Todd Greer

Humility Isn't Just Personal Anymore: Testing Group-level Humility in the Organization Todd Greer

No longer a doormat. Humility reemerges. As a strand throughout history, the humility construct has endured times of great interest and appreciation, as well as disregard and rejection. Research has suffered through challenges with measurement and definition; however, recent upticks in social science research on the construct provide hope for better understanding this potential organizational virtue. Utilizing the framework developed by Tangney (2000) and Owens (2009), this individual-level construct is examined for its potential extension as a group-level phenomenon. Following a review of the humility within the religion, philosophy, organizational, and psychological disciplines, a scale for group humility is developed. A two-sample study then examines the factors of the resulting perception of group humility scale and its relationship with participative leadership, collective efficacy, organizational citizenship behaviors, and team-learning orientation. The development and empirical investigation of group humility aids the emerging field of humility within organizations by establishing the potential for its emergence and influence at the group level.