Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the goal of the leader is to serve.

A servant leader shares power, puts the needs of the employees first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.^[1] Instead of the people working to serve the leader, the leader exists to serve the people.^[2] As stated by its founder, Robert K. Greenleaf, a servant leader should be focused on "Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"^[3]

When leaders shift their mindset and serve first, they benefit as well as their employees in that their employees acquire personal growth, while the organization grows as well due to the employees' growing commitment and engagement. Since this leadership style came about, a number of different organizations including Starbucks and Marriott International have adopted this style as their way of leadership.^[4]

According to a 2002 study by Sen Sendjaya and James C. Sarros, servant leadership is being practiced in some of the top-ranking companies, and these companies are highly ranked because of their leadership style and following.^[1] Further research also confirms that servant leaders lead others to go beyond the call of duty.^[5]

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership}

Robert K. Greenleaf first popularized the phrase servant leadership in "The Servant as Leader", an essay published in 1970. In this essay, Greenleaf explains how and why he came up with the idea of servant leadership, as well as defining a servant leader. Greenleaf gave this idea an extensive amount of thought before bringing it to life.^{[citation needed]} Larry Spears, CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, stated in an interview:

"Greenleaf credited his reading of Hesse's 1932 book, Journey to the East, as the personal source of inspiration in his coining the term, 'servant-leader' in his 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader."^[9]

In Journey to the East, the main character, named Leo, is a servant just like all the others. All the servants work well together, until one day when Leo disappears. When the servants realize that things are not the same without Leo, they came to the realization that Leo was far more than a servant – he was actually their leader.^[10][11]

^{Greenleaf came to the realization that a newfound leader should be someone that servants or workers can relate to.[2] Leo was seen as a servant, but when the other servants realized that things fell apart without him, he became far more than just a servant to them. This is Greenleaf's idea of what a servant leader should be.[1] Greenleaf first put his idea of servant leadership to use in an organizational sense while he was working as an executive at AT&T.[1]}

^{From the "I serve" mentality come two premises:}

• I serve because I am the leader, and
• I am the leader because I serve

Numerous different researchers and leadership experts have created scales and dimensions to differentiate between the levels of Servant Leadership practices as well as evaluate Servant Leadership behaviors.

One major extension was Larry Spears's 10 characteristics of the servant leader. Similar to other leadership experts, Spears believed that servant leaders should have these 10 traits:

1. empathy,
2. listening
3. healing,
4. awareness,
5. persuasion,
6. conceptualization,
7. foresight,
8. stewardship,
9. commitment to the growth of people, and
10. building community

Researcher Patterson also developed a more spiritual conceptualization of servant leadership around leader values including: 

• agapé love,(Agape(/ɑːˈɡɑːpeɪ,ˈɑːɡəˌpeɪ,ˈæɡə-/;^[1]fromAncient Greekἀγάπη(agápē)) is "the highest form oflove,charity")
• humility,(humility involves having an accurate opinion of oneself and expressing oneself modestly as situations demand, with clear goal orientation, openness, broad-mindedness, and a non-imposing mentality.)
• altruism (Altruismis the concern for thewell-beingof others, independently of personal benefit or reciprocity.) 

creating 21 visions for followers, being trusting, serving, and empowering their followers.

Servant leadership also contributes to employees' goal achievement and success. As defined before, a servant leader's goal is to build upon the skills of their employees and make them better people.^[30] With this trait, studies have shown that servant leaders have the ability to influence their employees to achieve their own goals as well as their work goals due to their leaders empowerment, and this plays a major role in their continued success and growth.^[30] This outcome is expected because the servant leader's main concern is the well-being of their employees.^[

