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Dilemma 2: Rules Versus Exceptions ■ 69

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ity, from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism. Servant- leaders
always operate from an ethnorelativist point of view. That
means that they view the relative cultural differences in a
healthy way and deal with them positively; the more sensi-
tive they are, the more advantage they can get out of cul-
tural diversity.

International and Multinational
Organizations
The servant-leader will always try to use local best practices
and implement them globally. In the same way, he or she will
decide to what extent the quality of the global offering can be
used in a local context. The servant-leader must have a highly
developed competence in dealing with cultural differences.
Milton Bennett developed a model in which he defi nes
six phases of intercultural sensitivity. The more sensitive a
leader is, the more likely the leader is to make the most of
cultural diversity. The fi rst three phases are ethnocentric,
meaning that people unconsciously view their own culture
as the center of their reality. And that is the last thing that
a servant-leader would do. The most banal form of ethno-
centricity is the fi rst phase: Denial. In this phase, leaders
cannot recognize cultural differences, let alone experience
them. There are no alternatives to their own logic, and if
there are, they are inferior. These are the managers like
the ones you meet in the Midwest of the United States that
insist, “If everyone just learns to speak English, there won’t
be any cultural problems.” These are the same people who
have never experienced culture shock, as opposed to the
people all around them who have. Their solution to cultural
difference is to isolate or leave the other alone, like in the