Servant Leadership and the Police Organization

Servant Leadership and the Police Organization
Student’s Name
Institution
Abstract
Leadership can be understood from an individual perspective as to how one chooses to lead their life or from an organizational perspective to denote the influence of applying authority to others. A leader possesses some traits that can be used to evaluate their effectiveness as well as classify the leadership paradigm they are accustomed to. Servant leadership, a leadership style that seeks to put the interest of others first and with a rich history, mostly applied in the Holy Bible, has come under the great influence in recent decades. Its application in the police organization has become a subject of discussion in the recent past, bearing in mind the benefits that the police organization gains from incorporating the traits and principles of servant leadership into the service. The police service is configured to respond to autocratic leadership style and might be difficult to incorporate change into the new leadership paradigm. However, with a well-laid plan, the traits of servant leadership can be effectively incorporated into the police organization.
Keywords: Leadership, servant leadership, traits, police organization.
Servant Leadership and the Police Organization
Introduction
The term leadership has often been a subject of discussion in many disciplines, yet most people have failed to understand the whole concept of the term. Leadership is one of the most influential factors in determining the success or failure of an organization and even an individual. From an organizational point of view, leadership can be understood as influencing others or exercising authority over followers to achieve a particular organizational goal (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). From an individual perspective, leadership can be viewed as how one chooses to lead their life, considering the different aspects of human living. Regardless of the varied interpretation of the term leadership, some commonalities run across all leadership literature. The shared opinion is that leadership is an important concept in almost every aspect of human living as well as in the corporate world. It can be devastating to the organization or the society when leadership ceases to exist or becomes ineffective (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). Therefore, regardless of the leadership style that they have adopted, leaders have some particular traits that are common among all leaders.
Major Traits of a Leader
Any leader in any leadership position must possess some traits or characteristics to be regarded as an effective leader. Individuals in the highest ranks of influence, often termed as level five leaders (Collins, 2009), possess some of the qualities, practices, concepts, and principles that can be associated with leaders of such high positions
One of the fundamental traits of a leader is the capability to exhibit self-efficacy. Self-efficacy can be viewed as a broad term to imply the ability of a leader to undertake all the necessary steps expected of them and behave in a manner that is desired of a leader. Self-efficacy also involves the ability to have confidence in one’s ability to make swift decisions, motivating others, and consequently creating an impact at the group level.
The idea of putting people first, rather than what it is to be achieved, is the other significant trait of a leader. According to Collins (2009), transformative leaders tend to ask ‘who’ first, then the ‘what’ part comes later, not the other way round. This is not only a great way to adapt to changes but also enables the leaders to get along well with the followers and build trust. The assumption with this trait is that any team can do great, as opposed to the idea that for a leader to attain greatness, he or she needs to assemble a great team ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"9mjeA44n","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wexler et al., 2007)","plainCitation":"(Wexler et al., 2007)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":254,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/AkmIQM3R/items/MU2AQR4J"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/AkmIQM3R/items/MU2AQR4J"],"itemData":{"id":254,"type":"book","publisher":"US Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services","source":"Google Scholar","title":"\" Good to Great\" Policing:.","title-short":"\" Good to Great\" Policing","author":[{"family":"Wexler","given":"Chuck"},{"family":"Wycoff","given":"Mary Ann"},{"family":"Fischer","given":"Craig"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wexler et al., 2007). Leaders also need to be bold enough to tackle any arising issues in their leadership and not just be a big persona in the organization. This trait helps the leaders be honest with the situation at hand, consequently resulting in effective decision-making.
A leader needs to know more about the organization’s goal, mission, and vision. Most importantly, a leader ought to know the specific areas where the organization can do better or stands for in the society or community it operates in. Discipline is everything for a leader as they are expected to be role models to their followers. Bureaucratic leaders, who can be viewed as the direct opposite of disciplined leaders, tend to be incompetent and often get all the traits of leadership wrong. Numerous variables might influence the decision-making in an organization and might require the input of several other decision-makers. Leaders ought to possess a trait that exercises patience and discipline with the decision-making process leading to consistency with the management of the action and the outcome of the decisions.
Servant Leadership
A leader may possess a mixture of certain traits, behaviors, and overall characteristics as they interact with their followers, leading to the emergence of different leadership styles. Leadership style can be understood as how those in leadership positions related to their subordinates to achieve a common organizational goal (Al Khajeh, 2018). In modern disciplines dealing with organizational behavior and management, the most notable management styles include transactional, transformational, democratic, charismatic, culture-based, visionary, and servant leadership (Al Khajeh, 2018).
Servant leadership is a management style that has come to gain popularity in the recent past despite being put into practice even in the ancient monarchies. Servant leaders put the interests of the followers first, influenced by the notion that when the needs of the followers are fulfilled, the outcome include efficiency, quality, and high productivity. The traditional monarchies and the teachings of Jesus Christ concerning the Jewish culture are the greatest examples of servant leadership, explaining the rampant association of servant leadership with Christian teaching. For example, mark 9:35 states that “anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (King James Bible, n.d. Mark 9:35). Several other provisions in the Bible about the story of Jesus Christ depict the prevalence of the servant leadership paradigm over the others in Christian teachings.
Major Traits of Servant Leaders
From the mere definition of servant leadership, leaders tend to put the interest of others before themselves. In this management paradigm, it is clear that servant leaders ought to be selfless. Servant leaders can build a rapport with their followers and even influence others to be more compassionate and exhibit selflessness with a selfless character trait. Self-awareness is the other attribute conversant with servant leaders. It enables them to identify their point of weaknesses and strengths to capitalize on and eventually have a greater impact on their followers. Diversity in workplaces and society has been a major concern in the contemporary era, and servant leaders tend to exhibit utmost understanding and regard for diversity and inclusivity (Sims, 2018).
Authenticity is a core attribute for the servant leader. This is where the leader can subordinate themselves underneath their followers, take criticism positively, and demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence (Kumar, 2018). Morality is the central value for servant leaders seeking to influence and inspire a culture guided by strong values. As they seek to limit the barriers to the success of others, servant leaders work for change in collaboration with having a vision for the team and the organization as a whole.
Servant leadership traits often overlap with the traits expected of any other leaders in the different leadership paradigms, with the elements of compassion, selflessness, morality, and authenticity taking center stage with servant leadership. Listening and commitment to growth are the other differentiating aspects of servant leadership. With servant leadership, followers’ attitude towards the job or a goal to be attained by the organization takes precedence, unlike other leadership paradigms where leaders exert utmost authority over the followers. Contrary to other leadership styles where authority over the followers takes precedence, the roles are interchanged with servant leadership as is observed from Mathew 20:25-27: “…you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you....