Park Yonggwan Moses

To fully understand Osaka Sangyo University's foundational principle—Greatness for the Masses—I propose the following three points. First, there is no inherent contradiction in the overall concept of “Greatness for the Masses,” as it is a combination of the concepts of “greatness” and “for the Masses.” Second, this study defines leadership as having the capability and integrity to influence society. According to this definition, everyone has the responsibility to influence society. Third, this study argues that the essence of leadership is defined by how leaders influence society. This approach categorizes leaders as bad leaders and great leaders, depending on whether their influence on society is bad or great. Therefore, I argue that the slogan “Greatness for the Masses” reflects the educational spirit of Osaka Sangyo University, as the university nurtures great leaders by helping them to develop a dream and vision that will allow them to influence society. It also teaches them how to not only take care of themselves but also contribute to the welfare of the Masses even though doing that may require self-sacrifice.

Drawing upon an analytical framework, interviews, and a questionnaire survey, this study explores the reasons for necessity to operate companies as collaborative communities for implementing emergent innovation and the ways in which associate-centered leadership facilitates emergent innovation and helps organizations respond to turbulent conditions. Associate-centered leadership is the method, process, or capacity of influencing associates to achieve the group mission and vision by providing a context in which all associates can demonstrate their abilities. Unlike the prevailing leader-centered power model, associate-centered leaders encourage associates to question premises grounded in old experiences, assumptions, and beliefs. Leaders in an associate-centered model create visions and wisdom, serve, facilitate, moderate, make peace, and express thanks.

The film Fly Away Home was one of the best films of 1996. It is a thrilling, breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreakingly touching story of thirteen-year-old girl Amy Alden who helps the gaggle of geese fly south for the winter. The film provides many insights with regard to communication and coordination between people and geese; team work between Amy, her father Thomas Alden, her father’s girlfriend Susan Barnes, and Thomas’ friends; and the servant leadership demonstrated by Amy, her father, and Susan. This film also adds many emotional insights with regard to the nature of unconditional love, maternal and paternal love, and conflict resolution among people in a family healing from hurt. Therefore, we propose that the film deals not only with protecting nature and solving family problems, but is also relevant in an organizational context, for example to organizational problem solving such as conflict resolution and leadership.

The current management model includes personnel management, organization management, financial management, production management, information management, and time management. Since human beings are resources or capital more important than anything else, personnel management is also called human resource management (HRM) or human capital management (HCM). However, humans are not resources or capital. Therefore, human beings are not the objects of management. The objects of management are resources such as things, money, information, knowledge and expertise, and time. Human beings are the subjects of management. Human beings are led toward a vision, and every person must be able to fully demonstrate their talents. If management believes that, the concepts of personnel management, human-resource management, and human capital management represent a contradiction terms.

For implementing emergent innovation, I present detailed arguments to focus on a new leadership; this is fundamentally different from the current leadership model as a leader-centered power model. Following are the ingredients of new leadership: moderator as a merciful person, peacemaker as reconciler, server as nurturer, wisdom-creator as revelator, vision-maker as dreamer, facilitator as empowerer, and thanks-giver as acknowledger. I define these as the seven pillars of new leadership for emergent innovation. This paper argues that emergent innovation and new leadership are essential for companies to survive and win in the changing times. While citing specific case of companies, the paper argues theoretically that new leadership is a must for achieving emergent innovation.