Is servant leadership inherently christian

Literature Review

Ben Huelskamp

Maxwell (2018) calls leadership a buzz word and goes on to argue that it is

fundamentally misunderstood. Kouzes and Posner (2017) state that leadership is a relationship

based on trust and confidence. However one defines it, leadership has been conceived of

different ways by different cultures and eras. For much of the eighteenth through the middle of

the twentieth centuries the prevailing theory of leadership was the Great Man theory which

posited that leaders are born not developed (Cawthon, 1996). A second historical though more

recent leadership theory is the trait theory which posits that each successful leader has a set of

innate and learned traits which in totality make them a good leader (Uslu, 2019). A third,

situational leadership, holds that leaders are caused to lead by the situations into which they are

placed (Blanchard, 2007, as cited by Padron, 2012). More recently leadership theories have

embraced a social and behavioral science understanding of what makes a leader a leader. Two of

the more prominent of these behavioral theories are transformational leadership and servant

leadership (Maxwell, 2018; Zhou et al., 2020). Choudhary et al. (2013) states: “Transformational

leadership is an ethical leadership style that involves a leader’s capability to promote intellectual

stimulation through inspiration. Transformational leadership is guidance through individualized

consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational, and idealized influence” (p. 434).

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is not well understood and descriptions of it can range quite a bit

(Gandolfi et al., 2017). For instance, Letizia (2017) argued that servant leadership is a secular

theory which must be divorced from religious dogma while Ingram (2003) asserted that servant

leadership is inherently Christian and thoroughly supported by the Bible. However it is defined,

Dr. Jaocb Bryant
servant leadership is an ancient concept grounded in the reality that service benefits the one who

serves as well as the one who is served (Ferrucci, 2006). The modern theory of servant

leadership was first defined by Robert Greenleaf (1970). Greenleaf stated:

The natural servant, the person who is servant first, is more likely to persevere and refine

his hypothesis on what serves another’s highest priority needs than is the person who is

leader first and who later serves out of promptings of conscience or in conformity with

normative expectations. (1970, p. 16, emphasis in the original)

Following Greenleaf, Spears (1995) defined ten qualities of every servant leader:

1. Listening

2. Empathy

3. Healing (mending brokenness and pain)

4. Awareness (situational and self-awareness)

5. Persuasion

6. Conceptualization

7. Foresight

8. Stewardship

9. Commitment to the growth of people

10. Building community

A servant leader is a person with an inclination to serve others who then makes a conscious

decision to lead (Greenleaf, 1970; Greenleaf, 2014). Another author stated that “Servant

leadership is not a set of techniques or activities. It is a way of being, a philosophy of living and

influencing” (Wheeler, 2012, p. 13). Zhou et al. (2020) state that servant leaders must choose

between self-interest and other interest. Servant leadership rests on trust and the competency of

the leader to empower followers (Tate, 2003; Wu et al., 2020). Further, “Servant leaders should

listen without judgement, be authentic, build community, share power, and develop people”

(Maxwell, 2018, p. 149). Ultimately, servant leadership is powerful because of its inclusive

propositions:

The beauty of servant leadership is that everyone matters in the organization. For Jesus,

everyone was important for the greater good of society. In today's organizations, every

employee ought to count and be part of the team. Servant leadership allows organizations

to bring employees together. (Padron, 2012, p. 12)

Servant leadership, as a theory, argues that there is a moral imperative by which the only

legitimate leader is one who serves others and creates an environment in which their followers

willingly follow them (Jeyaraj & Gandolfi, 2019; Kiker et al., 2019; Gandolfi & Stone, 2018;

Greenleaf, 2014). Further the end goal of servant leadership is the betterment of people rather

than the organization (Kiker et al., 2019).

Aspects of Servant Leadership

Trust. Trust is not easy and it involves risk (Ferrucci, 2006). However, servant

leadership relies on there being a significant level of trust between followers and leaders and vice

versa. Maxwell (2018) argues that developing trust is a leadership responsibility in and of itself.

Servant leaders get to know the people they lead and invest time to understand the backgrounds,

cultures, and values of their employees (Jeyaraj & Gandolfi, 2019). They also create value-

driven work environments for their employees and followers (Tate, 2003).

Competency to empower. Kouzes and Posner (2017) state: “Leaders must know where

they’re going if they expect others to willingly join them on the journey (p. 37). Because of its

service-based motivation, servant leadership “empowers and develops followers through

empathy and humility” (Jeyaraj & Gandolfi, 2019, p. 285). Trust and empowerment create space

for substantive dialogue in the leader follower relationship (Jeyaraj & Gandolfi, 2019).

