...Servant-Leadership Theory from a Socially Constructed World View and a Biblical World View Mark J. Dixon Jr. Liberty University Abstract Servant-Leadership Theory has been a progressive theory in which much study has been done. Robert Greenleaf began using the term servant leadership to encourage leaders to first want to serve. There are two different world views discussed in this research paper that will shed light into what it takes to be a servant leader and how it can be successful if there is a full understanding of the theory present. There is the secular and the biblical world view in which differences in the two are identified. Servant-Leadership is meant to be more than just a way to see positive outcomes in a business, but it also transfers into effecting people’s lives. An attempt to enhance understanding and the question trying to be answered here is what separates the secular view of Servant-Leadership Theory from the Biblical worldview. This paper examines the characteristics and goals of servant-leadership though both worldviews to give a better understanding of servant-leadership theory. Keywords: servant-leadership, characteristics, biblical, secular Servant-Leadership Theory from a Socially Constructed World View and a Biblical World View There has been much attention given to leadership theories since the introduction of Servant-Leadership Theory by Robert Greenleaf in 1970. Greenleaf’s intent for servant-leadership is to help not only the leader...
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...customer, their truthfulness or if they are motivated to excel. The customer believes that their mission statement, it’s a slogan because it’s too short, making people wonder about Wal-Mart’s servant leadership values. Moreover, the Wal-Mart marketing strategy uses Newspaper advertising to promote their low prices. According to Point, Wal-Mart is increasing their efforts to buy local store and gain those customers. Their mission statement misleads people to think that they don’t enforce servant leadership practice within an organization because Walmart kills mom and pop shops. “In order for Walmart to better use their mission as a communication tool, the company should give more information about the business and address more stakeholders”. In contrast, World Vision has a strong mission statement which identifies the importance of servant leadership values to their customers and sponsors with their Christianity heritage. The Christian organization serves all people in need by partnering up different associations. World Vision identified servant leadership values to their organization by about and accepting people regardless their background. World Vision is committed to their employees by welcoming into Christianity heritage, yet not enforcing anything but the values of servant leadership. For instance, they don’t preach their religion or must to believe their belief because they treat everyone the same. Their mission statement, it’s so powerful that automatic people give their...
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...Servant and Authentic Leadership By: Lorie Vos Date: September 19, 2011 Course: MGT380: Leadership for Organizations Instructor: Meredith Peabody Leadership is commonly referred to as the ability to influence human behavior in order to accomplish organizational goals. Through my studies I have found that in our current business climate organizations are no longer hiring those who only posses traditional management skills; rather they are seeking leaders who possess the talent and traits that relate to the charismatic-inspirations component of leadership. Leadership involves interaction between the leader, the followers and the situation. Through this course I understand that in order to influence human behavior to accomplish organizational goals I must become an effective leader, and developing servant and authentic leadership skills are critical. I will discuss why the skills and traits of these theories are critical to influence human behavior and to accomplish organization goals. Effective leaders leave a lasting impression on those who follow them forever changing their lives “people do not leave companies, they leave people”, unknown author. In order to influence human behavior to accomplish organizational goals effective leaders must invest in strengths of their followers. Leadership involves interaction between the leader and the follower. In order to invest in the strengths of my followers I will need the traits of a servant leader. Servant leader...
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...com/ Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis Dirk van Dierendonck Journal of Management 2011 37: 1228 originally published online 2 September 2010 DOI: 10.1177/0149206310380462 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jom.sagepub.com/content/37/4/1228 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: Southern Management Association Additional services and information for Journal of Management can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jom.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jom.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://jom.sagepub.com/content/37/4/1228.refs.html >> Version of Record - Jun 8, 2011 OnlineFirst Version of Record - Sep 2, 2010 What is This? Downloaded from jom.sagepub.com at OhioLink on February 1, 2013 Journal of Management Vol. 37 No. 4, July 2011 1228-1261 DOI: 10.1177/0149206310380462 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis Dirk van Dierendonck Erasmus University Servant leadership is positioned as a new field of research for leadership scholars. This review deals with the historical background of servant leadership, its key characteristics, the available measurement tools, and the results of relevant studies that have been conducted so far. An overall conceptual model of servant leadership...
