A leader’s flexibility can be expressed via a multi-dimensional structure containing a variety of dynamics and context-dependent adaptations. Leaders who possess these abilities can inspire a wide range of people to trust and follow them. This article focuses on the leadership style of Maimonides, a medieval scholar who became one of the most influential figures in Jewish history. His success in appealing to and influencing vast and varied populations can be explained through the flexible leadership model. The model of flexible leadership demonstrated by Maimonides will serve as a model for research on other leaders in various fields. In addition, the potential of the model, as well as how it is demonstrated by Maimonides’ leadership style, can inspire leaders in a complex and changing reality.
KeywordsMaimonidesFlexible LeadershipGuide for the PerplexedMishneh TorahEpistle
Ahn, M. J., Ettner, L. W., & Loupin, A. (2012). Values v. Traits-Based Approaches to Leadership: Insights from an Analysis of the Aeneid. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 33, 112-130. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731211203447
Altmann, A. (1972). Maimonides’ Four Perfections. Israel Oriental Studies, 2, 15-24.
Baron, L., Rouleau, V., Grégoire, S., & Baron, C. (2018). Mindfulness and Leadership Flexibility. The Journal of Management Development, 37, 165-177. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-06-2017-0213
Birnbaum, R. (2005). Maimonides, Then and Now. Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, 54, 66-78.
Bohl, K. W. (2019). Leadership as Phenomenon: Reassessing the Philosophical Ground of Leadership Studies. Philosophy of Management, 18, 273-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-019-00116-x
Breslauer, S. D. (1980). Philosophy and Imagination: The Politics of Prophecy in the View of Moses Maimonides. The Jewish Quarterly Review, 70, 153-171. https://doi.org/10.2307/1453962
Dion, M. (2012). Are Ethical Theories Relevant for Ethical Leadership? Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 33, 4-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731211193098
Eisen, R. (2009). Jews and Muslims: Why They Have More in Common than They Realize. Religions, 11, 104-116. https://doi.org/10.5339/rels.2009.commonground.9
Fenton, P. B. (1982). A Meeting with Maimonides. The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 45, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X0005429X
Halbertal, M. (2013). Maimonides: Life and Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400848478
Halkin, A. S., & Hartman, D. (1993). Epistles of Maimonides: Crisis and Leadership. New York: Jewish Publication Society.
Heemsbergen, B. (2006). The Leader’s Brain. Victoria: Trafford Publishing.
Hoffman, B. J., & Frost, B. C. (2006). Multiple Intelligences of Transformational Leaders: An Empirical Examination. International Journal of Manpower, 27, 37-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720610652826
Hurtado, P. S., & Mukherji, A. (2015). Developing a Construct of the Leader’s Cognitive Flexibility: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Journal of Competitiveness Studies, 23, 3-12.
Idel, M. (2008). Leadership and Charisma: Maimonides, Nahmanides and Abraham Abulafia. Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, 1, 2-34.
Jia, X., Chen, J., Mei, L., & Wu, Q. (2018). How Leadership Matters in Organizational Innovation: A Perspective of Openness. Management Decision, 56, 6-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-04-2017-0415
Jones, S., & Nieto, C. A. (2015). Developing People for Strategic Leadership. Effective Executive, 18, 19-24.
Kaiser, R. B., & Overfield, D. V. (2010). Assessing Flexible Leadership as a Mastery of Opposites. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 62, 105-118. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019987
Kellner, M. (2016). Gam hem kori’im adam: Ha-nechri b’aynai ha-Rambam [They Too Are Called Human: Gentiles in the Eyes of Maimonides]. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University. (In Hebrew)
Kiener, R. C. (2011). Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 131, 347-349.
Kobler, F. (1978). Letters of Jews through the Ages: From Biblical Times to the Middle of the Eighteenth Century (Vol. 1). New York: East and West Library.
Kreisel, H. (2012). Maimonides’ Political Thought: Studies in Ethics, Law, and the Human Ideal. New York: SUNY Press.
Landin, J. (2017). Keys to Flexible Leadership. Strategic Finance, 99, 23-24.
Lorberbaum, Y. (2002). On Contradictions, Rationality, Dialectics, and Esotericism in Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed. The Review of Metaphysics, 55, 711-750.
Lucas, K., van Wee, B., & Maat, K. (2016). A Method to Evaluate Equitable Accessibility: Combining Ethical Theories and Accessibility-Based Approaches. Transportation, 43, 473-490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9585-2
Maimonides, M. (1910). The Guide for the Perplexed. London: Routledge.
Novicevic, M. M., Williams, L. A., Abraham, D. R., Gibson, M. C., Smothers, J., & Crawford, A. L. (2011). Principles of Outstanding Leadership: Dale Carnegie’s Folk Epistemology. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 16, 4-22.
Peters, C., & Bradbard, D. A. (2010). Web Accessibility: An Introduction and Ethical Implications. Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, 8, 206-232. https://doi.org/10.1108/14779961011041757
Pillay, S. S. (2010). Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders. Hoboken, NJ: Pearson FT Press.
Ravitzky, A. (1992). Philosophy and Leadership in Maimonides. Thought, 11, 1-4.
Shapira, H. (2018). The Virtue of Mercy According to Maimonides: Ethics, Law, and Theology. Harvard Theological Review, 111, 559. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816018000275
Shemesh, A. O. (2018). The Physician vs. the Halakhic Man: Theory and Practice in Maimonides’s Attitude towards Treating Gentiles. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 17, 18-31.
Silver, D. J. (2012). Maimonidean Criticism and the Maimonidean Controversy (pp. 1180-1240). Leiden: Brill.
Soloveitchik, H. (1980). Maimonides’ iggeret ha-shemad: Law and Rhetoric. In L. Landman (Ed.), Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Memorial Volume (pp. 281-319). New York: Ktav Publishing.
Stitskin, L. D. (1975). From the Pages of Tradition: Maimonides’s Last Two Recorded Letters: Maimonides Reveals the Real Purpose for Writing His Books. Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, 15, 186-192.
Stitskin, L. D. (1977). From the Pages of Tradition: Maimonides’ Maamar Kiddush Hashem: Historical Evidence and Halakhic Principles. Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, 16, 95-120.
Wilkes, J., Yip, G., & Simmons, K. (2011). Performance Leadership: Managing for Flexibility. The Journal of Business Strategy, 32, 22-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/02756661111165444
Yukl, G. (2008). The Importance of Flexible Leadership. In R. B. Kaiser, Ed., The Importance, Assessment, and Development of Flexible Leadership, Practitioner Forum Presented at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, San Francisco, April 2008, 2-7.
Yukl, G., & Mahsud, R. (2010). Why Flexible and Adaptive Leadership Is Essential. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 62, 81-93. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019835