Iranian Mystical Leadership: Lessons for Contemporary Leaders

Afsaneh Nahavandi ()
Additional contact information
Afsaneh Nahavandi: Arizona State University

Chapter Chapter 13 in Leadership through the Classics, 2012, pp 191-204 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Iran, or Persia as it was known in the West until the early part of the twentieth century, was one of the great empires of antiquity with many celebrated leaders and a rich tradition of science, philosophy, and literature. Starting with Zoroastrian teachings dating back 2,500 years ago, through myths presented in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Book of Kings) in the tenth century, and Saadi’s Golestan (The Rose Garden) in the thirteenth century, the leadership themes have remained the same. They present the ideal of the courageous, caring, humble, and moderate leader-hero who rises to save the nation against various supernatural, foreign, or domestic evils, while showing unwavering loyalty to country, king, and family, kindness to the weak and his enemies, and caring for his followers. These leadership themes, their links to current leadership theory and other ancient philosophies, and their applicability to today’s organizations are explored.

Keywords: Unique Leadership; Servant Leadership; Thirteenth Century; Father Figure; Good Deed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-642-32445-1_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783642324451

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-32445-1_13

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().