Other orientation is defined as “the extent to which individuals are concerned with the welfare of others” (Meglino & Korsgaard, 2007, p. 59). Other‐oriented leaders focus their attention on organizational objectives coupled with a human resource emphasis, whereas rational self‐interested leaders concern themselves with organizational objectives coupled with self‐emphasis. This quantitative study examines philanthropian and servant leadership, which are other‐oriented leadership approaches, and transactional leadership, which is a rational self‐interested leadership approach, to determine the effectiveness of the approaches in the 21st century. This study further examines the results of a hermeneutic phenomenological study of philanthropian leadership that introduced a new other‐oriented leadership model. This study focuses on leadership preferences of leaders, employees, and third‐year undergraduate business students to determine if there is a significant difference between preferences among groups for other‐oriented and rational self‐interest‐oriented leadership approaches.

Workplace bullying is a phenomenon in American and Canadian organizations that has been ignored for many years and as a result targeted employees are suffering [1][2][3]. Workplace bullying is at epidemic proportions with little done to address the issue. The workplace for bullied employees has become an uncivilized and hostile environment [4]. Leaders who embrace a rational self-interested approach to leading are contributing to the workplace bullying phenomenon. Using Chi Square tests of independence, the study was conducted to determine the extent to which rational self-interested leaders rely on bullying behaviors when interacting with employees. Three hundred fifty-five employees were asked to complete a survey consisting of fifteen bullying behavior statements. The results of the Chi Square tests indicate a significant relationship exists between employee demographics vs. certain bullying behaviors associated with threats to personal standing, professional status and destabilization. The results further reveal that rational self-interested leaders are relying on bullying in three areas: threat to personal standing, threat to professional status and destabilization. It was also noted that if the rational self-interest leader did not make changes the problem of workplace bullying would continue to escalate. The recommendation was that rational self-interested leaders could benefit by changing their perspective on employees to include more personal and humane treatment, rewards, and recognition.