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...Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology Life Essay Course Name: VEL1010E Value-based Leadership in Organizations Name of Student: Prakash Lamichhane Title of Essay: Leadership Theory and Practice Number of Words: 1728 Date:26/09/14 Leadership is seen in every organizational structure. There is no universal definition of leadership. Many have defined the term in various ways. Leadership in simple terms means leading people towards goal but it is a understanding in a nutshell. What is leadership? Leadership is not merely having a vision (Maxwell,2001), also is a process and having influences in a group towards common goals (Northhouse,2013). Leadership is a influence upon relation within followers and leaders to seek changes which takes to common goal (Rost 1993). Weathersby (1999, p.5) suggests: “Leadership focuses on the creation of a common vision. It means motivating people to contribute to the vision and encouraging them to align their self-interest with that of the organization. It means persuading, not commanding”. Hence leadership can be a process, an influence which works in a group with vision to achieve relevant goals. Purpose of the essay: This paper is written to compare and contrast situational, transformational and servant leadership theory and practices and the area of their strength and weakness. There are several leadership models or approaches that have emerged with the passage of time. Transactional, situational, transformational and servant among many....
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...Management http://jom.sagepub.com/ Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis Dirk van Dierendonck Journal of Management 2011 37: 1228 originally published online 2 September 2010 DOI: 10.1177/0149206310380462 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jom.sagepub.com/content/37/4/1228 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: Southern Management Association Additional services and information for Journal of Management can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jom.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jom.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://jom.sagepub.com/content/37/4/1228.refs.html Downloaded from jom.sagepub.com at The Hebrew University Library Authority on June 29, 2011 Journal of Management Vol. 37 No. 4, July 2011 1228-1261 DOI: 10.1177/0149206310380462 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis Dirk van Dierendonck Erasmus University Servant leadership is positioned as a new field of research for leadership scholars. This review deals with the historical background of servant leadership, its key characteristics, the available measurement tools, and the results of relevant studies that have been conducted so far. An overall conceptual model of servant leadership is presented. It is argued that leaders...
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...A Leadership Self Evaluation A.1- See attached completed Seven Habits Profile A.1.a. The Seven Habits Profile reveals several areas of success in leading as well as areas of opportunity for me to improve my leadership. I believe that my high scores in the emotional bank account and think win-win category are major contributing factors to my ability to synergize well with coworkers. I am a people person and I prefer to work as a team rather than individually. It is important to me that everyone on our team succeeds. I get to know my team members on a personal and professional level , know their challenges in life, so that I can help them overcome those challenges. It is my belief that having happy employees leads to having positive customer interactions and more productive workdays. I believe that when employees know you want them to succeed it makes the synergizing process run more smoothly, as all parties know the intentions of the others are good. My proactive attitude; taking responsibility for my work, my mood, and my circumstances; is another reason for my success in the synergize category. I don’t need public credit for a job well done, but I do make a point to say when I have made a mistake. This helps to build trust and transparency. I want my employees to be able to come to me to admit when they have made a mistake as well so that we can work together to fix the error. Without a culture of transparency and trust errors can get hidden and come up later...
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...ABSTRACT Servant leadership is an ever expanding field that is gaining more attention from business leaders. It is similar to some earlier models in that it focuses on the leader and the behaviors of the leader; it deviates in that the leader puts the follower’s needs before their own. They do this by providing nurturing and support in hopes of developing the follower to realize their full potential. At the heart of servant leadership is the central idea of truly putting follower’s needs before those of the leader. The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the elements of Servant leadership. The goal is to explore the characteristics, theories, and models of servant leadership. The idea of servant leadership originated in the 1970’s...
