This paper examines servant leadership as introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf, focusing on the principle that a leader's fundamental purpose is to serve others. It explores the relationship between servant leadership and ethical leadership, noting that while distinct, the two approaches are closely intertwined through trust and credibility. The paper also addresses how moral intelligence equips servant leaders to navigate workplace dilemmas. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is presented as a historical exemplar of servant leadership. The paper concludes with an analysis of how widespread adoption of servant leadership as a dominant style could improve employee engagement and organizational productivity.
While the definition of effective leadership continues to be debated, one approach that has gained significant currency in recent years is servant leadership — a philosophy maintaining that a leader's fundamental purpose is to serve others. To explore this approach, this paper reviews the relevant literature on servant leadership and its original proponent, Robert K. Greenleaf. It examines the relationship between servant leadership and ethical leadership, and the relationship between servant leadership and moral intelligence. It then describes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a leader who exemplified servant leadership and explains why he qualifies as a servant leader. Finally, it analyzes how servant leadership might affect an organization if all leaders were to adopt it as their dominant leadership style.
In his book The Servant as Leader, Robert K. Greenleaf maintained that "The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead" (p. 6). While there is an inextricable relationship between servant leadership and ethical leadership, the two styles are not synonymous. Engelbrecht and Heine (2014) report that "In ethical leadership, the emphasis is more on normative behavior whereas servant leadership has a stronger focus on the personal growth of followers" (p. 2).
Notwithstanding this distinction, effective servant leadership also requires ethical leadership. As Engelbrecht and Heine (2014) emphasize, "Ethical leadership is critical to leaders' credibility and their potential to exert meaningful influence. This credibility in ethical leaders is likely to have a significant influence on trust between a leader and follower" (p. 2). There is also an inextricable relationship between moral intelligence and effective servant leadership — one that shapes the nature of the leader-follower relationship, as discussed below.
A leader's moral intelligence provides the internal compass by which moral dilemmas routinely encountered in the workplace are navigated and addressed (Gulab & Sario, 2015). In this context, moral intelligence refers to an individual's ability to readily discern the appropriate course of action when several alternatives are available. As Gulab and Sario (2015) explain, "The term moral identifies behavior as right or wrong. Moral intelligence includes the concepts of moral awareness, moral reasoning, and moral competence. Moral awareness means being conscious of matters that are right or wrong" (p. 107). Combined with ethical leadership, moral intelligence provides servant leaders with the framework needed to lead their organizations more effectively.
Although the degree of servant leadership exists along a continuum, one individual who exemplified servant leadership was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Brown (2013) reports that "A modern example of a servant leader is Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King certainly did not choose the easy road when he assumed a leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement and chose to champion the non-violent approach" (para. 1).
Given the enormous obstacles placed firmly in his way, Dr. King's leadership clearly demonstrated the tenets of servant leadership by sacrificing his own welfare for African Americans in general and for his country in particular (Brown, 2013). Moreover, by eschewing praise and accolades during his lifetime, Dr. King made it abundantly clear that his "eye was on the prize" and that his own personal fate was irrelevant to the greater cause of the Civil Rights Movement (Brown, 2013).
"Effects of servant leadership on engagement and productivity"
The research showed that servant leadership, introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf, is a leadership philosophy that maintains serving others is the optimal approach in many public and private sector settings. By placing the interests of followers ahead of their own, servant leaders demonstrate attributes that instill loyalty and commitment as well as increased levels of employee engagement. One such leader was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who showed the world through servant leadership how nonviolent demonstrations could transform an entire society.
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