Hardback
Global Leadership and Wisdoms of the World
Unpacking Insights from 17 Language Cultures
9781803926100 Edward Elgar Publishing
This innovative book excavates hidden wisdoms from 17 diverse language cultures around the world, from Arabic and British-English to Russian and Swahili. Further, it explores their critical insights for global leadership, extrapolating important lessons on group dynamics, decision-making, conflict management, motivation, ethics, communication, diversity, strategy, and organizational effectiveness.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
This innovative book excavates hidden wisdoms from 17 diverse language cultures around the world, from Arabic and British-English to Russian and Swahili. Further, it explores their critical insights for global leadership, extrapolating important lessons on group dynamics, decision-making, conflict management, motivation, ethics, communication, diversity, strategy, and organizational effectiveness.
Integrating an international team of experts, Global Leadership and Wisdoms of the World is based on the premise that languages, and especially hard-to-translate terms, reveal assumptions, values, and praxes that are often misread outside of regional contexts. Each chapter uses examples from local leaders and businesses to scrutinize how key language terms around wisdom reflect and guide many aspects of management and organization, including cognition, emotion, moral standards, mission and vision, collaboration, and execution. Ultimately, the book showcases how these ‘wisdoms of the world’ enhance leadership literacy and bridge global environments, pursuing a sustainably positive impact while navigating the complexities of international business and cross-cultural management.
Students and academics seeking to navigate complexities and challenges in business management, leadership, ethics and trust, climate action, and diversity and inclusion will find this an invigorating read. The strategies and methods for incorporating local wisdoms are also highly beneficial to professionals in media and communication, education, diplomacy, and public policy.
Integrating an international team of experts, Global Leadership and Wisdoms of the World is based on the premise that languages, and especially hard-to-translate terms, reveal assumptions, values, and praxes that are often misread outside of regional contexts. Each chapter uses examples from local leaders and businesses to scrutinize how key language terms around wisdom reflect and guide many aspects of management and organization, including cognition, emotion, moral standards, mission and vision, collaboration, and execution. Ultimately, the book showcases how these ‘wisdoms of the world’ enhance leadership literacy and bridge global environments, pursuing a sustainably positive impact while navigating the complexities of international business and cross-cultural management.
Students and academics seeking to navigate complexities and challenges in business management, leadership, ethics and trust, climate action, and diversity and inclusion will find this an invigorating read. The strategies and methods for incorporating local wisdoms are also highly beneficial to professionals in media and communication, education, diplomacy, and public policy.
Critical Acclaim
‘But what is a wise leader? In Global Leadership and Wisdoms of the World, Kessler and Wong-MingJi have addressed this question in an exciting and important new book, acknowledging and documenting that there is not just one way to be a wise leader. Across 17 chapters they have assembled authors who write about wisdom in leadership in different countries ranging from the West to the East, spanning a wide range of societal and cultural traditions and practices. This book can serve as an important basic source of fundamental information about the nature of wisdom around the world and how these different forms of wisdom can serve leadership across a wide range of different countries.’
– Howard Nusbaum, University of Chicago, US
‘Eric Kessler and Diana Wong-MingJi have brought together experts on language and culture to shed light on how languages, particularly terms that are difficult to translate and comprehend out of context, reflect deep-seated values and assumptions. The editors provide themes that connect across the 17 languages to suggest characteristics of global leadership based on wisdom embedded in various “language cultures”. Wisdom is sensitively woven throughout the volume, from the dedication to the editors’ mothers to the original poem at the end that incorporates wisdom from all 17 languages. The focus on languages as sources of wisdom, rather than languages defined by national borders, is a valuable and liberating framework for the current environment of managing multilingual global teams and facilitating the mobility of millions around the world.’
– Sheila M. Puffer, Northeastern University, US
‘This fascinating volume blends conventional perspectives on leadership with insights from Indigenous and non-Western philosophical traditions. Thoughtful explorations of language and meaning bring the wisdom of diverse cultures and histories together in constructing a new body of knowledge for twenty-first-century organizations. Worthwhile reading for global leaders and scholars of global leadership.’
– Fiona Moore, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
‘By convening a consortium of distinguished experts from various countries, environments, and circumstances, who generously share their profound perspectives at the juncture of sagacity and worldwide governance, the editors and authors furnish us with invaluable and timely enlightenment regarding the astute leadership exhibited by global leaders as they navigate the intricacies of our complex world.’
– Abraham Carmeli, Tel Aviv University, Israel
– Howard Nusbaum, University of Chicago, US
‘Eric Kessler and Diana Wong-MingJi have brought together experts on language and culture to shed light on how languages, particularly terms that are difficult to translate and comprehend out of context, reflect deep-seated values and assumptions. The editors provide themes that connect across the 17 languages to suggest characteristics of global leadership based on wisdom embedded in various “language cultures”. Wisdom is sensitively woven throughout the volume, from the dedication to the editors’ mothers to the original poem at the end that incorporates wisdom from all 17 languages. The focus on languages as sources of wisdom, rather than languages defined by national borders, is a valuable and liberating framework for the current environment of managing multilingual global teams and facilitating the mobility of millions around the world.’
– Sheila M. Puffer, Northeastern University, US
‘This fascinating volume blends conventional perspectives on leadership with insights from Indigenous and non-Western philosophical traditions. Thoughtful explorations of language and meaning bring the wisdom of diverse cultures and histories together in constructing a new body of knowledge for twenty-first-century organizations. Worthwhile reading for global leaders and scholars of global leadership.’
– Fiona Moore, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
‘By convening a consortium of distinguished experts from various countries, environments, and circumstances, who generously share their profound perspectives at the juncture of sagacity and worldwide governance, the editors and authors furnish us with invaluable and timely enlightenment regarding the astute leadership exhibited by global leaders as they navigate the intricacies of our complex world.’