^Inspiration     Hongzhi Emperor

^{30 languages}

Great thanks to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership

References

^[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i} Sendjaya, Sen; Sarros, James C. (September 2002). "Servant Leadership: Its Origin, Development, and Application in Organizations". Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. 9 (2): 57–64. doi:10.1177/107179190200900205. S2CID 145320548.
2. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g} Kashyap, Vaneet; Rangnekar, Santosh (July 2016). "Servant leadership, employer brand perception, trust in leaders and turnover intentions: a sequential mediation model". Review of Managerial Science. 10 (3): 437–461. doi:10.1007/s11846-014-0152-6. S2CID 154621016.
3. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f} Greenleaf, Robert (2007). "The Servant as Leader". Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance. pp. 79–85. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-70818-6_6. ISBN 978-3-540-70817-9.
4. ^ Li, Fengyu; Liu, Bing; Lin, Weipeng; Wei, Xin; Xu, Zikun (October 2021). "How and when servant leadership promotes service innovation: A moderated mediation model". Tourism Management. 86: 104358. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104358.
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b Sendjaya, Sen; Eva, Nathan; Robin, Mulyadi; Sugianto, Lyfie; ButarButar, Ivan; Hartel, Charmine (November 8, 2019). "Leading others to go beyond the call of duty: A dyadic study of servant leadership and psychological ethical climate". Personnel Review. 49 (2): 620–635. doi:10.1108/PR-08-2018-0285. S2CID 210538519.
6. ^ Ngram viewer
7. ^ Jacoby, Henry (1969). The Bureaucratization of the World. Translated by Kanes, Eveline L. Berkeley: University of California Press (published 1973). p. 31. ISBN 9780520020832. Retrieved September 28, 2019. When Frederick II called himself the 'first servant of the state' in 1752, he recognized himself to be in an executive position over his 'royal servants.'
8. ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Mark 10:42-45 - English Standard Version". Bible Gateway. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
9. ^ Dittmar, James K. (September 2006). "An Interview with Larry Spears: President & CEO for the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership". Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. 13 (1): 108–118. doi:10.1177/10717919070130010101. S2CID 143751887.
10. ^ The Servant Leader Within (PDF). Retrieved February 12, 2019.^{[full citation needed]}
11. ^ Frost, Natasha (February 11, 2019). "The roots of "servant leadership" management culture date back to Hermann Hesse and a young Hillary Clinton". Quartz (publication). Retrieved February 12, 2019.
12. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g} Eva, Nathan; Robin, Mulyadi; Sendjaya, Sen; van Dierendonck, Dirk; Liden, Robert C. (February 2019). "Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future research". The Leadership Quarterly. 30 (1): 111–132. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.07.004.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b Sendjaya, Sen; Sarros, James C.; Santora, Joseph C. (March 11, 2008). "Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations: Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations". Journal of Management Studies. 45 (2): 402–424. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00761.x. S2CID 142682870.
14. ^ Mayer, David M.; Bardes, Mary; Piccolo, Ronald F. (June 2008). "Do servant-leaders help satisfy follower needs? An organizational justice perspective". European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. 17 (2): 180–197. doi:10.1080/13594320701743558. S2CID 37987560.
15. ^ Neubert, Mitchell J.; Kacmar, K. Michele; Carlson, Dawn S.; Chonko, Lawrence B.; Roberts, James A. (November 2008). "Regulatory focus as a mediator of the influence of initiating structure and servant leadership on employee behavior". Journal of Applied Psychology. 93 (6): 1220–1233. doi:10.1037/a0012695. PMID 19025244.
16. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f} Ekinci, Abdurrahman (May 20, 2015). "Development of the School Principals' Servant Leadership Behaviors Scale and Evaluation of Servant Leadership Behaviors According to Teachers' Views". Ted Eği̇ti̇m ve Bi̇li̇m. 40 (179). doi:10.15390/EB.2015.2152.
17. ^ Robin, Mulyadi; Sendjaya, Sen (2019). "Looking Back to Look Forward: Lessons for Leadership Development". Leading for High Performance in Asia. pp. 159–184. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-6074-9_8. ISBN 978-981-13-6073-2. S2CID 159096544.
18. ^ Joseph J. Iarocci, Servant Leadership in the Workplace: A Brief Introduction (Atlanta: Cairnway, 2017), chs. 5, 6, 7.
