Try a little servant leadership
Sheryl Connelly
Indiana Wesleyan University
ADM 510
Mike Higgason
May 4, 2010
Try a little servant leadership Using a Servant Leadership model will help emerging businesses maintain intrinsic employee motivation, leading to superior human capital performance and subsequent revenue growth. The recession has cost many businesses more than just profits. With unemployment at an all time high and the threat of layoffs looming daily, employee morale is declining at an alarming rate. Threats to increase performance or be fired and the clichéd phrase of, “You should be happy you have a job,” do little more than undermine intrinsic employee motivation. But, is there an alternative organizations
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For example, nothing happens for a company until the sales person sells the product or service. If the sales force isn’t motivated to gain new business, revenue will suffer as a direct result. Vice versa, studies have shown that “servant leadership values held by sales managers have a significant effect on salesperson values about customer interactions, ultimately affecting salesperson performance” (Jaramillo, Grisaffe, Chonko, & Roberts, 2009). Thus, we can conclude that servant leaders play a key role in the improvement of sales revenue. 5. What is the impact of a servant leader on employee turnover? The end result of a lack of employee motivation in their jobs is turnover. When one is not happy with their career or job choice and it becomes clear that an employer is only looking out for the profit line of the corporation, employees will actively seek out new employment opportunities. The cost of turnover to an organization is tens of thousands of dollars now vying to be spent on interviewing, selecting, and training a replacement. Servant leaders, however, have the opposite effect. “Salespeople who work under supportive leaders have higher levels of intrinsic motivation. Also, salespeople who work for considerate leaders are more satisfied with their jobs and report lower role stress” (Jaramillo, Grisaffe, Chonko & Roberts,
Through engaging and empowering actions, servant leaders create conditions where others can develop, foster, and use their potential for the greater good. As your noted, a goal of empowerment it to stimulate intrinsic motivation.
Servant leadership is an effectual way to motivate the employees. Its unique emphasis on concern for
There are many advantages to practicing servant leadership to be experienced by all stakeholders. A balance is required of either incorporating other styles when the situation calls for them or there should be a good mixture of leadership styles among the leaders within the organization. This blend of leadership styles allows for all levels of employees to feel they play an important role in the success of the organization while continually
Servant Leadership is “an approach to leadership with strong altruistic and ethical overtones that asks and requires leader to be attentive to the needs of their followers and empathize with them; they should take care of them by making sure they become healthier, wiser, freer and more autonomous, so that they too can become servant leaders” (Valeri, 2007). Although there is not many servant leaders in this world but the concept of servant is one of the most leadership approach leaders today struggles with. Servant leadership is mainly about the leader helping to grow their followers or members personally and professionally through empathy, listening skills and compassion. The concept of servant leadership which was proposed by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 writing indicated that servant leadership is a theoretical framework that advocated a leader’s primary motivation and role as service to others.
The first part of this essay will introduce the theoretical synthesis of why employees resign from their jobs based on the Eight Motivational Forces (Jr & Griffeth 2004). The second part of this essay will discuss the consequences to the organisation left behind by the employee. The third part will then focus on strategies for organisations to retain their highly talented and motivated employees.
Antecedents that influence leadership include factors such as the leader’s personality and ethics, followers’ openness, and cultural norms. Furthermore, the leader’s behaviors affect the process. For example, a leader needs to be knowledgeable regarding an organization’s goals to effectively address and handle difficult situations. A servant leader assists followers in achieving purposes. A leader treats followers fairly and respects personal values. The leader helps followers learn to make choices. An ideal outcome is a favorable effect on the followers, organization, and community. The leader can determine which needs will help followers progress and plan to meet those needs through developing programs or obtaining funding (Northouse, 2016).Servant leadership is important for management because it affects employee’s productivity. While a manager requires work to be completed and appears unconcerned if an employee has a problem, the servant leader may help a follower so he or she can work successfully. For example, although a manager may penalize an employee for arriving late, a servant leader may ask the employee what he or she needs to arrive to work on time. After the leader and the employee successfully collaborate, the effect is that the manager is appeased and the employee keeps a job. A servant leader can help employees develop a supportive community
This article examines the similarities and differences between transformational and servant leadership. The authors suggest the primary difference is the focus of the leader. The transformational leader’s focus is more on the organization and the servant leader’s focus is more on the follower. The authors state that both offer the conceptual framework for
Leaders believe people have an intrinsic value beyond tangible contributions as workers. As a result, genuine interest in the spiritual, professional and personal growth of all employees is demonstrated.
In the process of interviewing a servant leader, this paper investigates the defining behavior of servant leadership from a practical and philosophical standpoint. There are practical behavioral characteristics that can be uniformly integrated into the business infrastructure that is founded upon Biblical principles yet not used as a pool to proselytize. Through research and group discussion boards, this paper analyzes the institutional applications and the interpersonal relationships
By being a servant leader, I will put the needs of my employees first to ensure that my company is socially responsible through quality customer service rendered by me and employees. Since leadership is considered a critical force in producing positive outcomes in organizations through the performance of employees, it is very important to take servant leadership seriously (Grisaffe, VanMeter, Chonko 2016). My main and foremost priority as a servant leader is to serve others with real selflessness before aiming for profit. For instance, as a non-medical owner of a care
Being a servant leader empowers others to become better people. Without such leadership, Kelleher’s employees would feel as if they do not matter, but in reality they are the most important assets to the airline company.
In the book The Servant, the author James C. Hunter discusses Servant Leadership, and the impact it has on every aspect of life. The book begins with a middle-aged man, John, who has it all, a supportive wife and kids and an authoritative job as a manager at a glass factory. John however, feels his life is falling apart, his employees aren’t respecting him and his relationships with his wife and kids are becoming distant and negative. In an attempt to make a change, John attended a week long religious retreat that’s main focus is Servant Leadership. The attendees at this retreat were all very different, their careers varied greatly, and their views on how to be a leader were not alike either. In the end though, they all agreed on one thing, making a change to become a Servant Leader was going to reshape their lives, through both their careers and relationships.
What is the stimulus that encourages the emergence of a great leader? Robert Greenleaf’s theory of Servant Leadership places emphases on the individual, who is instinctively a servant.
This is mainly because of what the servant leaders express in terms of noble behaviors that let followers easily Trust them and have good personal relationships with them especially because these followers are sure that their leaders’ decisions are good for their own interests as employees. This will make such followers have the willingness to make extra efforts to have a superior work performance. Furthermore, they would exert their maximum effort to continue working with that specific organization and with the same leader. In the same manner, Harwiki (2013) has explained that there are direct positive relationships between Servant Leadership and Organizational Commitment where that type of leadership with all its noble features is encouraging the employees to be involved in the organization and to embody a strong connection with it which makes them feel committed and hence would not leave to another
The authors of the review state that they focused on providing an informed answer to how servant leadership works and how it could be applied in organisations. A systematic literature review was conducted with a final tally of 39 studies deemed appropriate for the exercise.