– Abraham Carmeli, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Contents
Contents
Preface xi
1 Introduction: global leadership and wisdoms of the world 1
Eric H. Kessler and Diana J. Wong-MingJi
2 Indigenous wisdom and insights for global leaders: tapu
and leadership 19
Katene Eruera, Edwina Pio and Peter Mcghee
3 Swahili wisdom and insights for global leaders: a complex
journey of indigenous to global multicultural integration 35
Aloysius Newenham Kahindi and Diana J. Wong-MingJi
4 Hindi wisdom and insights for global leaders: Indian
conceptualization of wisdom – emic perspective and
lessons for global leadership 49
Ankita Sharma and Abhishek Sharma
5 Hebrew wisdom for global leaders: innovation leadership
in the Hebrew language and culture 65
Nurit Nahum and Timur Uman
6 Mainland Chinese wisdom for global leaders: diversity of
many in one 77
Diana J. Wong-MingJi
7 Non-mainland Chinese wisdom for global leaders: the way
Confucius would lead – wisdom displayed by elementary
school principals who transformed their schools and communities 93
Shih-ying Yang, Ming-Dih Lin and Hao-Jun Fan
8 Arabic wisdom for global leaders: an introspect into
notions of wisdom in the Holy Quran 109
Shrouk Abdelnaeim, Youmna Soliman El-Sherbiny and
Noha El-bassiouny
9 British-English wisdom for global leaders: a language that
separates and stratifies, and thereby sustains the status of
(some) leaders 125
Alexandra Jolly and Jonathan Gosling
10 American-English wisdom for global leaders: the rock ‘n’
roll quarterback 141
Eric H. Kessler
11 French wisdom for global leaders: from outsider to insider 156
Mithun Mridha and Imran Chowdhury
12 Spanish wisdom for global leaders: examining the
‘paternalismo benevolente’ of Lorenzo Servitje, founder of
Mexican Grupo Bimbo 170
Anabella Davila
13 Russian wisdom for global leaders: mind the language! 188
Andrei Kuznetsov and Olga Kuznetsova
14 Farsi wisdom for global leaders: the Iranian art of tārof –
winning by gaining the lower hand 202
Afsaneh Nahavandi
15 Korean wisdom for global leaders: the concept of seulgi
and leadership in the “glocalized” world 216
HyunHui Kim
16 German wisdom for global leaders: weisheit – perspectives
on selected German terms for wise leadership 230
Wendelin Küpers
17 Finnish wisdom for global leaders: the Finnish construct
of sisu as a way of life and leadership founded in a deep
practice of wisdom 251
Emilia Elisabet Lahti and Eeva K. Kallio
18 Japanese wisdom for global leaders: wisdom as a way of
life in Japan 265
Hirotaka Takeuchi
Epilogue: poem – a wisdom tree for global leaders 277
Preface xi
1 Introduction: global leadership and wisdoms of the world 1
Eric H. Kessler and Diana J. Wong-MingJi
2 Indigenous wisdom and insights for global leaders: tapu
and leadership 19
Katene Eruera, Edwina Pio and Peter Mcghee
3 Swahili wisdom and insights for global leaders: a complex
journey of indigenous to global multicultural integration 35
Aloysius Newenham Kahindi and Diana J. Wong-MingJi
4 Hindi wisdom and insights for global leaders: Indian
conceptualization of wisdom – emic perspective and
lessons for global leadership 49
Ankita Sharma and Abhishek Sharma
5 Hebrew wisdom for global leaders: innovation leadership
in the Hebrew language and culture 65
Nurit Nahum and Timur Uman
6 Mainland Chinese wisdom for global leaders: diversity of
many in one 77
Diana J. Wong-MingJi
7 Non-mainland Chinese wisdom for global leaders: the way
Confucius would lead – wisdom displayed by elementary
school principals who transformed their schools and communities 93
Shih-ying Yang, Ming-Dih Lin and Hao-Jun Fan
8 Arabic wisdom for global leaders: an introspect into
notions of wisdom in the Holy Quran 109
Shrouk Abdelnaeim, Youmna Soliman El-Sherbiny and
Noha El-bassiouny
9 British-English wisdom for global leaders: a language that
separates and stratifies, and thereby sustains the status of
(some) leaders 125
Alexandra Jolly and Jonathan Gosling
10 American-English wisdom for global leaders: the rock ‘n’
roll quarterback 141
Eric H. Kessler
11 French wisdom for global leaders: from outsider to insider 156
Mithun Mridha and Imran Chowdhury
12 Spanish wisdom for global leaders: examining the
‘paternalismo benevolente’ of Lorenzo Servitje, founder of
Mexican Grupo Bimbo 170
Anabella Davila
13 Russian wisdom for global leaders: mind the language! 188
Andrei Kuznetsov and Olga Kuznetsova
14 Farsi wisdom for global leaders: the Iranian art of tārof –
winning by gaining the lower hand 202
Afsaneh Nahavandi
15 Korean wisdom for global leaders: the concept of seulgi
and leadership in the “glocalized” world 216
HyunHui Kim
16 German wisdom for global leaders: weisheit – perspectives
on selected German terms for wise leadership 230
Wendelin Küpers
17 Finnish wisdom for global leaders: the Finnish construct
of sisu as a way of life and leadership founded in a deep
practice of wisdom 251
Emilia Elisabet Lahti and Eeva K. Kallio
18 Japanese wisdom for global leaders: wisdom as a way of
life in Japan 265
Hirotaka Takeuchi
Epilogue: poem – a wisdom tree for global leaders 277
