Wu Wei: A Contribution to the Water-like Leadership Style

Abstract

Some recent studies have focused on specific form of leadership, entitled water-like leadership (WLL), which is based on the Daoist doctrine. Specifically, this research presents a strategic non-agency (SNA) measurement scale which refers to the Daoist principle of Wu Wei. In a first study, results reveal that SNA was associated with self-consciousness, situationism, action / inaction attitude, WLL and Daoist thinking style (DTS) from the point of view of self-evaluation. In the second study, results reveal that SNA was linked to certain forms of organizational culture as well as to WLL and DTS from the point of view of hetero-evaluation. In a third study, results reveal that SNA was associated with positive states of health and performance at work. Overall, these studies establish the validity of this new measure of SNA and invite to explore the impact of SNA in the workplace and in other spheres of life.