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...Contents Acknowledgment 2 Abstract 3 Scope and Purpose 4 Leadership in Organizations 5 Transformational Leadership 6 Servant Leadership 9 Organizational Learning 10 Organizational Performance 13 Analysis 14 Theoretical Framework 16 Hypothesis 16 Methodology 17 Data Analysis and research findings 19 Conclusion and Discussion 28 Bibliography 29 Bibliography 29 Acknowledgment The process of research is a complex one and requires immense guidance at all stages. We are thankful to our respected advisor Mr. Muhammad Ali who guided us on every stage despite our shortcomings. We are also thankful to our respected advisory committee for their valuable feedback and suggestions. We would be thankful for further feedback from our Evaluation Committee. Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of two comparative leadership styles on organizational learning and performance of non-profit organizations. The leadership style undertaken is transformational leadership and servant leadership. A sample of 100 participants is taken from non-profit organizations based in Pakistan. Data was gathered through quantitative surveys on a five point likert scale. SPSS was used for analysis purpose. The results showed that the level of organization learning doesn’t affect organization performance. These results mean that organizations should focus on other factors rather than the type of leadership they are following if they want to improve their learning or performance ...
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...Abraham Lincoln Servant Leadership Case Study and Collaborative Research #4 G. Diaz ADM 553 April 16, 2015 Introduction Abraham Lincoln is one of the most known and beloved presidents of our history. He was the 16th president of the United States and is known for achieving such feats as keeping the Union together and the emancipation of slavery. Having many followers as well as resistance during the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln showed fortitude and never gave up on his vision and goals. Hence, after fighting for many years, he was able to give freedom and support to those who were chained by weights of racism and prejudice. Therefore, aside from having a vision and many followers, what made Lincoln such a great leader? What type of leadership style did Abraham Lincoln mostly use and why was it so successful? To begin with, Lincoln seems to fit the bill of what a great leader is supposed to entail. He was very charismatic, intelligent, determined, self-confident, and showed integrity to his followers and goals. All of these traits as described by Northouse (2013) are characteristics that leaders should aim to develop if they want to be effective commandants. Although leadership does not have one exclusive definition, since we all have our own ideas of what it means to be a good leader, Northouse does provide standard definition for the term. Northouse (2013) defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve...
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...Changes in the work environment have brought around a need for businesses to become aware of the type of culture they provide to current and prospective employees, as well as their customers. This has become a piece of the workplace that new applicants are taking into consideration when looking for a new job or career, current employees use this as a reason to stay, and company leadership uses this as an opportunity to build employee and customer loyalty. While it is the desire of many companies to create the right culture, it is a major challenge for companies and their leaders (John & Sons, 2007). Interstates Company and Goodwill Industries (specifically looking at the Sioux City, IA location) have worked hard to create cultures that support their employees and their customers. While they produce and/or sell completely different products, the choices they have made about their work environments have some similarities. Culture can be challenging to define since it may vary greatly from one business to another. Steven McShane and Mary Ann von Glinow in Organizational Behavior defined culture as: It is the basic pattern of shared assumptions, value and beliefs governing the way employees within an organization think about and act on problems and opportunities…It (culture) defines what is important and unimportant in the company. You might think of it as the organization’s DNA—invisible to the naked eye, yet a powerful template that shapes what happens in the workplace (John...
