of Gandhi’s leadership based on spirituo-humanistic parameters

Truth and integrity: According to Gandhi ‘Truth is God’ and he spent most part his life discovering the ‘truth’; he felt that the truth could be different from what one sees or hears. He conducted experiments on self and documented in his autobiography Experiments with Truth with utmost transparency. He was trustworthy, highly self-aware and respected others and their beliefs which have been described as spiritual attributes (Kurth, 2003). ‘His intellectual and moral legacy—encapsulated in work such as Hind Swaraj—serves as an inspiration to many … throughout the world’ (Brown & Parel, 2011).

Ahimsa (non-violence) for satyagraha (truth force): Gandhi believed in ‘Ahimsa’ or non-violence which he pioneered as a comprehensive principle. Gandhi confessed that witnessing cruelty became ‘the major turning point of his life spiritually’; the one that made him turn to non-violence as a strategy for resistance (Lelyveld, 2011).

Plotkin, one of his critics, writes: ‘Although Gandhi was a remarkable nationalist leader; he was less concerned with the ends of his actions and more with the means of achieving independence for India.’ At a time when most of the nationalist movements across the world were adopting violence, Gandhi advocated and adopted a method opposing violence to achieve political goals. His approach to non-violence was based on ‘Truth, Love and Self-suffering’ which, he believed, could conquer any adversity. By ‘sacrificing one’s self to your opponent’s wrath without violent retaliation, your opponent would give in’ depending on the determination of a satyagrahis (person practicing Satyagraha), he believed. He was against violence of any kind and used to go on fast unto death to ensure that the masses did not repeat this behaviour.

According to Gandhi, ‘An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.’ To quote him, ‘There are many causes I am prepared to die but no causes that I am prepared to kill for’ (Gandhi, 1927). He was fearless and could stand against injustice and inequity by any individual/organization/government.

Character/brahmacharya: The term brahmacharya connotes spiritual and practical purity largely associated with celibacy. For Gandhi brahmacharya meant ‘control of senses in thought, word and deed’ which was the foundation of self-realization for him. There have been critics who did not agree with this principle. According to Lelyveld, Gandhi was a ‘man of many causes, a visionary with a profound social conscience and courage’ he was liked as well as resented by many, he continues, ‘it was a model of non-violence for revolution both on the vast political level and on the personal and domestic one: nothing was unimportant in Gandhi’s eyes, and nothing impossible (Lelyveld, 2011)’.

Openness to faiths and universal brotherhood: Gandhi’s openness to all the religions, namely Christianity, Brahmo, Jainism, Hinduism and Islam, was manifest in his not only reading extensively about other religions but also mixing with people of various faiths. Religion, according to him, was truth and love ‘which binds’ people. In his view ‘the soul of religion was one, but it was encased in different forms of religious practices’ (Kamath, 2007). He was influenced by Tolstoy’s books The Kingdom of God is within, Gospel in Belief and What to do. Influenced by Gita, Gandhi was a true karma yogi (devoted to duty) whose spirituality was rooted in positive action.

Simplicity: Gandhi believed that a person involved in public service should adopt simplicity and austerity, and he lived by this principle wearing and popularizing home spun cloth (khadi) to identify with the poor farmers of India. Gandhi’s advocacy of small-scale village industry and environmentally sustainable life styles was disregarded by some of his disciples at that time (Mishra, 2011) but the world is now adhering to his advocacy and showing concern for the environment for sustainable development. Now we will address the next research question:

Was J. R. D. Tata’s leadership based on spirituo-humanistic ideology sustainable in the business context?

Analysis of Leadership of J. R. D. Tata

Testing the Validity of J. R. D. Tata’s Leadership Against Spirituo-humanistic Parameters

Along with his profile several sources of data that is, biography, historical documents, company reports, media reports, awards and recognitions by national and international organizations, comments by leading business leaders etc. have been used to have triangulation-based analysis for Tata’s leadership based spirituo-humanistic ideology for sustainability. This finds support from the work of Alavi and Leidner (2001), Voelpel and Han (2005), and Kulkarniur (2007) who advocate the importance of manual analysis, specifically when the context is an important variable for the study.

