The serving organisation and leadership for sustainable human development

The paper outlines the development of the foundational anthropological and leadership perspectives on dominant human resource management models. Two influential HRM models (the Michigan model and the Harvard model) are described in detail, with consideration of the assumptions they make about human nature and the leadership principles they are based on. After evaluating these HRM models the author proposes the introduction of a more complex anthropological basis for HRM that includes ideas about the spirituality of self-transcendence and the importance of incorporating a virtue perspective on practicing servant leadership. These ideas are integrated in a model of the serving organisation, in which human resource management makes way for leadership for sustainable human development.