Servant Leadership by Alisha Cheyne

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Servant leaders aim to empower people by addressing the needs of others before themselves. They look at the individuals within the organization as vital components to its inner workings. Furthermore, servant leaders are committed to the personal and professional growth of others by fostering the development of a community within the organization. This style of leadership has research supporting its implementation and effectiveness. Examples of servant leadership are also evident throughout history and in pop culture.

This was on the side of the 50 bus on Wednesday

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KEY CONCEPTS

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Larry Spears, a mentee of Robert Greenleaf, analyzed Greenleaf’s writings regarding servant leadership and identified ten characteristics of servant leaders: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community (Spears, 2010).

Listening. Servant leaders actively and intently listen to others and aim to clearly identify the true wants and needs of everyone in the organization. The leaders receptively listen to what is being said as well as what is not being said, and they reflect on interactions with members of the organization.
Empathy. Servant leaders seek to empathize with others and accept members of the organization for who they truly are as individuals. The leaders continue to assume the good intentions of members of the organization even when members display unsatisfactory behaviors or actions.
Healing. Servant leaders have the ability to heal their own selves as well as relationships with other people in order to drive transformation and integration. The leaders strive to physically, mentally, and emotionally support members of the organization.
Awareness. Servant leaders demonstrate self-awareness and general awareness of the needs of the organization in order to understand the collective group’s power and values.
Persuasion. Servant leaders rely on persuasion instead of utilizing one’s total authority when making decisions that affect the organization as a whole. The leaders build consensus within groups by convincing group members to make certain decisions rather than using coercion.
Conceptualization. Servant leaders “dream big” and think beyond day-to-day realities in order to focus on the big picture of the organization.
Foresight. Servant leaders are able to identify lessons from past experiences, realities of the present, and possible consequences of decisions in the future in order to anticipate likely outcomes of a situation.
Stewardship. Servant leaders assume an overarching commitment to serving the needs of others before catering to their own needs. The leaders take responsibility for organization’s actions and outcomes.
Commitment to the growth of people. Servant leaders are extremely committed to the growth of each individual in the organization, and they use their power to nurture and facilitate the personal and professional growth of individuals in the organization.
Building community. Servant leaders strive to create collaborative environments and therefore build a sense of community among each individual in a given organization (Ainomugisha, n.d.; Spears, 2010).

DESCRIPTION

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Servant leadership is a philosophical conceptualization that has been around for centuries. Robert Greenleaf further formulated the concepts of servant leadership while exploring new leadership models that steered away from the highlighted focus on authority in the 1970s (McClellan, 2009). Since this leadership model has been coined, multiple models and definitions have been conceptualized such as Laub’s Organizational Leadership Assessment Model, Page and Wong’s Model, Patterson’s Model, and Sendjaya’s Model. Although various models and measurements of servant leadership have been researched and developed, each model emphasizes that the main attribute of a servant leader is the strong desire to serve others (Sendjaya, Sarros, & Santora, 2008). This strong desire to serve outweighs the desire to be a formal leader. In general, servant leaders are authentic, morally responsible, and influential (Sendjaya, Sarros, & Santora, 2008).

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Photo credit: Gerald Ainomugisha. (n.d.) Your Complete Guide to Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://inside.6q.io/servant-leadership-guide/

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Photo credit: Servant Leadership Institute. (2018). What is Servant Leadership? Retrieved from https://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/what-is-servant-leadership-1

SUMMARY OF THE APPLICATION FROM THE LITERATURE

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As outlined by Ainomugisha (n.d), below are examples of how an individual can develop traits of a servant leader and apply them to real-life situations:

Treat everyone on your team with trust and respect.
Hold yourself accountable, and own your actions and mistakes.
Practice active listening, send out a survey to receive feedback from team members.
Encourage team members, through your own actions, to set aside self-serving behaviours in favour of serving others.
Offer mentorship and help them learn skills that will both improve their performance, and improve them as people.
Servant leaders are patient and tenacious resulting in persistence.

