變與不變：重新定義謙遜領導的涵義

謙遜(humility)領導是近年來許多學者與實務工作者關注的重要議題，過去許多的管理學研究已經證明謙遜是有助於提升領導有效性，然而謙遜相比其他的強勢領導特質 (如：有企圖心的、果斷的、激勵人心等)要更為特殊，時至今日，仍有許多人仍困惑於謙遜與領導兩者之間看似矛盾的關係。這個問題之所以會出現，是因為在管理學上主要著重於謙遜的特定外顯行為，卻鮮少探討謙遜領導者的內在價值觀，對其領導行為與決策思維所產生的影響。為了解決這個問題，本研究首先藉由過去的文獻，探討各學者對謙遜的定義與概念，並且從中找出謙遜的核心本質，透過這些核心本質推論出謙遜之人可能展現的其他行為表現。本研究認為謙遜領導者在展現出其謙遜的行為表現當中，存在著兩個不變的原則，分別為「真實」 (truth)與「尊重」 (respect)，當他們展現出謙遜行為以外的領導行為時，這些原則仍是他們不變的管理之道，而這些原則有可能正是謙遜領導者能達成更高的領導有效性的重要關鍵，本研究也以四位謙遜領導者的個案，證明本研究的論證。除此之外，為了回歸謙遜領導的問題本質，本研究亦重新定義謙遜在管理學的重要議題，以及提出對未來研究的建議。

關鍵字

謙遜；領導

並列摘要

Humility in leadership has been an important issue to many scholars and practitioners in recent years. Prior studies in management have indicated that humility can contribute to improving leadership effectiveness. However, humility seems to be distinct, from other strong leadership traits (e.g. ambitious, assertive, motivating, etc.). Nowadays, people are still confused about the paradox of humility in leadership. This problem arises because we mainly put emphasis on the expressed behaviors of humility, but barely explore how humble leaders’ inherent value influences their behaviors and the way of thinking. To deal with this problem, this paper first explores the definition and conceptualization of humility through literature review, and sorts out the core essence of humility. With these core essence, we can then infer other behaviors that a humble person may display. This paper proposes that two invariable principles exist, namely “truth” and “respect” respectively, underlying humble leaders’ expressed behaviors. When they display other leadership behaviors aside from humble behaviors, these principles still remain their code of conduct, which are probably the key elements for humble leaders to achieve higher leadership effectiveness. This study also provides four cases of humble leaders to support our demonstration. Additionally, to redefine the meaning of humility in leadership, this paper also concludes with a prime issue about what problem we should focus on in management field, and recommendations for future research.