Chapter 10 Outline – Servant Leadership
A. Description
1. Paradox – runs counter to common sense.
2. Person is a leader and a servant at the same time.
3. Focuses on leadership from the point of view of the leader and his or her behaviors.
4. Servant leadership emphasizes that leaders be attentive to the concerns of their followers,
empathize with them, and nurture them. Servant leaders put their followers first,
empower them and help them develop their full personal capacities.
5. They are ethical and lead in ways that serve the greater good of the organization,
community, and society at large.
6. Servant Leadership Defined
a. Greenleaf (1970)
1. Servant leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to
service, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.
b. Servant leaders place the good of followers over their own self-interests and
emphasize follower development.
c. They demonstrate strong moral behavior toward followers, the organization, and
other stakeholders
d. Servant leadership is a behavior
7. Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader
a. Listening
b. Empathy
c. Healing
d. Awareness
e. Persuasion
f. Conceptualization
g. Foresight
h. stewardship
i. Commitment to the growth of people
j. Building community
8. Building a theory about Servant Leadership – Key Characteristics
a. Laub (1999)
1. Developing people
2. Sharing leadership
3. Displaying authenticity
4. Valuing people
5. Providing leadership
6. Building community
b. Wong and Davey (2007)
1. Serving and developing others
2. Consulting and involving others
3. Humility and selflessness
4. Modeling integrity and authenticity
5. Inspiring and influencing others
c. Barbuto & Wheeler (2006)
1. Altruistic calling
2. Emotional healing
3. Persuasive mapping
4. Organizational stewardship
5. Wisdom
d. Dennis & Bocarnea (2005)
1. Empowerment
2. Trust
3. Humility
4. Agapao love
5. Vision
e. Sendjaya, Sarros, and Santora (2008)
1. Transforming influence
2. Voluntary subordination
3. Authentic self
4. Transcendental spirituality
5. Convenantal relationship
6. Responsible morality
f. van Dierendonck & Nuijten (2011)
1. Empowerment
2. Humility
3. Standing back
4. Authenticity
5. Forgiveness
6. Courage
7. Accountability
8. Stewardship
9. Model of Servant Leadership
a. Antecedent Conditions
1. Context and Culture
2. Leaders Attributes
3. Follower Receptivity
b. Servant Leaders Behaviors
1. Conceptualizing
2. Emotional Healing
3. Putting Followers First
4. Helping Followers Grow and Succeed
5. Behaving Ethically
6. Empowering
7. Creating Value for the Community
c. Outcomes
1. Follower Performance and Growth
2. Organizational Performance
3. Societal Impact
B. How Does Servant Leadership Work?
1. It focuses on the behaviors leader should exhibit to put followers first and to support
followers’ personal development.
2. It is concerned with how leaders treat subordinates and the outcomes that are likely to
emerge.
3. Leaders commit themselves to putting their subordinates first, being honest with them,
treating them fairly, listening to them, and developing long-term relationships with them.
a. This allows leaders to understand the abilities, needs and goals of followers,
helping them to reach their full potential.
b. Culture of serving others within and outside the organization is created.
4. Leaders should be altruistic and have a strong motivation and deep-seated interest in
helping others.
5. Followers need to be open and receptive to servant leaders who want to empower them
and help them grow.
a. In an ideal world, servant leadership results in community and societal change.
C. Strengths
1. Servant leadership is unique in the way it makes altruism the central component of the
leadership process.
2. It provides a counterintuitive and provocative approach to the use of influence, or power,
in leadership.
3. Rather than imply that servant leadership is a panacea, research on it has shown there are
conditions under which servant leadership isn’t a preferred kind of leadership.
4. Recent research has resulted in a sound measure of servant leadership (SLQ – Servant
Leadership Questionnaire)
D. Criticisms
1. The name appears contradictory, and is prone to be perceived as fanciful or whimsical.
2. There is debate among servant leadership scholars regarding the core dimensions of the
process.
3. A large segment of the writing on servant leadership has a prescriptive overtone that
implies good leaders “put others first”.
4. It is unclear why “conceptualizing” is included as one of the servant leadership behaviors
in the servant leadership model.
E. Application
1. Servant leadership can be applied at all levels of management and in all types of
organizations.
2. The prescribed behaviors are easily understood and generally applicable to a variety of
leader situations.
3. It has been used extensively in a variety of organizations for more than 30 years.
4. Organizations that want to build a culture of servant leadership should be careful to select
people who are interested in and capable of building long-term relationships with
followers.
5. Servant leadership provides a philosophy and set of behaviors that individuals in the
organizational setting can learn and develop.
F. Leadership Instrument
1. Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ) – most widely used measure of transformational
leadership
2. SLQ helps you gain an understanding of how servant leadership is measured and explore
where you stand on the different dimensions of servant leadership.