Pros And Cons Of The Servant Leadership Management Style

MGT200 Organisational Behaviour

MGT200 Organisational Behaviour

Servant Leadership and its Characteristics

“A servant leadership management style is the best approach for managing people in organizations. Discuss pros and cons of this argument”.

In the workplace, leadership is one of the important concepts that should be there so that it can be easy to accomplish goals and objectives in the competitive market. In context to leadership, one of the best approaches is related with servant leadership management which can help in managing the overall activities of the company. So, in this paper the discussion will be made on the topic “Servant leadership management style and its pros and cons”.

 It can be stated that leadership is one of the factors that should be considered in the workplace so that the activities can be controlled in the workplace.  Leadership emphasizes on influencing, motivating and enabling other so that it can be easy for the employees to give their best towards the activities. It also helps to achieve success in the competitive market. So, the leadership focuses on the concept of servant leadership. Servant leadership management style can also be stated as the people oriented leadership as it helps to define the leadership by serving the people in various ways that can help to maintain the needs and also focuses on the concept of personal development (Gutierrez-Wirsching et al., 2015).

It can be analyzed that the main objective of Servant leadership management style approach is to assist other stakeholders to enhance the needs and potential of the employees. This approach emphasizes on to become healthier and also more autonomous to them so that they can become servants. Servant leadership focuses on viewing that leaders consider their followers, and also it is the responsibility of the leaders to satisfy the needs. Also, they emphasize on employee development so that they can give their best towards the overall activities of the company (Focht and Ponton, 2015).

It has been seen that servant leaders have their own desires to serve the people. This is also one of the natural desires that can help to boost the commitment of the others. The servant leadership is the one who emphasizes on maintaining the relations with others which will be humble, egalitarian and also accepting.  It can be stated that servant leaders do not focus on the position of power. They focus on serving without having any attention to themselves and also without evoking the status of superior (Schwarz et al., 2016).

The servant leaders take their own decisions and actions in an ethical manner so that their goals and objectives can be attained. In context to servant leadership it can be seen that they depend on the idea of the authentic leadership. To be a servant leader it is important to have following characteristics: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, foresight, building community and commitment to growth of the individuals. It is important for the servant leaders to listen carefully to the people so that it can be easy to maintain the overall procedure of the company and also it will boost the productivity level of the employees in the competitive market (Abu Bakar and McCann, 2016).

Pros of Servant Leadership Management Style

There are various pros and cons in context to Servant leadership management style. The first con is related with diversity. It can be seen that Servant leadership management style can be effective in the workplace as it can be seen that autocratic leadership style can cause alienation among the workers.  The democratic leadership style can take place by considering the different view point of the people or the group.  The main aim of the Servant leadership management style is to focus on every member of the group.  This helps to maintain the personalized management for the employees of the team and it can also assist in boosting the team cohesiveness (Selladurai, 2014).

Loyalty is also one of the pros that can be considered in relation to Servant leadership management style.  In this style, the focus is to satisfy the needs of the employees so that they feel dedicated and happy towards the overall activities of the company. The managerial staff also emphasizes on maintaining the overall decision making process in favor of the employees. The needs of the employees are the primary objective of the company and also they emphasize on maintaining the work life balance so that employees can feel positive and motivated towards the work.  With this the sense of loyalty is boosted of the employees in the workplace. It is the best way to enhance the overall satisfaction level of the employees in the workplace (Grisaffe,  VanMeter and Chonko, 2016).

Involvement is also one of the pros related to Servant leadership management style. In this it can be seen that focus is given maintaining respect and trust from their workers.  The strong positive feeling is created in the employees and it will directly impact the overall productivity level of the company and Servant leadership management style boost the overall morale of the employees (Spears and Lawrence, 2016).  It can be seen that when workers are satisfied with the job then it can be easy for the company to boost the overall productivity level in the workplace. Also, by this it can be simple for the company to boost the profits in the competitive market and also growth is one of the important aspects that can be considered if focus is given on Servant leadership management style (Panaccio et al., 2015).

It is important for the company to boost the overall productivity level of the employees and it can be done if managers boost the morale of the employees in the workplace. So, it can be stated that it is important for the management to focus on Servant leadership management style so that positive outcome can be attained in the competitive market and it will also help the company to achieve positive outcome in the competitive market (Sipe and Frick, 2015).

