Exploring the Relevance and Implications of Humility in Organizations

Humility in Management

“…He will place the organization's goals before his own personal goals and encourage the other members of the organization to do the same, and he will try to develop people so that they may attain higher goals. Over time, the firm may become less hierarchical, allowing ''more migration of decisions to those with the expertise to handle them, and less convergence of decisions on people entitled by rank to make them'' (Weick 2001, p. 106); a firm more open to dialog, less inclined toward rivalry and more inclined toward cooperation; more creative, in which new ideas are accepted, acknowledged and shared; a firm that learns more easily and is more adaptive (Etzioni 1989): in short, it is a ''humble organization'' (Owens et al 2011). That is why Cameron et al (2003) have included humility as one of the ''organizational virtues'' which contribute to organizations' moral foundation in their ''positive leadership'' approach.…”

CEO Humility: Development of an Unobtrusive Measure and Strategic Implications

“…Early writings and colloquial definitions of humility have mainly fallen into the first category, contributing to a pervasive misconception that humility is, in essence, a weakness -summed up by the phrase "I am not worth it" (Weiss & Knight, 1980). While lay definitions of humility often include low self-regard and unworthiness, Tangney's (2001) review of literature on humility demonstrated that most of the work published in theology, philosophy, and psychology has portrayed humility as a positive characteristic and humble individuals are described as having a stable sense of self-worth and self-respect (Owens, Rowatt, & Wilkins, 2011;Vera & Rodriguez-Lopez, 2004).…”

“…The most commonly cited dimension of humility is self-awareness -the capacity to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses without positive or negative exaggeration (Owens, Rowatt, & Wilkins, 2011). Humble individuals are characterized as having an objective self-view, which entails both the capacity to accurately assess one's abilities and successes and to acknowledge and take accountability for one's mistakes, imperfections and limited knowledge (Exline & Geyer, 2004;Tangney, 2002).…”

“…True narcissists are hypersensitive to criticism and have a fragile sense of self (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006). On the other end, humble individuals are said to have a stable sense of self-worth and self-respect (Owens, Rowatt, & Wilkins, 2011;Vera & Rodriguez-Lopez, 2004).…”

“…Humility was expected to show a weak to moderate negative correlation with narcissism, since both include in their definitions the individual's propensity to be self-centered as opposed to other-centered (i.e., low self-focus dimension). A weak positive correlation was expected between humility and emotional stability, since humble individuals are characterized as having a stable sense of self-worth and self-respect (Owens, Rowatt, & Wilkins, 2011;Vera & Rodriguez-Lopez, 2004). A weak positive correlation was also expected with openness to experience since the teachabilty/openness to learn dimension of humility also captures an individual's interest and openness to different ideas and ways of doing things (Owens et al, 2013).…”