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It is vital to understand important qualities of a servant leader before analyzing how this type of leadership can be applied in real-life situations. Brutus and Vanhove (2017) note that servant leaders focus on the well-being as well as the personal and professional development of followers within an organization. Such leaders create opportunities for followers to contribute unique, innovative ideas to the organization, and these leaders hold the belief that organizational success stems from the collaborative effort of an entire team. Brutus and Vanhove (2017) also highlight six competency dimensions of servant leaders: service, empowerment, creating vision and direction, stewardship, integrity, and interpersonal appreciation. Service capitalizes on the leader’s desire to serve others and to put other people first. This dimension also considers the leader’s ability to actively listen to the followers’ needs and desires while conveying to the followers that their needs and accomplishments are important to the entire team’s success. Empowerment refers to the leader’s ability to motivate and instill confidence in the followers. Furthermore, a servant leader empowers followers by demonstrating a commitment to their personal and professional development. Creating vision and direction refers to the leader’s ability to picture an outcome of the team’s project while creating a clear path for followers make decisions that correspond with the visualized result. In order to be successful in this dimension, however, the leader must properly allocate resources that facilitates the team’s progress toward the organization’s goals. Stewardship involves taking responsibility for the overall team’s behaviors, plans, and actions. Integrity refers to the leader’s ability to be honest, responsible, ethical, and moral, which promotes trust among the leader and followers. Finally, interpersonal appreciation highlights the leader’s appreciation of every individual on the team. This includes accepting the unique attributes in each follower, taking a genuine interest in each follower, and being open to hearing each follower’s opinions and perspectives. If these competency dimensions are successfully met, an individual can then be considered as a servant leader (Brutus & Vanhove, 2017).

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Sullivan (2019) discusses the need for implementation of a servant leadership mentality in sports, “Servant leadership is a much needed approach to provide direction and stewardship for athletic departments and sports teams” (p. 81). Sports managers stereotypically have an “I must always win” mentality, which is often associated with characteristics of more authoritative leadership styles. Sullivan’s encouragement for servant leadership is based on three psychological needs that he proposes: autonomy, competence, and belongingness. These can best be addressed by sports managers and coaches through a servant leadership style where an athlete’s growth and well-being are of utmost importance. In recent years, the NCAA has implemented a student-athlete well-being initiative, which is greatly influenced by athletic coaches and managers. It is suggested that by taking a servant leadership approach, coaches can help to meet the psychological needs of the athletes (Sullivan, 2019).

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In addition to sports, servant leadership can be applied to various other workplaces and collaborative environments in which a group must accomplish an identified goal. Servant leadership is seen through leaders who strive to serve others by focusing on individual needs and goals. A servant leader supports, encourages, and motivates their followers to maximize their potential and fulfill their personal needs (Liden, Wayne, Liao, & Meuser, 2014). In support of the social learning theory, servant leaders are most effective by displaying positive values and behaviors to the people they lead, which will most often be replicated, such as in an employer-employee relationship in the restaurant industry (Liden et al., 2014). Servant leadership is not the only leadership style that focuses on serving others, but this leadership style is unique due to the emphasis on individualistic self-fulfillment and the relationship formed between leaders and their followers (Liden et al., 2014).

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A case study was used to examine the effect of servant leadership practice on family-owned companies in Minnesota. McNeff and Irving (2017) aimed to identify the leadership behavior of the company owners to see what affect a servant leadership style has on worker satisfaction. This was done by personally interviewing the company owners and providing an anonymous survey to the employees. The researchers found that the surveys from the employees validated the leadership qualities the owners claimed to display and practice. A few examples of how the owners do this is by providing lunch to the employees. That is done in an effort to build community as the employees dine with one another. The company also encourages educational development of their employees and offers tuition reimbursement. Furthermore, the owners encourage problem solving on behalf of the employee, and allow ideas from employees to have the same weight as the owners. This study determined that the servant leadership behaviors the company owners displayed, were developed over time by family influences, past negative experiences, training, and religious faith (McNeff & Irving, 2017).

REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP IMPLEMENTED

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Nelson Mandela was raised in South Africa during the days of apartheid and unequal rights between Whites and Blacks in South Africa. In 1943, Nelson Mandela was involved in a large boycott against the fare raise for bus transportation, which was successful after a nine-day boycott (Baker & Baker, 2017). From this event, Nelson Mandela began to display characteristics of a servant leader such as foresight, conceptualization, and commitment to the growth of others to make changes to benefit the people in South Africa. He went on to form the Defiance Campaign, which non-violently plotted against the government to change the racial laws, which led to several arrests and short periods of jail time for him. However, he was courageous, empathetic for the people’s mistreatment, persuasive, and determined to help his people (Baker & Baker, 2017). Mandela was guilty of planning guerrilla warfare and sabotage against the government, which is not a characteristic of a servant leader, but his decisions were based on the motive and interest of helping his people. Throughout his entire life, he fought in the anti-apatheid movement to help the people in South Africa, and he spent years in jail for his actions, but as a servant leader, he empowered others to join in the movement for their rights. An individual may shift between various leadership styles depending on their role demands and contexts, which is seen with Nelson Mandela. His initial decisions may not have been characterized as those of a servant leader, but with time, he displayed qualities and characteristics of a servant leader to leave an impact on the people he served.

