Servant Leadership

Solution Preview

One approach to help you with an assignment like this one is to look at each question from various sources, which you can then draw on for your final copy. This is the approach that this response takes. I also attached three extra resources, one APA resource for referring to when writing your final copy, and two articles, some of which this response is drawn from for other considerations.

RESPONSE:

a. Explain whether you agree or disagree with this statement: "Although servant leadership is often associated with the Bible and Jesus Christ, it is totally compatible with most religions and theories of philosophy."

Not everyone agree to the components of servant leadership. However, research suggests that many of the servant leadership principles seem to be compatible, at least on some level, with most religions and theories of philosophy, but incompatible on other levels (Wallace, 2007).

The characteristics of the servant-leader attests to this, as proposed by Greenleaf, including listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, and commitment and building community (Butler University, n.d.). This is compatible with many of the word religions who promote "human dignity, personal responsibility, character, community, the use of power, compassion, stewardship, and justice" (Wallace. 2007).

In the business world, Greenleaf (1970) first coined the term "servant leadership." He said:

"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. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions...The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."

"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?" (Greenleaf Centre for Servant Leadership, 2008)

One study (Wallace, 2007) looked at the five major world religions and found that the broad components of a biblical worldviews align quite well with servant leader characteristics. They also found that these biblical worldviews and servant leadership also aligned with numerous theories outside the realm of Scripture that extol the need for respect for human dignity, human responsibility, justice, community, compassion, stewardship, and proper use of power. Wallace (2007) names several compatible theories or philosophies proposed by Bachrach and Baratz (1972), Block (1993), Borda and Rahman, (1990), Ellul (1972, 1976, 1984), Etzioni (1993), Field (2003), Garbarino (1988), Gaventa and Cornwall (2002), Greider ( 2003), MacIntyre (1984), Mott and Sider (1999), Perkins (1995), Roby (1998) and Schneider (2002).

However, does servant leadership reflect all philosophies of leadership, such as Kantian philosophy and humanism that have been used as potential foundations for leadership? For example, Bowie (2000) argued that Kantian leadership is highly egalitarian, so compatible on this level. However, he also stated that "Kant specifically rejects the notion of servility as an acceptable stance for any person-leader or otherwise" (p. 188). To Kant, a servant leader allows himself or herself to be used as a means to others attaining their goals, ...