Lake County Ohio Weal

Making boards of large corporations more accountable is not a new or foreign idea. Its recent American roots come from the business world. A central thesis of Robert Greenleaf’s book Servant Leadership (1977) is that board members of large corporations (both profit and nonprofit) should become responsible servant leaders in order that: the outcome be that people in, and affected by, the institution will grow healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more likely to become servants of society. (SL 116) One of Greenleaf’s college professors had argued that large organizations dominating our culture were mediocre, and challenged his students to reform them from within. Greenleaf become an employee of the largest, AT&T. At the end of his career he was senior executive responsible for values, organization and the growth of other senior executives. Choosing retirement at age sixty to spend his time writing and consulting, he affirmed he had no regrets for choosing the business s...