The essay brings about the discussion on the concept of servant leadership management style in organisational settings, and their related aspects. Servant leadership is the phenomenon which implies that the leaders or managers in an organisation serve people first in the organisation. Leadership is the organisations refer to the process of influencing the behaviour, and motivating people working in the organisation towards gaining effectiveness and success in the longer period. Servant leadership approach differs from the traditional style of management used in the organisations, and leaders exercise power, understanding the needs and interest of people in the organisation. Thus, the essay will describe the servant leadership in organisations and list below the pros and cons associated with this leadership style used in managing people.
In organisations, there is a greater role of the leaders as effective leaders help employees towards improving their performance and wellbeing to support achievement of their goals and objectives. There are various types of leadership in the organisations which include shared leadership, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, managerial leadership, and servant leadership perspective. Amongst these, the essay will discuss in detail about the servant leadership management style used in the management of people in the organisations (Spears & Lawrence, 2016).
Servant leadership is the approach which defines the role of leader as a servant, who aims to serve people first in the organisations. The term ‘servant’ itself defines the meaning stating the leader is a servant first, as he is focused on the needs of others rather fulfilling personal goals. To be more specific, it can be stated that servant leadership is an extension of people-oriented leadership which characterises the features of coaching, affiliative, and participative styles. Servant leaders in an organisation assist employees to learn, grow, and develop with time. Servant leadership style is the result of a natural call within an individual rather a functional characteristic of a leader or manager in an organisation, who aims to serve people; serve first. As the needs and interests of the employees are fulfilled they contribute to the organisation towards attaining their predetermined goals and objectives. Thus, servant leadership management style is an appropriate style towards managing people in the organisation in an effective manner (Panaccio et al., 2015).
To become a successful servant leader, one needs to incorporate certain skills and qualities, which include listening, empathy, communication, healing, and the ability of persuasion, conceptualisation, foresight, and stewardship. These are termed as ten principles imperative for effectively leading and managing people in the organisation. Furthermore, those who embodies, the traits of servant leaders tend to be known as selfless, egalitarianism, humble, and ethical coaches. Thus, they lead stakeholders and people of the organisation in a way which makes them healthier, wiser, and independent so that they attain their goals, and serve others in future (Williams et al., 2017).
Servant leadership style is beneficial to the organisations, as it helps in effective running of their business activities through sound relationship between members in an organisation. One of the major benefits of incorporating servant leadership in organisation is observed in terms of decision-making activities which are undertaken considering the organisation as a whole, rather looking for individual benefits. The concept of servant leadership states that the leaders and managers are serving their people in the organisation, who further serves customers at their best. This is one of the greatest advantages of practising servant leadership in business organisations (Sousa and van Dierendonck, 2017).
According to Shekari (2012), it has been stated that through servant leadership an organisation works in a constructive manner, and attain their predetermined goals and objectives. Servant leadership approach incorporates the ideals of empowerment, team building and team-work, total quality, and the ethics of giving services in the leadership qualities of organisational members. The authors described it as a holistic model of leadership, which aims at cooperating and coordinating at work, also shares power in the decision-making of the organisation. He also stated that the servant leadership style is now considered as an emerging model of leadership as it has some special characteristics which include strong follower-centric, altruistic, moral/ethical and spiritual values (Mahembe & Engelbrecht, 2014).
Grisaffe, Vanmeter and Chonko, (2016) was of the view that servant leadership acts as the catalyst in today’s sales environment, as it drives for higher performance and excellence in business activities. The authors, from their research on the aspects of servant leadership practice in the organisations state that the elements of this approach are hierarchically based on the transformational characteristics or the leadership. Through the research conducted in several organisations, it was identified that sales leadership at higher gains, in the organisation will lead to increased gains in salesperson performance, and organisational behaviours. These all mentioned aspects has stated that servant leadership is one of the best approach to deal and manage people in the organisation, and enable them to work towards the organisational goals and objectives (Flynn, Smither and Walker, 2016)
In addition, there have been certain empirical studies on the modern practices of organisations which revealed that employee’s attitude and performance are the two aspects which are influenced by servant leadership. A servant leader engages the employees in the decision-making activities which develop a trust between them, leading to healthy relations in the organisation. Thus, it can be understood from these principles that the servant leaders represent the characteristics of companionship with their employees in the organisation leading to effective management of people (Hsiao et al., 2015).
Servant leadership management style has some negative aspects also, which states that it is inefficient to manage people in the organisations, and leading to negative influence on the working of business organisations. As discussed above about the servant leadership style, it has been observed that the approach is meant to be of all giving nature or serving people, and due to which identifying such leaders is not an easy task. This acts as one of the major limitations of the servant leadership management style in the contemporary organisations. Furthermore, there are some of other disadvantages of servant leadership management style implemented in the organisations. These disadvantages include timescale, resistance to practice servant leadership style, lack of authority, ambiguity in the goals and objectives to be achieved (Donia et al., 2016).
