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Baahubali’s Kattappa: servant leadership in practice

Esrafil Ali (Indian Institute of Management Sambalpur, Sambalpur, India)
Yasmeen Khan (Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management and Technology, Bareilly, India)

Publication date: 20 June 2018

Abstract

Subject area

Leadership and team building, Human resource management, Organizational behavior.

Study level/applicability

The case may be most useful for MBA or any other PG level courses, particularly in human resource management, team leadership, motivation and morale. The Case could also be appropriate in the courses that cover General Management or Business Management, Executive Education Programs. This case can also be taught to the middle level and senior level managers in Management Development Programs.

Case overview

The case study describes the leadership lessons drawn from the role of Kattappa in the movie Baahubali. He took bold decisions to save the Mahishmati kingdom from Bijjaladeva. Being a slave and agile swordsman, he obeyed all the orders of the king of the realm. He made strategic decisions which resulted in positive outcomes for the kingdom. His leadership style can be linked with the theories of servant leadership style. The case tells us about some selected instances from the movies Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which had happened with Kattappa which can be used to understand the different principles and philosophy of servant leadership.

Expected learning outcomes

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: to understand the different dimensions and essential skills of servant leadership; to analyze and learn the servant leadership style from the role of Kattappa; and to evaluate the appropriateness of servant leadership in context to other leadership styles.

Supplementary materials

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Subject code

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This case has been written on the basis of public sources only. Therefore, the interpretation and perspectives presented in this case are not necessarily true for any of its characters.

Disclaimer. This case is written solely for educational purposes and is not intended to represent successful or unsuccessful managerial decision-making. The authors may have disguised names; financial and other recognizable information to protect confidentiality.

Citation

Ali, E. and Khan, Y. (2018), "Baahubali’s Kattappa: servant leadership in practice", , Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-07-2017-0173

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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