J. R. D. Tata commenced his career as an apprentice trainee at Tata Steel in 1925 and after the sudden demise of his father; he became the Chairman of Tata Sons, the largest industrial group in India in 1938 at the age of 34. J. R. D. was a visionary leader who was concerned about aligning business interest with nation building. His ideology of service to country and the society was also driven by the socio-economic condition of the country at that time. He diversified the Tata group businesses into various fields in the interest of nation building and started various community projects for education and social development. The Tata Group is also unique in that nearly two-thirds of the equity of the parent firm, Tata Sons Ltd, is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by Sir Dorabji Tata and sons of Jamsetji Tata, who founded the family business in the 1860s.

J. R. D. Tata is known as the most influential business leader of India who grew the Tata group from 15 companies to over 80 companies by pursuing the business with high ethical standards and serving the national interest for making India industrially strong for which he made special efforts during the British rule. He founded India’s first commercial airline, ‘Tata Airlines’ in 1932 and was the first Indian to get license of commercial flight in 1929. Tata Airlines became India’s national airline in 1946 which was split into Air India and Indian Airlines for international and domestic operations (Lala, 2010). J. R. D.’s career spanned over 52 years; he espoused the Tata philosophy of management that

corporate enterprises must be managed not merely in the interests of their owners, but equally in those of their employees, of the customers of their products, of the local community and finally of the country as a whole.

Under his leadership a number of institutions were established for social welfare, scientific research, healthcare and education. At a time when there were no advanced facilities for treatment of cancer in India, J. R. D. played an active role in the establishment of the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital (1941) and ensured that the hospital would carry out the triple objectives of treatment, research and education; the hospital continues to successfully pursue these objectives and is run by a trust. Establishment of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (1936), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (1945), Tata Energy Research Institute (1974) with financial support from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust which he chaired, are testimony of his social and environmental concern. Industries promoted by him in core areas of steel, power generation and distribution, trucks/motors, computers and consumer goods are Tata Steel, Tata Power, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy, Tata Chemicals, Tata Salt and the list continues. Tata is one of the most trusted brands nationally and internationally pursuing business with ethics and values. J. R. D. Tata espoused five guiding principles:

Success or achievement is worthwhile when it serves the needs or interests of the country and countrymen and is achieved by fair and honest means;

one must think and never accept things at their face value and slogans;

nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without considerable thought and hard work;

in any task, however, small, one should never be satisfied with the second best; one must forever strive for excellence or even perfection;

good human relations are essential to personal as well as the success of any enterprise.

J. R. D. Tata was a humane leader, with great humility, integrity, values and concern for others and his values and transcendental interest got expression in his behaviour. He took decisions through consensus. He created a township, Jamshedpur is now called Tata Nagar and benefitted the poor community by a number of community development initiatives, long before the concept of corporate social responsibility was introduced (CSR Initiatives of Tata Group, 2004). He promoted literacy and women’s education, adult education and training centres for the under privileged, offered scholarships to poor meritorious students to study abroad, the legacy continues. A significant portion of the profits after tax of many of the companies in the Tata group are channelled back to the people through major philanthropic trusts even now. Tata group is one of the oldest and most respected industrial groups in India, founded on core values and secularism, pursuing ethical business, promoting excellence and supporting sustainability (Narayana Murthy, 2002).

Evolving a Spirituo-humanistic Model of Sustainable Leadership for Organizations

As mentioned above, the validity of the two case studies of Gandhi and J. R. D. Tata was tested by analyzing texts, biographies, media reports, critiques, documents, awards, recognitions by national and international organizations and historical records about them from authentic sources against the spirituo-humanistic parameters derived from literature using ex-post facto research paradigm. The analysis revealed that both the leaders meet the criteria of spirituo-humanistic ideology. As discussed earlier, manual analysis of the texts was done to answer the research questions for the study. Manual analysis has been advocated by Alavi and Leidner (2001), Voelpel and Han (2005), and Kulkarniur (2007) specifically when the context is an important variable for the study.

