To estimate the value of servant leadership and its relationship with other leadership models, one needs to define its main features. Leadership philosophy began its development in the 1970s and was prominently described by Robert K. Greenleaf. However, researchers note the “lack of a clear definition” in Greenleaf’s works (Eva, Robin, Sendjaya, van Dierendonck, & Liden, 2018, p. 115). Hence, there has been a reason for a wide range of studies explaining the idea. They mainly revolve around the concept of serving through leadership. Servant leadership as a broad term means the leader’s focus on “serving” for the subjects – caring about their well-being and self-development. Such care requires treating these factors as the first-hand priority, instead of the traditional emphasis on the organization’s success and the leader’s achievements.
Since servant leadership is a broad concept with an array of aspects, it is natural for it to intersect with other recent leadership notions. Among those, one can find ethical leadership, which, according to Hoch, Bommer, Dulebohn, and Wu (2018) brings forth “the focus upon moral and ethical behaviour” (p. 502). The two models possess several common trends, and often, one of them can become a part of another. According to Timiyo and Yeadon-Lee (2016), “Like ethical leadership, servant leadership also has ethical connotations”. (p. 7) In other words, the moral compass and the humanistic values of the leader play a significant role for the servant leader in the quest to “serve” the subjects. Moreover, such leadership must be profoundly connected to the concept of moral intelligence – it requires to fulfill the intelligence tasks according to what is considered ethical and right.
The list does not end with the relationship between ethical and servant leadership. One also can explore the latter’s connection with transformational leadership. Its main task lies in the “transformation” of the staff to the next level of efficiency. It is mentioned by the researchers as a concept that includes accepting group goals, supporting, and stimulating the group’s communication through individual work (Li & Wu, 2015). Although the two ideas do not necessarily require the help of each other’s methods, they can be effectively combined. For a servant leader, it would be desirable to care about everyone’s personalities and allow subjects to insert their interests into the group, all of this for the sake of people.
After exploring the essential guidelines, one needs an appropriate example of the true servant’s leader possible look and how well any organization could work with this model. I can imagine my former English teacher as a personification of the servant leader ideal. According to Focht and Ponton (2015), a servant leader’s characteristics include the value of people, humility, the ability to listen, trust, readiness to serve others’ needs before one’s own, and several more qualities. The teacher has embodied most of these traits – she has supported every student without hesitation and chatted with them during breaks to listen about their life. Moreover, she has trusted them to the point of assigning responsible tasks and could concuss even if it did not benefit her.
On the other part, it is hard to estimate the possible application of the servant leadership model to my current organization. If all the leaders practiced it, such a move could cause some potential losses in the organization’s income due to the current overreliance on practices that focus on the organization’s well-being. However, once the staff was accustomed, special care for the subjects would lead to the reconstruction of the company’s rules and a potential success based on more humane means.
To sum up, servant leadership is a model requiring the leader to put their subjects’ interests above the company’s or their own. It overlaps with ethical leadership in emphasizing moral values and transformational leadership in guiding the subordinates to a new level of proficiency. A true servant leader should trust and care about their staff and serve them both literally and figuratively. Although a sudden change of leadership style can negatively affect the company’s incomes if properly applied, this leadership may change the system into more employee-caring.
References
Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (2018). Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 111-132.
Focht, A., & Ponton, M. (2015). Identifying primary characteristics of servant leadership: Delphi study. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 9(1), 1-18.
Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501–529.
Li, C., & Wu, K. Investigation of motive between transformational leadership and prosocial voice: An empirical study in China. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 9(1), 72-87.
Timiyo, A. J., & Yeadon-Lee, A. (2016). Universality of servant leadership. International Leadership Journal, 8(3), 3-22.