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...Servant Leadership The concept of servant leadership is identified as the means by which individuals work to provide for, or serve others to accommodate their needs, and to conduct these activities in a leadership capacity (Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership). This is a learned process, as one recognizes his or her personal interest in serving others, and how this might be accomplished (Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership). A servant leader is a complex responsibility, one that reflects a number of inherent personal values and beliefs regarding the ability to provide for others that cannot easily help themselves (Barbuto and Wheeler). There are a number of key elements in servant leadership, including empathy, listening, healing, and stewardship, amongst others, and these are critical factors in supporting this role (Barbuto and Wheeler). All persons cannot be all things to all people, so therefore, it is necessary to concentrate on those characteristics that can be accomplished most effectively (Barbuto and Wheeler). In general, servant leadership requires an individual with the ability to adapt to change quickly, to work with many diverse groups of people, and to develop leadership skills through training and experience (Barbuto and Wheeler). For those working in servant leadership roles, it is necessary to identify the needs of the populations being served, and to adjust their capacity to learn as change warrants (Barbuto and Wheeler). These efforts must continue...
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...Three Pillars of the College of Business Servant Leadership, Entrepreneurial Spirit and Innovation Grand Canyon University: Introduction to Graduate Studies in the College of Business The three pillars of the College of Business are servant leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. The first one that I am going to discuss is servant leadership. Servant Leadership According to Robert Greenleaf, the term servant leadership “involves putting people and ethical considerations intentionally ahead of short term institutional or personal self-interest.” The article that I wrote about in my reference assignment was Servant Leadership, 2.0 .This article discussed the business community and how it is embracing servant leadership. The ten tables of servant leadership. The ten tables are, listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people & building communities. (Spears, L.) These ten characteristics have been the foundation for servant leadership scholarship for more than 30 years. According to Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) there are five leadership factors. These factors are altruistic calling, emotional healing, persuasive mapping, wisdom, and organizational stewardship. “Sendjaya, Sarros, and Santora (2008) identified six dimensions of servant leadership, which are voluntary subordination, authentic self, covenantal relationship, responsible morality, transcendent spirituality, and transforming...
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...Introduction Mahatma Gandhi has been a distinctive leader throughout his lifetime. His leadership characteristics have been recognized, analyzed and praised all around the world. He has become a prime example of a successful leader. In this research paper, I will pick certain theories to analyze Gandhi’s leadership. Then I will choose a “leader” from my circle of family, my mother, and examine her leadership using the same criteria. The purpose of the comparison is to recognize key leadership attributes and behaviors and establish an understanding of the importance of certain fundamentals of leadership. As I was beginning to research information on the topics of leadership and the basic ideas of it, I realized that I agreed with a lot of theories and opinions. However, I decided to take some key ideas and formulate my own definition of leadership that fits my perceptions of life, my cultural beliefs, my background and my personality. In my view, in order to be a leader one must have an open mind. One must have the ability to view situations from different perspectives. One must be able to think logical and free of clichés and acknowledge all advantages and disadvantages for all parties involved. In order to practice those characteristics one must get to know the players of the situation, one must get to know their mindset and their reasoning for action. What inspired me most about Gandhi, and which is also considered his most distinguishable and memorable trait, is that he...
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...Assignment 4 Chapters 10 and 11. Case 11.1 Authentic Leadership Am I Really a Leader? 1. Learning about one’s self is an essential step in becoming an authentic leader. What role did self-awareness play in Sally Helgesen’s story of leadership? Self-awareness is an extremely important process in becoming an authentic leader wherein individuals not only understand themselves, including their strength and weaknesses but also learn the impact they have on others. Understanding herself just lead Sally into becoming an authentic leader. Through her journey and experiences, she realized her strengths and weaknesses and developed a clear sense of who she was and what she stood for; developed a strong anchor for her decisions and actions. 2. How would you describe the authenticity of Sally Helgesen’s leadership? I think Sally’s leadership is very authentic. The factors that impacted her leadership were Confidence and resilience: When she started writing the book Wildcatters she lived in adverse conditions but she showed resilience, remaining optimistic and bounced back from challenging situations and became a writer. Moral reasoning: Despite her acclaim she realized her shortcomings seeing herself as an author not an expert on women’s issues and started reasserting them in a different form. She developed the capacity to make ethical decisions. Critical Life event: The book The Female Advantage resulted in numerous speaking and consulting opportunities. I think that her travels...
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