The content analysis and a comparative analysis of their attributes and behaviour against the parameters identified through literature review have been presented in Table 1 with references. Table 1 reveals that both J. R. D. Tata and Gandhi had attributes of spirituo-humanistic leadership described in the literature and practiced humanistic management principles in their life. These attributes and practices were mediated by their higher/transcendental goals in political and business spheres, respectively. As they led by example, it created a positive influence on their followers which resulted in positive personal and organizational/social outcomes. The outcomes manifest in observance of humanistic management principles of human dignity as they treated people humanely, involved them in decision-making and kept their interests above their personal interests. Also, well-being of individual, community, organization and the society was achieved with positive influence on the followers—be it individuals, groups or society as a whole (Humanistic Management). J. R. D. had high tolerance for uncertainty, sustained energy, passion for quality (Conger, 1999), humility, integrity (Kurth, 2003), striving for perfection, perseverance (diversified into about 80 businesses from locomotives to salt), positive self-image, referent power, humility and high credibility. He had concern for others (Hendricks & Hendricks, 2003), took decisions with consensus, developed leaders across levels through emp-loyee centric policies and practices which earned him the title of ‘Chairmen’s Chairman’ (Fry et al., 2011; Himmelfarb, 1994). In recognition of his contributions he received India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat-Ratna in 1992. Other awards conferred on him include Padma Vibhushan in 1957, Guggenheim Medal for aviation in 1988, the United Nations Population Award in 1992. Also, Govern-ment of India issued a stamp in his honour in 1994 after his death.

Table 1.