Photo credit: South African History Online. (2019). Nelson Mandela: Father of the Nation. Retrieved from https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/nelson-mandela-father-nation

CHARACTER EXAMPLES FROM POP-CULTURE

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Harry Potter: Harry was elected the leader of Dumbledore’s Army in the fifth book, The Order of the Phoenix. He displayed traits of a servant leader such as awareness, foresight, and commitment to the growth of others, as he trained his classmates in defensive spells. This was done in an effort to increase their competency in magic to use against Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

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Dr. Max Goodwin: In the television show New Amsterdam, Dr. Max Goodwin serves as the new medical director of New Amsterdam Medical Center. Dr. Goodwin displays several traits of a servant leader, and he exemplifies the nature of the servant leader philosophy as he persistently asks the hospital’s employees and patients, “How can I help?” As the hospital’s medical director, his main focus is to serve his employees and patients by listening to their wants and needs. Despite the hospital’s struggling financial state and his own battle with cancer, Dr. Goodwin leads by example and puts patients first; he provides care to patients even if they cannot afford healthcare services, and he encourages his employees to serve patients in the same manner. Dr. Goodwin is committed to the professional and personal growth of his employees, and he fosters a sense of community within the hospital. In addition, the television show often shows Dr. Goodwin interacting with non-medical hospital employees, such as custodians and administrative assistants, and he treats them with respect and enables them to thrive within the hospital community. This illustrates his commitment to serving the greater good of the hospital and desire to place the hospital’s needs before his own needs, thus showcasing his traits as a servant leader.

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Fig. 2

Final model. ns = not significant. aThese numbers represent the unstandardized regression coefficients **p < .01.

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Ainomugisha, G. (n.d.) Your Complete Guide to Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://inside.6q.io/servant-leadership-guide/

Baker, J., & Baker, C. (2017). Servant leadership: The case of nelson mandela. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Brutus, T., & Vanhove, A. (2017). Leading by serving: Redefining the roles of leaders and followers in today’s workplace. In C. J. Davis (Ed.). Servant Leadership and Followership, Palgrave Studies in Leadership and Followership. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-59366-1_11

Chughtai, A. A. (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

Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (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

Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434-1452. doi:10.5465/amj.2013.0034

Ling, Q., Liu, F., & Wu, X. (2017). Servant versus authentic leadership: Assessing effectiveness in China’s hospitality industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 58(1), 53-68. doi:10.1177/1938965516641515

Liu, H. (2019). Just the servant: An intersectional critique of servant leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 156, 1099-1112. doi:10.1007/s10551-017-3633-0

McClellan, J. (2009). research-based models of servant-leadership: A review of the literature.The International Journal of Servant-Leadership, 5(1), 163-184.

McNeff, M. E., & Irving, J. A. (2017). Job satisfaction and the priority of valuing people: A case study of servant leadership practice in a network of family-owned companies. SAGE Open, 7(1), 1-8. doi:10.1177/2158244016686813

Newman, A., Schwarz, G., Cooper, B., & Sendjaya, S. (2017). How servant leadership

influences organizational citizenship behavior: The roles of LMX, empowerment, and

proactive personality. Journal of Business Ethics, 45, 49-62.

doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2827-6

Servant Leadership Institute. (2018). What is Servant Leadership? Retrieved from https://www.servantleadershipinstitute.com/what-is-servant-leadership-1

Sendjaya, S., Sarros, J. C., & Santora, J. C. (2008). Defining and measuring servant leadership

behaviour in organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 45(2), 402-424.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00761.x

South African History Online. (2019). Nelson Mandela: Father of the Nation. Retrieved from https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/nelson-mandela-father-nation

Spears, L. C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30. Retrieved from https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jvl/vol_iss1/Spears_Final.pdf

Sullivan, G. S., & SpringerLink (Online service). (2019). Servant leadership in sport: Theory and practice. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

LIU (2019)