According to Hussain and Ali (2012) the negative impacts of the servant leadership approach was observed on the people in the organisations. It was mentioned by the researchers that leadership is not treated as an individual trait; rather it is considered to be the result of the interaction of the leader’s characteristics with the needs and interests of the followers or employees in the organisation. Thus, they led to the conclusion that servant leaders being in a higher position in the organisation exercises power on their employees or subordinates and give orders to them. They tend to influence the confidence and work of the employees in a negative manner, which affects their performance and productivity in the long run. Employers or superiors in the management organisations enjoy high levels of autonomy which leads to unhealthy relationships between them in the organisation (Latham, 2014).
Van Dierendonck and Sousa (2016) were of the view that the servant leadership management style often contributes in a positive manner as the modern organisations undergoes a change as per the changes in the external business environment. Leaders play a vital role in the organisations helping the employees and individuals to accept or adapt to the changes, and increase their productivity. However this aspect has some of the negative impacts on the employees which affect the performance of the organisation. Due to increasing competition and the continuous changes in the economic environment, there is a resultant impact on the social wellbeing of the employees. This leads to higher economic losses to the organisation due to constant reduction in the productivity of the employees working in the organisation (Carter & Baghurst, 2014).
From the above discussion of the servant leadership management style in organisations, it has been analysed that the managers or leaders in an organisation must engage in the practices which considers the needs and interest of people in the organisation. This would serve people better in the organisation, and help in attaining higher benefits. Managers must formulate a plan pre-hand to make required changes in the organisation. In addition, they must focus on increasing managerial capability and authority of the employees working in the organisation, as it will provide them work autonomy, leading to increased employee satisfaction. Specifically they must emphasize on the employee’s psychological satisfaction along with the job-satisfaction, and for that they must develop new strategies and methods, for increasing employee productivity and effectiveness. As it has been also observed that resistance has been a major factors affecting the implementation of servant leadership, thus servant leaders must enables employees understand the requirement of change and leading success. In this way, they will be able to attain their organisational goals, through effective management of human resource in the organisation.
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that servant leadership management style is the phenomenon which values employees and serves them first in the organisation. These leaders contribute to the positive development of the employees and growth of the organisation through building mutual trust, and effective relationships within organisations. As the essay discussed above the pros and cons of the servant leadership approach, it stated that there are major positive impacts on the employee’s productivity and performance through strategic efforts which led to the effective management of people in the organisation. Hence, servant leaders are prominent to the employee as well as organisational performance.
References:
Carter, D. & Baghurst, T. (2014) The influence of servant leadership on restaurant employee engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(3), 453-464.
Donia, M.B., Raja, U., Panaccio, A. and Wang, Z. (2016) Servant leadership and employee outcomes: The moderating role of subordinates’ motives. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(5), pp. 722-734.
Flynn, C.B., Smither, J.W. and Walker, A.G. (2016) Exploring the relationship between leaders’ core self-evaluations and subordinates’ perceptions of servant leadership: a field study. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 23(3), pp. 260-271
Grisaffe, D.B., VanMeter, R. and Chonko, L.B. (2016) Serving first for the benefit of others: Preliminary evidence for a hierarchical conceptualization of servant leadership. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 36(1), pp. 40-58.
Hsiao, C., Lee, Y. H. & Chen, W. J. (2015). The effect of servant leadership on customer value co-creation: A cross-level analysis of key mediating roles. Tourism Management, 49, 45-57.
Latham, J.R. (2014) Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a framework for future research. Quality Management Journal, 21(1), pp.11-15.
Mahembe, B. & Engelbrecht, A. S. (2014). The relationship between servant leadership, organisational citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 40(1), 1-10.
Panaccio, A., Henderson, D.J., Liden, R.C., Wayne, S.J. and Cao, X. (2015) Toward an understanding of when and why servant leadership accounts for employee extra-role behaviours. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(4), pp. 657-675.
Shekari, H. (2012). Promoting Leadership effectiveness in Organisations: A case study on the involved factors of servant leadership. International Journal of Business Administration, 3(1), 5-12.
Sousa, M. and van Dierendonck, D. (2017) Servant leadership and the effect of the interaction between humility, action, and hierarchical power on follower engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), pp.13-25.
Spears, L. C. & Lawrence, M. (2016). Practising servant-leadership: Succeeding through trust, bravery, and forgiveness. United States: John Wiley & Sons.
van Dierendonck, D. and Sousa, M. (2016) Finding meaning in highly uncertain situations: Servant leadership during change. In Leadership lessons from compelling contexts (pp. 403-424). United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Williams Jr, W.A., Brandon, R.S., Hayek, M., Haden, S.P. and Atinc, G. (2017) Servant leadership and followership creativity: The influence of workplace spirituality and political skill. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 38(2), pp.178-193.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download