There are also various cons in relation to the overall Servant leadership management style. One of the cons is related with low motivation of the employees. It can be seen that this is one of the issue in relation to Servant leadership management style as it can also sometime make the employees less motivated towards the overall activities of the company.  If the employees are not motivated towards the activities then it can be difficult to achieve positive outcome in the competitive market. The servant leadership is sometimes inclined to the problems which take place but this also focuses on completing the task that is not done by the employees. But there are many cases when the servant leaders come to rescue (Sousa and van Dierendonck, 2017). The employees who are not motivated have to work hard so that it can be easy to achieve positive outcome in the competitive market.  There are many cases when employees think that their top management will take care of the overall requirement and the issues will be resolved but the main issue arises when the employees put fewer efforts towards the overall activities of the company.  So, less motivation among the employees and also less productivity are the main limitations related with Servant leadership management style (Gotsis and Grimani, 2016).

Cons of Servant Leadership Management Style

The managerial authority also reduces at the time of considering Servant leadership management style.  It can be seen that it can also lead to overall minimization of the authority function of the management. When the workers see their managers to cater their needs then they think that they are authoritative figures. Also when the top management needs the middle managers to boost the employees to perform in a better manner then it can be one of the challenging situations for them to boost and to play a dominant role in motivating them. The leaders of the business should also focus on understanding and establishing relation with the boss and managers so that it can be simple to maintain the overall outcome in the workplace (Holten  and Brenner, 2015).

The next con is related relevancy in every business. Servant leadership management style is not fit for every business. By considering this approach it will not be possible for the companies to achieve success in the competitive market.  It is important to create Servant leadership management style so that commitment level of the employees can be boosted in the workplace (Staats, 2016).

So, it can be concluded that Servant leadership management style approach should be considered by the management so that it can be simple to achieve success in the competitive market. It also motivates the employees but on the same time it is not fit for every company in the competitive market. So, this approach should be considered so that it can be simple to boost the overall productivity of the employees in the workplace. With Servant leadership management style it can be easy for the company to maintain commitment and relation with the top management in the competitive market.

References:

Abu Bakar, H. and McCann, R.M., 2016. The mediating effect of leader–member dyadic communication style agreement on the relationship between servant leadership and group-level organizational citizenship behavior. Management Communication Quarterly, 30(1), pp.32-58.

Focht, A. and Ponton, M., 2015. Identifying primary characteristics of servant leadership: Delphi study. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 9(1),pp.83.

Gotsis, G. and Grimani, K., 2016. The role of servant leadership in fostering inclusive organizations. Journal of Management Development, 35(8), pp.985-1010.

Grisaffe, D.B., VanMeter, R. and Chonko, L.B., 2016. Serving first for the benefit of others: Preliminary evidence for a hierarchical conceptualization of servant leadership. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 36(1), pp.40-58.

Gutierrez-Wirsching, S., Mayfield, J., Mayfield, M. and Wang, W., 2015. Motivating language as a mediator between servant leadership and employee outcomes. Management Research Review, 38(12), pp.1234-1250.

Holten, A.L. and Brenner, S.O., 2015. Leadership style and the process of organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(1), pp.2-16.

Panaccio, A., Henderson, D.J., Liden, R.C., Wayne, S.J. and Cao, X., 2015. Toward an understanding of when and why servant leadership accounts for employee extra-role behaviors. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(4), pp.657-675.

Schwarz, G., Newman, A., Cooper, B. and Eva, N., 2016. Servant leadership and follower job performance: The mediating effect of public service motivation. Public Administration, 94(4), pp.1025-1041.

Selladurai, R. ed., 2014. Servant Leadership: Research and Practice: Research and Practice. IGI Global.

Sipe, J.W. and Frick, D.M., 2015. Seven pillars of servant leadership: Practicing the wisdom of leading by serving. Paulist Press.

Sousa, M. and van Dierendonck, D., 2017. Servant leadership and the effect of the interaction between humility, action, and hierarchical power on follower engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), pp.13-25.

Spears, L.C. and Lawrence, M. eds., 2016. Practicing servant-leadership: Succeeding through trust, bravery, and forgiveness. John Wiley & Sons.

Staats, C., 2016. The adaptable emphasis leadership model: A more full range of leadership. Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice, 2(2), pp.2.