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Liu (2019) attempted to examine how power and intersectionality informs the practice of servant leadership. This was done by observing and interviewing the main subject, Jeff, and seven of his staff. Jeff identifies as a Chinese cis-male, 30 year old, senior sales manager at a large IT company in Austraila. Jeff’s staff are predominately while males 30-50 years old. Liu reports that Jeff demonstrates behaviors of a servant leader such as humility, emotional healing, support and appreciation for others, and selfless commitment to the greater good of the community. His staff reported they acknowledge the effort Jeff makes to support the team through weekly team meetings, but they did not attribute it to leadership. Instead, they stated he was not tough enough to be a real leader. Race was believed to have been a factor in this as a result of stereotyping Asian individuals to be naturally quiet, empathetic and hard working. Because of this, his servant behaviors/characteristics were dismissed. Jeff’s staff reported believing their “power” to be equal or superior to his. This article did not report servant leadership to be either good or bad, but rather examined the effect of using a servant leadership style as a person of Chinese descent in a predominantly white company.

CHUGHTAI (2018)

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Chughtai (2018) evaluated the effects of servant leadership and employee’s life satisfaction. Based on previous research and findings, five hypotheses were established to assess the link between servant leadership and employee life satisfactions. Hypothesis 1 states that servant leadership is positively related to work engagement. Hypothesis 2 states that servant leadership is positively related to organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE). Hypothesis 3 states that work engagement is positively related to life satisfaction. Hypothesis 4 states that OBSE is positively related to life satisfaction. Hypothesis 5 states that work engagement and OBSE will mediate the effects of servant leadership on life satisfaction. Data was collected from 160 participants from a tractor manufacturing company in Pakistan. Standardized questionnaires were used to measure all study variables: SL-7 was used to measure servant leadership, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) was used to measure work engagement, OBSE scale was used to measure OBSE, and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was used to measure life satisfaction. Servant leadership was positively and significantly correlated with work engagement (r=.37, p<.01) and OBSE (r=.49, p<.01). Work engagement (r=.43, p<.01) and OBSE (r=.47, p<.01) were positively associated with life satisfaction. All hypotheses were supported by the data. Servant leadership was positively and significantly related to work engagement (b=.59, p<.01) and OBSE (b=.52, p<.01). Work engagement (b=.18, p<.01) and OBSE (b=.31, p<.01) were significantly associated with life satisfaction. The indirect effect of servant leadership on life satisfaction via the mediators (work engagement and OBSE) was found to be significant via the bootstrapping procedure, results were .11[(.59 x.18)] and the 95% bias corrected CI around this indirect effect was [.04, .21].

NEWMAN, SCHWARZ, COOPER & SENDJAYA (2017)

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Newman, Schwarz, Cooper, and Sendjaya (2017) evaluated the effectiveness of leader-member exchange (LMX) and psychological empowerment in explaining how leaders evoke positive organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among 446 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a Chinese enterprise. In addition, the researchers evaluated whether or not the subordinates’ proactive personality played a role in accentuating the effects of servant leadership on positive OCB through the constructs of psychological empowerment and LMX. Servant leadership traits were measured using a 14-item global scale; LMX was measured using the LMX-7 scale; psychological empowerment was measured using a 12-item scale; proactive personality was measured using the 10-item Proactive Personality Scale; and OCB was measured using a 16-item scale. The results of the study show that servant leadership is related to subordinate positive OCB through LMX, however, psychological empowerment does not contribute to additional positive OCB. Furthermore, the results indicate that the subordinates’ proactive personality combined with LMX did indeed heighten the effects of servant leadership on the subordinates. The researchers concluded that meaningful LMX relationships fostered by servant leadership is beneficial in facilitating followers’ OCB, thus supporting the effectiveness of servant leadership.

LING, LIU, & WU (2017)

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Ling, Liu, and Wu (2017) examined the effectiveness of servant leadership compared to authentic leadership in the hospitality industry in China. The study examined 80 departments in 16 star-level hotels to assess group-level trust and individual-level work outcomes, such as employee organization commitment, work engagement, and work performance. The participants consisted of 1,132 supervisor-employee pairs. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to analyze the multi-level data of information. The results of the study found that both leadership styles foster positive relationships between leaders and members. However, from the findings, servant leadership has a greater positive effect on group trust climate and individual employee work attitudes (organizational commitment and work engagement) compared to authentic leadership. Also, the results found that servant leadership styles effectively encourage beneficial values on employees in the hospitality industry. Therefore, this study supports the effectiveness of servant leadership, specifically in comparison to authentic leadership.