Analysis of Spirituo-humanistic Ideology for Sustainable Leadership

Spirituo-humanistic Ideology Attributes/Values in Literature	Illustrations for Attributes/Values of Gandhi	Illustrations for Attributes/Values of JRD Tata
Vision: House (1977), Rafferty and Griffin (2004), Fry (2004), and Fleming (2007).	Vision for independent India; self-reliance; self-governance	Futuristic vision for diversification and growth for nation building, scientific and social research, social and community development.
Intrinsic motivation: Giacalone and Jurkiewicz (2003a), Wharff (2004), Benfeil (2005), Karakas (2010).	He undertook service of Indian community in South Africa transcending his self-interest of pursuing the career of a barrister.	His guiding principle ‘one must forever strive for excellence or even perfection, in any task however small and never be satisfied with the second best’.
Altruistic goal or work as a calling: Howell (1988), Novak (1996), Bass and Steidlmeir (1999), Neal et al. (1999), Collins (2001), Pfeffer (2003), Sanders et al. (2003). and Rozuel and Kakabadse (2010)	He organized campaigns for alleviation of poverty, removal of untouchability and discrimination based on caste and ethnicities, liberation of women, amity among different religions, economic self-sufficiency and above all swaraj (self-governance), in other words freedom of India.	To quote ‘corporate enterprises must be managed not merely in the interests of their owners, but equally in those of their employees, of the customers of their products, of the local community and finally of the country as a whole’.
Character and integrity: ‘walking the talk’ Fry (2003), Bass and Steidlmeir (1999), Hendricks and Hendricks (2003), Pfeffer (2003), Knowles, Twomey, Davis, and Abdul-Ali (2009).	In the constitution that he drafted for the ashram he had kept six vows that is, truth, nonviolence, celibacy, non-stealing, self-control and non-possession and added three more vows later including swadeshi, fearlessness and vow against untouchability (Wolpert, 2001).	He was known for high character and integrity.
Trust: House (1977), Dirks and Ferrin (2002), Gardner and Schermerhorn (2004), and Rozuel and Kakabadse (2010).	He was a fearless person and could stand against injustice and inequity by any individual/organization or a government.	He believed that worthwhile success is achieved with deep thought and hard work. He contributed to trustworthiness of Tata brand with his values, policies and practices.
Humility: Colvin et al. (1995), Fleenor et al. (1996), Kurth (2003), and Smith and Malcolm (2010).	Gandhi believed a person engaged in public service should lead a simple life. He wore simple clothes identifying with a poor farmer of India and popularized use of home spun cloth (khadi).	In recognition of his contributions he received India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1992. He was very humble and avoided public attention.
Honest communication: Elm (2003), Fairholm (1997), Wagner-Marsh and Conley (1999), and Rego, Cunhal, and Souto (2007).	According to Gandhi ‘Truth is God’ and he spent a large part of his life discovering ‘truth’. He tried to achieve this by conducting experiments on himself which he later documented in his autobiography ‘Experiments with Truth.’	No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile unless it is achieved by fair and honest means.
Conscience and values: Bass (1998), Delbecq (2000), Kuhnert and Lewis (1987), Mohamed, Hassan, and Wisnieski (2001), Twigg and Parayitam (2007), and Fairholm (2011).	Satyagrah (protest through nonviolence	Benefits of the profits of many companies in the Tata group are channelled back to the people through major philanthropic trusts.
Charisma: Weber (1947), Bass (1985, 1998), Bass and Avolio (1993), Klein and House (1995), Conger (1999), and Fry and Matherly (2006).	Apart from Indians Dr Martin Luther King, leader of civil rights movement in the USA and Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa were inspired by his principles and writings.	He founded India’s first commercial airline and diversified Tata group businesses into a conglomerate of 80 businesses from locomotives to salt.
Concern for others: Bass (1985, 1998), Shamir et al. (1998), Fry (2005), Paloutzian et al. (2003), and Klenke (2007).	According to him ‘An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind’. His belief in it is reflected in his statement, ‘There are many causes I am prepared to die but no causes that I am prepared to kill for’.	His principle: good human relations not only bring great personal rewards but also are essential to the success of any enterprise. Several initiatives for the underprivileged.
Motivation of followers and Satisfaction: Himmelfarb (1994), Bass (1998), Mitroff and Denton (1999), Paloutzian et al. (2003), Burns (2003), Fry et al. (2011), and Narayana Murthy (2002). http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?216854-18.8.13	At Gandhi’s call people from all walks of life both men and women—Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Sarojini Naidu, Jawahar lal Nehru and others joined the Gandhian movement.	Employee centric policies and practices earned him the title of ‘Chairmen’s Chairman’. Decision-making by consensus. Nurtured and developed leaders at various levels enjoyed idealized influence. Narayan Murthy, former Chairman, Infosys has appreciated his influence on industry.

Source: Sharma (2018).

Gandhi’s name transcended various religions, races and countries across the globe. He had internalized the spiritual attributes of integrity (Hendricks & Hendricks, 2003; Pfeffer, 2003) and trust (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002; Wagner-Marsh & Conley, 1999). He had taken service to community as a calling (Conlin, 1999; Pfeffer, 2003) and kept the follower’s motivation in view (Davidson & Caddell, 1994; Novak, 1996; Paloutzian et al., 2003) and had been striving all his life to guide the people on the path of spiritual and moral growth. During his life span from 1869–1948, Gandhi emerged as a major political leader of India who played a significant role in the Indian independence movement and is recognized as the Father of the Nation. He is called ‘The Mahatma’ (maha + atma) implying great soul whose integrity as a leader stems from an inner purity or spirituality that is expressed in all his actions.

