In 1977 and 1979, Robert Greenleaf published two books on his concerpt of servant leadership; and since his death, his associates and friends have written a series of books on this same theme, which is important to public administration. In brief, the books argue for a style of leadership that stresses listening, empathy, healing, persuasion, awareness, foresight, conceptualization, committment of growth to others, stewardship, and building community. In this article, we argue that the Information Age is creating new organizations in which servant leadership is particularly salient as opposed to the traditional command and control leadership style of management. Although applauding this literature, we argue that is was very much based on the spiritual wisdom literature, which has existed since humankind first recorded their thoughts. We further argue that we, as scholars and professionals, can improve this very important useful literature even more by tapping Greenleaf's original source of inspiration.
