As a servant leader, you're a "servant first" – you focus on the needs of others, especially team members, before you consider your own. You acknowledge other people's perspectives, give them the support they need to meet their work and personal goals, involve them in decisions where appropriate, and build a sense of community within your team. This leads to higher engagement, more trust, and stronger relationships with team members and other stakeholders. It can also lead to increased innovation. But are the leaders in corporate sector really ready to serve their subordinates in this manner?
In the following, some examples of servant leaders in the corporate sector:
- Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest Airlines,
- James H. Blanchard, former chairman and CEO of Synovus financial corporation
- Kip Tindell, Chairman and CEO of Container Stores
- Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks
Thanks to servant leadership practices, These companies reach higher profit margin than their competitors.
Hello Jeevan,
Some possible sources to consult:
Carroll, B. C., & Patterson, K. (2014). Servant Leadership: A Cross Cultural Study Between India and the United States. Servant Leadership, 15.
Christensen, L. J., Mackey, A., & Whetten, D. (2014). Taking responsibility for corporate social responsibility: The role of leaders in creating, implementing, sustaining, or avoiding socially responsible firm behaviors. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(2), 164-178.
Van Dierendonck, D. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1228-1261.
Daryn
While there is a lot of reference to Mahatma Gandhi's style of functioning as an example of 'servant leadership' India still is yet to document too many of its corporate management practices. While this remains a challenge and will hopefully be resolved in the coming years, I wish to share with you two references that may give you a starting point:
Impact of Servant Leadership Style on Employee’s Intentions to Stay in Indian Organizations - Link: http://vslir.iimahd.ernet.in:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/11549/L-PP-234-Impact_of_Servant_Leadership_Style_on_Employee’s_Intentions-320-Kashyap_b.pdf?sequence=3
Servant Leadership: A Cross Cultural Study Between India and the United States - Link: http://www.sltpjournal.org/uploads/2/6/3/9/26394582/4_patterson_-_print_v1_i1_2.pdf
There was a nice article on the same topic in Businessworld - 'Corporate India needs more Servant Leadership' Issue dated 3rd December, 2013. Please do have a look.
During the same year, there was also a Harvard Business School Working Paper on a related topic: Why isn't servant leadership more prevalent? Link: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7207.html
Hope these will help.
Best wishes with your research!
As Raj visualises, the documented examples about servant leadership may be low but the cases are not. Infact there is a preponderance of same. Right from the beginning this leadership mode is promoted in quantity and frequency in government servants (engaged in public service) where the President of India is pleased to have empowered them to carry out the functions..
Servant leadership is meant for other kind of setting based on value system. When the money motivates as per the capitalist economic system, it's harder but possible.
The challenge lies ahead to the corporate leader who is benevolent and treats his team as his own extended family member then servant leadership may work. However in setting like NGOs and other mission based organizations it is easy to practice. The theory originates from Scandinavian countries where catholic based value system is prevalent and it's transferability in other socioeconomic setup where transformational and transactional leadership is more suitable....
Servant leadership is there in all walks of like such as industry, education, community, and non-profit sectors. It has more impact on team/followers to compare with other leadership styles. The team would like to serve back for whatever you have given/provided to them.
The moot question.. "are the leaders in corporate sector really ready to serve their subordinates in this manner?" remains to be explored?
I do agree with Prof. Priyavrat Thareja. the conversation has given me the literature links. I am thankful to the contributors but still the questions looms still atop "are the leaders in corporate sector really ready to serve their subordinates in this manner?" and what management should do to promote it?