Perceptions of Wisdom by Organizational Leaders

Abstract

Wisdom has been considered the fulfillment of human purpose (Trowbridge & Ferrari, 2011), solely the province of God (Assmann, 1994), and a quaint naïve concept (Case & Gosling, 2007). These disparate views demonstrate the need for further study of wisdom as a universally accepted definition does not yet exist (Ardelt, 2003; Jeste et al., 2010). Scholars do agree that wisdom is both needed by leaders and in short supply (Kessler & Bailey, 2007b; Küpers & Pauleen, 2015). Expanding on the research of Livingston (2012) and Peterson (2016), this study used the Wisdom-Based Leadership Model (WBLM; Ludden, 2009, 2015) as a basis for a survey instrument that sought further understanding into organizational leaders’ perceptions of wisdom.

Three hundred and seventy-five leaders from a single global organization expressed their perceptions on the 10 fundamental constructs that comprise the WBLM: knowledge, experience, community, critical thinking, reflection, deliberation, integrity, courage, collaboration, and spirituality (Ludden, 2009). These leaders showed significant agreement that the WBLM accurately captured the essence of wisdom and that wisdom development is important for organizational leaders.