Servant Leadership in Diverse Contexts. Management Essay

Servant Leadership Style
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Servant Leadership Style
Servant leadership stands out to improve performance as well as create better organizations. It combines the two elements in its name, of working together with the employees, serving them by listening to them and guiding them. These aim to achieve authority than power. The gaining of authority means helping to develop and perform better. The traditional leadership aimed at achieving power, was more commanding, controlling others or self-centred. The major difference is in the response of the employees who are happier and committed in the servant leadership style than in other burdening leadership styles. Such might be more abusive like the aristocracy style that inherited the patriarchs’ traits. This essay traces the origin of servant leadership, analyzes the viewpoints, compares it to cultural and religious values, then finally notes the similarities or differences in the chosen context.
Robert Greanleaf in 1970, noted that leadership is servant first. His essay became famous for that statement which led to the adoption of the concept. It brought out the realization that the behavior of the leader might build trust or destroy it among those he is in charge of. His seminary essay used Jesus as an example of the ‘servant-first’ idea linking up to servant leadership’s origin (Greenleaf, 2008). That also showed how servant leadership transcends cultural and religious boundaries. The phrase mostly associates with Christianity. Moreover, it is compatible with most religions and the fact that cultures are inter-related to religion in that religion influences culture while culture determines religion, it transcends cultures. Jesus was God in terms of Christianity religion. The same God is worshipped in different religions with slight differences in beliefs or different names like the Muslims call him Allah. This sums up the observation of the origin of the servant leadership style that became a common style after the first revelation in Greenleaf’s essay.
Servant leadership transcends religion and culture by promoting ethical, moral as well as the good interest of the public than selfish interests. According to Guo (2002), servant leadership transcendency in Taoism religion practised by the Chinese culture. According to Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher and writer, Taoism is against manipulative leadership. Servant leadership is highly practised in culture (Guo, 2002). Tzu used statements that criticized leadership for self-interests like ‘one who glorifies himself will not become a leader’ or another one which says that ‘one who promotes himself will not become famous’. Such words relating to servant leadership guided the culture and religious motives towards leadership, showing a clear indication of transcendence.
Taoism is compatible with servant leadership to a great extent by the installation of cooperation, compassion, wisdom and humility to its people. Leaders come from among the people. Leaders are trained to being suitable as they do good. That earns them respect from the employees than fear as in some abusive leaderships. The core principles of Taoism, as stated in the Tao Te Ching among their other religious or cultural documents, are a stepping stone to developing purpose-driven organizations (Zu, 2019). The principles are self-awareness to be able to mind others as well, humility, self-cultivation, doing the right things for long term leadership and transcending ego to serve others better as a servant leader. Zu (2019) mentions that generosity, honesty and kindness in leadership can control and impact positively on the society. The great values supersede evil in leadership while maintaining healthier relations in the respective community. Since the benefits of servant leadership were noted, it became the most preferred in cultures with the changing times’ Chinese culture not being left behind.
There are some similarities of servant leadership in Taoism that relate with other religions and cultures in promoting human values. The value of not revenging evil-doing, quiet humility, simple living and living a legacy are some aspects across the cultures (Goossaert, 2020). They are courtesy of servant leadership which makes it possible for different to relate well despite their different religions. Servant leadership in Chinese culture has helped organizations to compete with others worldwide. It has helped balance the work-life of employees by bettering their conditions. Open-mindedness has also been promoted to a large extent all over, making the states grow faster with the other factors like technology. Slavery has been controlled since the start of servant leadership as it was widely practised in the ancient Chinese culture, but it is believed that non-Taoism religions might still uphold some cruelty.
In Chinese culture, retaining employees is another factor that made servant leadership involvement vital. Their perspective of the fo...