Upon his death one of the tributes by the great physicist, Albert Einstein, is quoted as follows: ‘Generations to come will scarce believe that a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.’4

Gandhi’s leadership has been acknowledged by the international press of his time which evidence his international influence and provides validity to the results through triangulation. Gandhi was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize five times during 1937–1948 (Barua, 2006). Time (1931) magazine named Gandhi ‘the Man of the Year’ in 1930. On June 15, 2007 the United Nations General Assembly has ‘unanimously adopted’ a resolution which has declared October 2 (Gandhi’s birthday) to be the ‘the International Day of Non-Violence’ (Chaudhury, 2007).

These spirituo-humanistic parameters of this study were further validated against a secular spiritual leadership framework of Sharma (2009, 2010) and were found matching.

A spirituo-humanistic model of sustainable leadership has been derived using anti-positivist paradigm after rigorous analysis and triangulation. It envisages that a leader’s attributes and behaviour when mediated by higher level/transcendental goals result in positive personal and organizational/social outcomes. In other words, when attributes, that is, truth, conscience, integrity, humility, character and compassion are accompanied by behaviour/practice of self-discipline, simplicity, individualized consideration, community service, openness to faiths and supporting sustainability; they impact the followers and result in personal outcomes like self-transformation, increased motivation, enhanced commitment, ethical behaviour and well-being. These also result in positive organizational/social outcomes in the form of work engagement, enhanced performance, increased satisfaction, group productivity and human dignity. This is substantiated by leadership and integrity research of Hendricks and Hendricks (2003) who posit ‘when people operate from integrity, personal and professional well-being accelerates tremendously’. The review of literature that leaders’ perception of their work as a means of spiritual growth leads to improved organizational performance (Fry et al, 2011; Himmelfarb, 1994) who help workers express their spiritual values through work and promote workers’ job satisfaction. The spirituo-humanistic ideology parameters derived from the literature and validated against specific attributes and behaviour of Gandhi and Tata, support the authenticity of the model that leaders succeed because of their idealized influence. Thus higher/transcendental goals and idealized influence moderate personal and organizational/social outcomes in the spirituo-humanistic leadership model (Figure 3). The model involves various attributes of secular spirituality and humanistic principles of dignity and well-being and stakeholder interest. The present model differs from stakeholder theory of Freeman (1984) which seeks to define the specific stakeholders of a company (the normative theory of stakeholder identification) and then to examine the conditions under which managers treat these parties as stakeholders (the descriptive theory of stakeholder salience) (Phillips, 2003). The focus of the present model is sustainable leadership based on spirituo-humanistic ideology and not the stakeholders as such.

The intensive content analysis of the case studies against the parameters of spirituo-humanistic ideology presented in Table 1 also validates the spirituo-humanistic ideology of the two leaders in political and business contexts. Both these leaders have performed leadership role successfully during their lifetime for which they have been recognized nationally and internationally. Their leadership has not only stood the test of time, but their ideology has continued to influence individuals and organizations across several decades even after their demise which evidence their ‘sustainable leadership’. Based on the above, a model of sustainable leadership based on spirituo-humanistic ideology has been evolved and presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Source: The author (adapted from Sharma, 2009, 2010, 2018).

From the foregoing analysis, it can be established that spirituo-humanistic ideology of Gandhi resulted in moral strength, attributes and ethical practices and this combined with higher/transcendental goals and idealized influence, impacted personal and social outcomes in the political context. Similarly, based on spirituo-humanistic attributes and belief that the profits of many companies in the Tata group should be channelled back to the people through major philanthropic trusts, following ethical, transparent, people-centric and community-centric welfare practices. J. R. D. Tata also had impact on personal and organizational/social outcomes in the business context. This finds support in the meta analysis of 12 studies by Davis and Rothstein (2006) who reported positive correlation between perceived leader integrity and follower outcomes (higher satisfaction with job, leadership and organizational commitment). Tata group practiced the concept of social responsibility in early 1911, Tata philosophy talked about stakeholders long before the stakeholder theory was developed by Freeman (1984). His principle of doing business with honesty and not being satisfied with less than excellence is now pursued as ‘product and service quality’, total quality management, and Six Sigma. Tata group, based on his principles, has evolved a business excellence model and corporate social responsibility index which are used in their organization.