19. ^ Sendjaya, Sen; Eva, Nathan; Butar Butar, Ivan; Robin, Mulyadi; Castles, Samantha (2019). "SLBS-6: Validation of a Short Form of the Servant Leadership Behavior Scale". Journal of Business Ethics. 156 (4): 941–956. doi:10.1007/s10551-017-3594-3. S2CID 149215766.
20. ^ Wilson, Lawrence; Cook, Jeramy; Teater, David (2018). "Motivations: Army Civilian Leadership Approach Antecedents". Social Science Research Network.
21. ^ Bradley, Yvonne (June 1999). "Servant Leadersip: A Critique of Robert Greenleaf's Concept of Leadersip". Journal of Christian Education. os-42 (2): 43–54. doi:10.1177/002196579904200207. S2CID 148091128.
22. ^ Reynolds, Kae (2014). "Servant-leadership: A feminist perspective". The International Journal of Servant-Leadership. 10 (1). Spokane: 35–63. doi:10.33972/ijsl.110. S2CID 143234909. ProQuest 2220696830.
23. ^ Eaton, Sarah Elaine (2020). "Challenging and Critiquing Notions of Servant Leadership: Lessons from My Mother". Women Negotiating Life in the Academy. pp. 15–23. doi:10.1007/978-981-15-3114-9_2. ISBN 978-981-15-3113-2. S2CID 216363779.
24. ^ Jump up to:^a b Marina, Brenda L. H.; Fonteneau, Debora Y. (April 1, 2012). "Servant leaders who picked up the broken glass" (PDF). Journal of Pan African Studies. 5 (2): 67–84. Gale A306596714.
25. ^ Keith, Kent M. The Ethical Advantage of Servant Leadership: Guiding Principles for Organizational Success. Singapore: The Greenlead Centre for Servant-Leadership (Asia).
26. ^ Jump up to:^a b Langhof, J. G., & Gueldenberg, S. (2021). "Whom to serve? Exploring the moral dimension of servant leadership: Answers from operation Valkyrie". Journal of Management History. 27 (4): 537–573. doi:10.1108/jmh-09-2020-0056. S2CID 238689370.
27. ^ Madison, Karryna; Eva, Nathan (2019). "Social Exchange or Social Learning: A Theoretical Fork in Road for Servant Leadership Researchers". Leading for High Performance in Asia. pp. 133–158. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-6074-9_7. ISBN 978-981-13-6073-2. S2CID 151305496.
28. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Tang, Guiyao; Kwan, Ho Kwong; Zhang, Deyuan; Zhu, Zhou (August 2016). "Work–Family Effects of Servant Leadership: The Roles of Emotional Exhaustion and Personal Learning". Journal of Business Ethics. 137 (2): 285–297. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2559-7. S2CID 143784904.
29. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f} Chughtai, Aamir Ali (December 2018). "Examining the Effects of Servant Leadership on Life Satisfaction". Applied Research in Quality of Life. 13 (4): 873–889. doi:10.1007/s11482-017-9564-1. S2CID 148945689.
30. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Rodríguez-Carvajal, Raquel; Herrero, Marta; van Dierendonck, Dirk; de Rivas, Sara; Moreno-Jiménez, Bernardo (February 2019). "Servant Leadership and Goal Attainment Through Meaningful Life and Vitality: A Diary Study". Journal of Happiness Studies. 20 (2): 499–521. doi:10.1007/s10902-017-9954-y. S2CID 148668507.
31. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Rivkin, W.; Diestel, S.; Schmidt, K.-H. (February 1, 2014). "The Positive Relationship between Servant Leadership and Employees' Psychological Health: A Multi-Method Approach" (PDF). German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung. 28 (1–2): 52–72. doi:10.1177/239700221402800104. S2CID 59123769.
32. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Yang, Rui; Ming, Ying; Ma, Jianhong; Huo, Rongmian (December 2, 2017). "How do servant leaders promote engagement? A bottom-up perspective of job crafting". Social Behavior and Personality. 45 (11): 1815–1827. doi:10.2224/sbp.6704.
33. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Liden, Robert C.; Wayne, Sandy J.; Zhao, Hao; Henderson, David (April 2008). "Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment". The Leadership Quarterly. 19 (2): 161–177. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006.
34. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Lu, Junting; Zhang, Zhe; Jia, Ming (October 2019). "Does Servant Leadership Affect Employees' Emotional Labor? A Social Information-Processing Perspective". Journal of Business Ethics. 159 (2): 507–518. doi:10.1007/s10551-018-3816-3. S2CID 149057334.
35. ^ Parris, Denise Linda; Peachey, Jon Welty (March 2013). "A Systematic Literature Review of Servant Leadership Theory in Organizational Contexts". Journal of Business Ethics. 113 (3): 377–393. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1322-6. hdl:11244/326627. S2CID 53967168.
36. ^ Spector, Paul (July 2014). "Introduction: The problems and promise of contemporary leadership theories". Journal of Organizational Behavior. 35 (5): 597. doi:10.1002/job.1930.

