Servant Leadership Annotated Bibliography Within the Context

Servant Leadership Annotated Bibliography

Within the context of organized behavior, leadership is one of the critical and core aspects. True leadership is decision making, but it is more complex. Leaders are not managers -- but they may manage. Leadership is less formal, more psychological, and effective leadership looks at more of the gray than the black and white and enables others, or other teams, to work well to achieve goals while demonstrating belief in their actions. Servant leadership is a rather modern philosophy and practice of leadership, first defined by Robert Greenleaf, but supported by numerous others. The concept is a change in management style from the authoritarian to the qualities of listening, empathy, healing, persuasion, stewardship, and growth. Essentially, this gives the individual leader authority rather than power (Greenleaf, 2002).

Brown, L.M. And B.Z. Posner. (2001). "Exploring the Relationship Between Learning

And Leadership," Leadership and Organizational Development. May, 2001: 274-80.

Scholarly article that looks at the manner in which the leader must continually learn in order to effectively lead. The relevance to servant leadership focuses on the manner in which the true servant leader acts as a catalyst in the learning paradigm by optimizing the various styles of subordinates and more effectively builds their own paradigm of management. Peer reviewed, scholarly, and well documented.

Finkelstein, S. et.al. (2009). Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions.

Harvard Business School Press

The authors are professors at well-known business schools. They posit that lack of information and inability to be truly flexible in the face of adversity is often one of the reasons some leaders fail. They positive that a servant leadership approach may very well engender group debate, accountability, increased monitoring and an attitude of teamwork no present in other business theories. Scholarly but written in lay language and more intended for the leadership genre.

Greenleaf, R. (2002). Servant Leadership. New York: Paulist Press.

This is likely the "Bible" of servant leadership. The essays were published about 25 years ago, and is a guide to the more practical philosophy that moves far from autocratic leadership towards a more holistic and ethical approach. The book is written in more of a conversational "sermon" style, not academic, and geared more toward a self-help and explanatory tome.

Kouzes, J.M. And B. Posner. (2008). The Leadership Challenge, 4th ed. Jossey-Bass.

Now in a 4th printing, this has been in print for two decades. It uses case studies and stories of real leaders facing issues, often with extraordinary results. The current edition emphasizes the global community and has more on servant-style philosophy, comparing it to other forms of leadership theory.

Spears, L., Lawrence, M., eds. (2011). Focus on Leadership: Servant Leadership for the 21st Century. New York: Wiley.

This is a collection of essays that focus on the practice of servant leadership within the organization and business setting. The authors take the theory of servant leadership and place it into differing views and ways to implement. It is scholarly in tone, has a decent bibliography, and provides a well-rounded approach to a more practical way of engendering servant leadership across numerous organizational platforms.

Trompenaars, F., Voerman, E. (2011). Servant Leadership Across Cultures. Oxford, UK: Infinite Ideas Limited.

Written in the form of case studies of current multinational companies, this material posits that institutional power is no longer an effective managerial tool in the global age. Rather, doing the right thing, embracing ethics, and moving towards partnered leadership pays off for the organization, stakeholders, and the world. Of particular interest are studies about TD Industries, Motorola, and Sematech.

Van Wart, M. (2005). Dynamics of Leadership in Public Service. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.