Servant leadership theory and organizational behavior interrelation

Leadership & Organizational Behavior

Analysis of Leadership Theory and Organizational Behavior Theory

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the servant leadership theory and organizational behavior theory. The first part of the paper is focused on a description of the features of both theories. The second part seeks to point out how both theories are interrelated.

Main discussion of servant leadership theory

a) Definition: Servant leadership is a form of leadership where the leader places followers' interests above his own. The motive of the servant leader's influence is not to direct others but rather motivate and facilitate service and stewardship by the followers themselves. Followers' service to others and stewardship of organizational resources could be construed as organizational citizenship behavior (Vondey (2010), p. 5).

b) Characteristic Features: The servant leader experiences himself as a servant to employees, customers and community as the number one priority. He makes sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served firs. Then conscious choice brings him to aspire to lead (see Spears (2004), p. 2). Defining features of the servant leader are: Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, building community (Spears (2004),

p. 3f.)

a) Interrelation between servant leadership and organizational behavior

Servant leadership and organizational behavior are interrelated because the purpose of servant leadership is to build better relations between employees by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives and social objectives.

b) Inducement of organizational behavior by servant leadership

A servant leader is a role model for his followers. Employees experiencing servant leadership management learn from observing it and will model what they see. As a result, servant leadership predicts follower organizational behavior (see Vondey (2010), p. 7).

Spears Article

The topic of the Spears Article is how to practice "servant leadership."

The article is relevant because it explains the characteristics of servant leadership.

The first part of the Spears article summarizes the history of the term that was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf. The second part of the article highlights the characteristic features of servant leadership. This is followed by a description of the impact of servant leadership in today's industrial surrounding.

Masterson & Stamper Article

The topic of the Masterson & Stamper article is an overall representation of "organizational membership" from the employee perspective. The article is relevant because it gives a very good description of the concept itself, its underlying dimensions and related tie concepts. The first part of the article deals with an analysis on the development of the term and the three dimensions of organizational membership. The second part highlights the relationship among the dimensions and sub-dimensions and the benefits of a multidimensional perceived organizational membership construct.

Tsui et al. Article

The topic of the Tsui et al. article are alternative approaches to the employee-organization relationship, i.e. "organizational membership." The article is relevant because it develops on the Masterson & Pearce article so far that it focuses on the employer's perspective of the construct. Introducing various hypotheses on the construct the article develops the ideas of the Masterson & Stamper article by stating that the effects of organizational membership, e.g. affective commitment and motivation of employees can be improved when the employer commits to a long-term work relationship.

Ang et al. Article

The topic of the Ang et. al article is the employment relationship of foreign workers vs. local employees. The article is relevant because it exemplifies the findings of the Tsui et al. article by showing that a long-time work relationship is extremely important in the case of highly educated foreign workers in order to develop and maintain organizational behavior. The article represents the first study to examine differences in perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of foreign workers and local employees, based on differences in their work relationship.

Vondey Article

The topic of the Vondey article is the relationship among "servant leadership" and "organizational citizenship" behavior. The article is relevant because building on the findings of the above-mentioned articles it highlights that a certain kind of leadership, i.e. servant leadership has a strong impact on the organizational behavior climate in the employee-employer relationship. It showcases that leaders who want to encourage organizational citizenship behaviors among employees would do well to model those same behaviors toward others.

List of References

Ang, S. & van Dyne, L. & Begley, T.M. (2003). The employment relationship of foreign workers vs. local employees: a field study of organizational justice, job satisfaction, performance, and OCB. J. Organiz. Behav. 24, 561-583.

Masterson, S.S. & Stamper, C.L. (2003). Perceived organizational membership: an aggregate framework representing the employee-organization relationship.

J. Organiz. Behav. 24, 473-490.

Spears, L. (2004). Practicing servant-leadership. Leader To Leader, No. 34, Fall 2004,

1-8. Derived 29 September 2011 from www.pfdf.org/knowledgecenter/journal.aspx?ArticleID=51

Cached - Similar

Tsui, A. & Pearce, J. & Porter, L. & Tripoli, A. (1997). Alternative approaches to the employee-organization relationship: Does investment in employees pay off? Academy of Management Journal 1997, Vol. 40, No. 5, 1089-1121.

Vondey, M. (2010). The relationship among servant leadership, organizational citizenship behavior, person-organization fit, and organizational identification.

IJLS Vol. 6 Iss.1, 2010, 1-27.