MGT410-servant leadership in diverse contexts PDF

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SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN DIVERSE CONTEXTS

Servant Leadership in Diverse Contexts Rebecca Branch Grand Canyon University: MGT410 July 26, 2020

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Servant Leadership Around the World

Servant Leadership is a growing idea of the way people should lead in order to benefit themselves as well as the people that are around them. What exactly is servant leadership though? From a distant view a person sees the word servant and the word leader and defines it by the meaning of those words separately. A servant is someone who caters or works for someone else. A leader is someone who does just that and leads a group of individuals to a goal. The words together are looked at differently. A servant leader is “a leadership style that is beneficial to organizations by awaking, engaging, and developing employees, as well as beneficial to followers or employees by engaging people as whole individuals with heart, mind, and spirit” (Dierendonck, 2010). This leadership way accomplishes goals to the best of the ability by first serving the people in the organization first. Building a relationship with the surrounding employees first in order to reach higher potentials. This can be seen in many different places today, including a place where it can be most beneficial to people and the community, servant leadership in religions and cultures around the world. This essay will look at servant leadership in one religion, Hinduism, and one culture, European. Hinduism The first part of any kind of comparison is knowing the background information first. What is Hinduism? Hinduism comes from India and is very popular and is said to have started before most other religions. They believe in the Brahman which is the divine intelligence above everything. Atman is their own individual soul. Another part of the Hindu beliefs is Reincarnation or their soul coming back time after time into a new body. Karma is a major factor in what position they come back in. If their behaviors are moral and good, then the better their

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life will be. Pretty much, their lives and reincarnation are based on the decisions they make in their current life. Hinduism is their way of life. They have many ritual and worship practices that are a part of their everyday lives. They think that Gandhi is a model of servant leadership for them. Looking at how he lead and his personal characteristics, there are similarities between him and a great servant leader like acts of service, humility, morality, and wholeness. Servant leadership in Hinduism can be seen in different aspects of what they believe. One way that it is similar is found in their concept of Dharma. “Although the rules of conduct (dharmas) specified for each of the castes were designed for the proper functioning of society, the reasons given for fulfillment of these duties entail individual as well as social ends” (Rosengren, 2000). Servant leadership is based on serving the followers first, which in turn will lead to building the community. In the text, the similarity is seen how they include both the individual and the society. An interesting part of Hinduism is that males are usually the one with power but an article about female leadership shows how woman are standing up for themselves. Also, this article lists another similarity between servant leadership and Hinduism. The journal states, “Bharati and Rithambara each advocate for the empowerment of women and seek to provide other women with pathways to leadership positions by helping them realize their own power” (Averill, 2019). The similarity lies in the part where they are trying to lift others up, not just themselves, which is an important fact of servant leadership. A difference can be seen between the two because Hinduism focuses more on the self, instead of focusing on the followers first which is more important in servant leadership. Canadian Culture Looking at Canada, they have some traditions in their cultures that separate them from others. Canadian culture mostly comes from the European cultures and their main religion is

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Christianity. Christianity is very closely related to servant leadership, so this is important to remember. Canada is known for its multiculturalism and they have tons of different kinds of people in their society. They are known for letting immigrants in and becoming a part of their community. Within their culture, there are separate regions that are all a little different from eachother like some may be more traditional or some may be more business oriented. As a whole, they are very accepting and respectful which can be beneficial when looking at any kinds of leadership or individual roles. Like servant leadership, Canadian society has an emphasis on Egalitarianism, which ultimately means there are equal to eachother in all aspects. There are different parts of Canadian culture that can be seen in other cultures as well. A study was done that pulled the leadership factors from executives in Canada and the study mentions, “we found that four of the roles in the Javidan (1991) model are confirmed in the two samples: visionary, symbolizer, auditor, and ambassador. We also showed that Taiwanese and Canadian executives exhibited another common dimension: self-sacrifice.” (Javidan, 2005). These are similarities to the servant leadership characteristics. Being able to see the bigger picture, or vision of the community, is important to achieve goals. Also, the idea of self-sacrifice is similar because they are focusing of putting others needs before their own, whereas servant leadership puts the followers ahead of themselves. A major similarity we have to think about is that servant leadership and Christianity are very closely related, and Canada is majority Christian. From a different journal article it says, “Transformational leaders gain the respect and trust of their subordinates, inspire them by formulating a vision and setting challenging goals, stimulate them intellectually to confront old problems in innovative ways, and show consideration by giving individual attention to each subordinate. In contrast, transactional leaders interact with their followers on an exchange basis”

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(White, 2002). This is like the trait of trust and persuasion that can be seen in servant leadership. A difference however would be the exchange basis because a servant leader is focused on building their followers lives up to in turn build their community up, not for self-growth. Conclusion The deeper someone researches different religions or cultures, the more they can see the similarities and differences they have to the leadership style of servant leadership. The similarities can be seen in the way they focus on others needs before their own. The differences can be seen in the way they build up their community. The skills needed to be an effective leader can also be beneficial and necessary in practicing servant leadership. Either way the idea of a servant leader can be very beneficial across the globe. It not only helps people serve their community, but also helps them lead their community as well. Building the relationships with their followers will build the trust between all of them. Then they will be able to go above and beyond the goals that they already have. So, even though the two words can be looked at very differently, they show a paradox when put together. Overall, there is evidence that shows servant leadership in Hinduism religion as well as Canadian culture.

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Reference Page Averill, M. (2019). Re-Imagining Female Leadership in Hindu Nationalist Discourse. Journal of Theta Alpha Kappa, 43(1), 49–65. Dierendonck, D., & Patterson, K. (2010). Servant leadership: Developments in theory and research. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press LLC. ISBN-13: 9780230238268 Javidan, M., & Carl, D. E. (2005). Leadership across cultures: a study of Canadian and Taiwanese executives. Management International Review, 1.

Rosengren, K. S., Johnson, C. N., & Harris, P. L. (2000). Imagining the Impossible (Magical, Scientific, and Religious Thinking in Children ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://books.google.com/books? id=OpSBfVbUbUEC&dq=servant+leadership+in+hinduism+religion&lr=&source=gbs_ navlinks_s

White, L. A., Nord, R. D., Mael, F. A., Young, M. C., Bradley, J. P., Nicol, A. A. M., & Charbonneau, D. (2002). Assessment of Background and Life Experiences. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 34(2), 92–103.

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