According to Fry (2003) as spiritual leadership theory emerges, it includes the need for a ‘visioning process’ which involves both leader’s influence and followers’ empowerment. Both the leaders had vision for the future in their respective spheres, led by example and walked the talk. Their ideology and influence have not only sustained for decades but have also become highly relevant in the present scenario evidence that spirituo-humanistic ideology-based leadership is sustainable in both political and business contexts .

In this world, full of war, terrorism, racial discrimination, religious conflicts and hostile take-over, merger and acquisitions, scams and frauds, Gandhi’s principles of self-discipline, character, integrity, non–violence, openness to faiths and universal brotherhood and truth have become most relevant than ever before in the society. To quote Albert Einstein:

Mahatma Gandhi’s life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation …, and practiced it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had … will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time. (Einstein on Gandhi, b)5

Similarly, Tata’s philosophy of secularism, social responsibility and support for sustainability has relevance for market and organizations in the present scenario. In view of the foregoing, both these leaders testify on the parameters of spirituo-humanistic ideology for sustainable leadership. Thus, using ex-post facto research design for the case study research of the two leaders and critical content analysis of literature, texts and autobiography, the spirituo-humanistic model for sustainable leadership presented in Figure 3 stands validated. Another outcome of this ex-post facto research is empirically derived definition of sustainable leadership:

Sustainable leadership is as a secular leadership typology based on spirituo-humanistic ideology. It involves intrinsic core values, compassion, ethical and socially responsible practices mediated by higher/transcendental goal leading to positive personal, social and organisational outcomes. (Sharma, 2018)

Conclusions and Implications

The present research adopted ex-post facto research design with case study methodology to provide empirical evidence of sustainable leadership in political and organizational contexts. As the leadership of M. K. Gandhi and J. R. D. Tata based on spirituo-humanistic ideology (integrity, ethics and social values, Knowles, Twomey, Davis, & Abdul-Ali, 2009) had sustainable influence in political and business spheres for decades; the study validates the sustainability of their leadership based on spirituo-humanistic ideology. The article contributes to the extant literature on sustainable leadership which has not received adequate attention in the field of organizational behaviour and human resource development because of methodological constraints. Adopting a long period to assess the effectiveness of the model and by critically examining the past texts, documents, autobiography and other published work from authentic sources, the study has paved the way for research on sustainability in the field of management especially organizational behaviour. The study contributes a spirituo-humanistic ideology-based model of sustainable leadership for organizations along with a definition of sustainable leadership providing the basis for sustainable leadership theory. The research also contributes to practice for talent management and leadership development by identifying attributes and practices for sustainable leadership. It indirectly also suggests ways for enhancing productivity at individual, group and organizational levels besides enhancing leadership effectiveness and leadership sustainability in uncertain markets. Keeping stakeholder’s interest at the centre, leaders can enhance organizational reputation and long-term benefits. The attributes and behaviour identified through this study can be developed through coaching, counselling, mentoring and human resource development. Management development programmes can be organized by organizations focusing on attributes, values and practices for developing sustainable leadership. It is observed that focus of leadership programmes is on enhancing profits and productivity, but the findings of this study suggest that for leadership to be sustainable at individual and organizational levels; it ought to be based on values, ethics and humanistic principles of human dignity and well-being identified in the present study. Corruption and unethical practices which are plaguing the society and the organizations can be tackled effectively by promoting spiritual leadership in organizations (Sharma, 2010) where leaders need to transcend self-interest and work for the larger good of the organization and the society. There is need for not only organizational transformation but also social transformation through the spirituo-humanistic value-based leadership (Pathak, Sharma, & Singh, 2013). The study opens vistas for future research involving other variables, research methods, industrial sectors and cross-cultural research using spirituo-humanistic ideology.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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