International Journal of Leadership Studies, Testing Servant Leadership Theory with Bulgarian Students

From the Editor

Mihai C. Bocarnea

This special issue of the International Journal of Leadership Studies is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Fall of Communism in Europe. The staggering revolutionary wave sweeping through the Eastern Block in 1989 included the election of the first non-Communist government in Poland (September), the demise of the Communist Party in Hungary (October), the Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9), the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Bulgarian Upheaval (November), and the violent Romanian Revolution (December). Subsequently, in 1990 and 1991, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia declared their independence from the Soviet Union. The USSR itself, fundamentally changed by Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, eventually collapsed in 1991 when the dissolution of the Soviet Union became final. This profound political reformation of the former Eastern Block triggered significant social and economic changes in these countries and lengthy and difficult transitions to democracy and market economy.

Although late, the scholarly interest in organizational leadership studies in the former Communist countries has steadily increased. More and more studies employing qualitative and quantitative research methods have explored organizational leadership phenomena in these countries. Recognizing this trend 20 years after the tumultuous events of 1989, the 11th annual International Leadership Association Global Conference, the largest conference in the field, took place in Prague in November 2009. At this conference, Vaclav Havel, leader of the Velvet Revolution, was named ILA's 2009 Distinguished Leader.

This IJLS special issue contains leadership studies from Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, and Russia. [ more ]

Testing Servant Leadership Theory with Bulgarian Students

Mihai C. Bocarnea & Marina Dimitrova

This study tests Patterson's (2003) theory of servant leadership in the Bulgarian contexts investigating the causal relationships between the seven constructs in the servant leadership model. University students' perceptions of servant leader characteristics were assessed using the Dennis and Bocarnea's (2005) servant leadership instrument. Results support the causal relationships among servant leadership constructs. Furthermore, the leader-follower gender similarity does not have an influence on these constructs. The study pioneers servant leadership research in Bulgaria, a country experiencing an uneasy transition to democracy and market economy after the collapse of Communism. [ more ]

Leadership in Estonian Organizations During Transition

Krista Tuulik & Ruth Alas

During the 20 years following the fall of communism, Estonia faced turbulent times as they declared independence and gained recognition both politically and economically. To understand characteristics of leaders during these turbulent times, two leadership surveys were carried out in Estonia in 2001 and 2003, evaluating actual leader behavior and desirable leader behavior, respectively... [ more ]

Leadership Attitudes in Lithuanian Business Organizations: Evidence and Perspectives

Danuta Diskiene, Albinas Marcinskas & Asta Stankeviciene

This paper presents an analysis of management transformations in Lithuania, resulting in a response to global challenges and their influence on leadership attitudes. The emphasis is on the results of a survey that reveals the orientation of the mindset of leaders who expressed their principles and attitudes to leadership practice... [ more ]

Leading the Change for Quality Enhancement: A Romanian Cultural Perspective

Carmen Aida Hutu

This article comments on leadership and quality enhancement in Romanian companies from a cultural perspective based on the results of three studies performed by the author related to cultural orientations in Romania... [ more ]

Building Strategic Leadership Competencies: The Case of Unilever

Maarten Van Beek & Mikhail Grachev

This article explores strategic leadership resources of a global firm doing business in post-Communist countries. The authors analyze Unilever's experience in building leadership competencies and discuss application of its 'Leadership Growth Profile' concept to a specific Russian business environment... [ more ]

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