Further reading

^[edit]

• James Autry. The Servant Leader ISBN 1-4000-5473-7
• Art Barter. Farmer Able ISBN 1-6278-7235-3
• Art Barter. The Servant Leadership Journal: An 18 Week Journey to Transform You and Your Organization ISBN 978-0-998-67110-9
• Ken Blanchard, Leading at a Higher Level (Chapter 12), ISBN 0-13-234772-5
• Block, Peter (2013). Stewardship : Choosing Service over Self-Interest (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. ISBN 9781609948221. OCLC 827455481.
• Jim Boyd, A Servant Leader's Journey, ISBN 978-0-8091-4568-3
• De Pree, Max (1987). Leadership Is an Art. New York: Currency. ISBN 9780385512466. OCLC 53992843. De Pree's classic emphasizes the importance of leading with care, listening, and creating an environment of mutual respect. His reflections inspire leaders to view their role as a responsibility to serve others.
• Jerry Glashagel, Servant-Institutions in Business, ISBN 978-0-9822012-3-7
• Greenleaf, Robert K; Covey, Stephen R.; Senge, Peter M. (2002). Spears, Larry C. (ed.). Servant Leadership : A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (21st Anniversary ed.). New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809105540. OCLC 49902845. This is the foundational work that first articulated the concept of servant leadership
• Denny Gunderson, The Leadership Paradox: A Challenge to Servant Leadership in a Power-Hungry World ISBN 978-1-57658-379-1
• Trevor M. Hall, ed. Becoming Authentic: The Search for Wholeness and Calling as a Servant Leader (2007) ISBN 978-1-929569-36-6
• Kent Halstead, Servant Leadership for Congregations
• Hunter, James C (2012). The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadershi (First revised ed.). New York: Currency, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 9780761513698. OCLC 811404543.
• James Hunter. The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle ISBN 1-57856-975-3
• Joseph J. Iarocci. Servant Leadership in the Workplace: A Brief Introduction ISBN 978-0-692-86126-4
• Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert, The Serving Leader, ISBN 1-57675-265-8
• Kent M. Keith. The Case For Servant Leadership
• Michael Parsons & David J. Cohen, eds. On Eagles' Wings. An Exploration of Strength in the Midst of Weakness (2008) ISBN 978-0-7188-9195-4
• George SanFacon, A Conscious Person's Guide to the Workplace, ISBN 978-1-4251-6680-9
• James W. Sipe & Don M. Frick. Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership ISBN 978-0-8091-4560-7
• Larry Spears, ed. Reflections on Leadership ISBN 0-471-03686-2
• Larry Spears, ed. Insights on Leadership ISBN 0-471-17634-6
• Larry Spears, ed. Focus on Leadership ISBN 0-471-41162-0
• Larry Spears & Michele Lawrence, ed. Practicing Servant-Leadership ISBN 0-7879-7455-2
• John J. Sullivan, Servant First! Leadership for the New Millennium ISBN 1-59467-227-X
• Scott Ward, Servant Leadership Practice: 40 Days to Transform Your Leadership and Your Organization, BNID 2940012590022, ASIN B005KLY8SY *

In essence,

servant leadership comprises the following:

(1) someone or something other than the leader,

(2) one-on-one interactions between leaders and followers, and

(3) an overarching concern towards the wellbeing of the wider organizational stakeholders and the larger community.