Servant Leadership

Servant Leadership

This paper contains two different examinations of the servant leaders and organizations. The first part examines the relationship between the servant leader and the board. The second part examines how an organizations politics and power grow and develop under servant leaders. The third part relates to an organization's dynamics and servant leadership. The question at hand is...What does a servant leader offer an organization?

Servant Leaders and Trustees

The word trustees' here is defined as a member(s) of the governing board for large, small, nonprofit, and for profit organizations. The theme of Reinhold Niebuhr's book Moral Man, Immortal Society comes to light from our readiness as individuals to claim moral by caring for only persons. To have a moral society we must have moral humanity to care for institutions as well. Herein lays the heart of what servant leadership promotes for a board of trustees and the organization (Greenleaf, 2002).

Although trustees' work hard in their positions they fail to work hard at credibility, Carver (2002) calls this 'The Credibility Theory' under the Policy Governance model. The philosophical foundation of the model lies in Greenleaf's servant leadership. Greenleaf (2002) refers to the trustees' as the "prime mover in institutional regeneration" (p. 68). However, the author continues to claim that everyone within the organization has power including administrators, staff, and trustees'. All having their own power within the organization but they have no power without trust. Robert Greenleaf (2002) writes that if trustees':

"Satisfy legal requirements and give the cover of legitimacy but little more, is not this arrangement neglect by trustees? Who is being deceived? At whose expense is this carried on? One is inclined to answer "All of those who are served by or depend on the institution, can be a large number of people" (p. 114).

The neglected ingredient is organization (Greenleaf, 2002). "There are two kinds of leaders those inside that carry out the day to day roles and those outside that stand outside to oversee the active leaders" (p. 54).

According to Greenleaf (2002), one main function of the trustee is to design top administration and executives. It is their responsibility to make sure that these top administrators have "intelligence, integrity, stability, skill, adaptability, and spirit that the task requires." The concept is to choose the "primus inter pares -first among equals" he is the leader but not a chief (p. 70-74).

The above is an analogy to describe a servant leader, which claims to be a servant first. Greenleaf's (2002) four tenants "1) service to others, 2) holistic approach to work, 3) promoting a sense of community, and 4) the sharing of power" (p. 352).

Servant Leaders Power, and Politics

How does a servant leader develop an organization regarding power and politics? The answer is through servant-ship. Greenleaf (2002) tells us the word power means "persuasion" in the eyes of a servant leader. Power lies in the trustees, administrators, staff, and constituents. Power and politics embedded in servant leadership focuses on the objectives, mission, and goals of constituents (Greenleaf, 2002). Organizations that are grounded in servant leaders prosper, grow, have roots in openness, opportunities, security in benefits and pay,