Empowerment can be seen in individual followers or collectively across an organization. Kiker

et al. (2019) demonstrated that job satisfaction and job performance were stronger for all

employees when the leadership of entire organizations were informed by servant leadership

rather than servant leaders working throughout the organization. However, Hale and Fields

(2007) note that servant leadership can only exist in those environments in which follower

leadership benefits the organization. Further, Wu et al. (2020) found that servant leaders tend to

select followers for empowerment who are already motivated to succeed in their work.

Servant Leadership in Higher Education

Higher education has embraced servant leadership as an ideal, but has been slow to adopt

it as a practice and has far too often leaned on traditional leadership models emphasizing power

and control (Ingram, 2003; Letizia, 2017). Gunderson (1997) observed, “Some [in higher

education] hint at a revolutionary new approach to this field with the term servant leadership, a

concept often used manipulatively by suggesting that leaders employ this terminology whether or

not they actually practice it” (p. 16). Greenleaf (1983) himself faulted the educational system in

the United Stated in three areas:

1. Failure to provide leadership preparation to students who show leadership

potential

2. Emphasis on education as a method of social mobility

3. Confusion over the teaching of values (p. 164, as cited in Ingram, 2003)

Expecting to see a greater embrace of servant leadership, Burch et al. (2015) found that leaders

and followers at a Christian university showed a strong agreement on purpose and values, but

showed a low agreement on expected areas such as empowerment. This disagreement between

expected results and actual results was deemed by Burch et al. (2015) to be significant.

Transformational Servant Leadership. Recently, researchers (Stauffer & Maxwell,

2020) have attempted to link servant leadership to sustainable transformation of institutions of

higher education. Rather than implement servant leadership to improve internal relationships

between leaders and followers, transformational servant leadership posits that servant leadership

is a means to fundamentally alter and reform struggling institutions.

Critiques of Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is difficult to execute. Often it is easier to simply require an

employee or team member’s compliance rather than motivate them and understand what they are

bringing into the workplace (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). Research also shows that there can be

negative consequences for leaders enacting servant leadership (Zhou et al., 2020). Longtime

servant leadership advocate and CEO of the Robert Greenleaf Center, Larry Spears (1995) has

noted that servant leadership is a particularly good leadership theory because it is difficult.

Servant leadership marginalizes people of color. Hale and Fields (2007) noted that the

majority of studies on servant leadership have been conducted in predominantly White, North

American contexts. While some studies have been conducted on servant leadership cross

culturally, Parris and Peachey (2013) found that the definitions of servant leadership varied

based on the respective culture. Liu (2019) argued that people of color acting as servant leaders

in predominantly white spaces can come to be seen as only a servant rather than a leader.

Summary

This section has presented the relevant literature related to servant leadership including

considerations of servant leadership as it relates to higher education. While servant leadership

admits of its own faults and needs for further research and better implementation, it is a

convincing theory with promise for higher education.

References

Blanchard, K. (2007). Leading at a higher level. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Burch, M. J., Swails, P., & Mills, R. (2015). Perceptions of administrators’ servant leadership

qualities at a Christian university: A descriptive study. Education, 135(4), 399-404.

Cawthon, D. L. (1996). Leadership: The great man theory revisited. Business Horizons, 39(3), 1-

4.

Choudhary, A., Akhtar, S., & Zaheer, A. (2013). Impact of transformational and servant

leadership on organizational performance: A comparative analysis. Journal of Business

Ethics, 116(2), 433-440.

Ferrucci, P. (2006). The power of kindness: The unexpected benefits of leading a compassionate

life. Tarcher/Penguin.

Gandolfi, F. & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, leadership styles, and servant leadership. Journal of

Management Research, 18(4), 261-269.

Gandolfi, F., Stone, S., & Deno, F. (2017). Servant leadership: An ancient style with 21st-century

relevance. Review of International Comparative Management, 18(4), 350-361.

Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. The Robert Greenleaf Center.

Greenleaf, R. K. (1983). The servant as religious leader. Windy Row.

Greenleaf, R. K. (2014). Who is the servant-leader? International Journal of Servant-Leadership,

10(1), 17-22.

Gunderson, D. (1997). The leadership paradox: A challenge to servant leadership in a power

hungry world. YWAM Publishing

Hale, J. R. & Fields, D. L. (2007). Exploring servant leadership across cultures: A study of

followers in Ghana and the USA. Leadership, 3(4), 397-417.

Ingram, O. C. (2003). The conceptualization and perception of servant leadership in Christian

higher education. (Publication No. 3102049) [Doctoral dissertation, Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Jeyaraj, J. J. & Gandolfi, F. (2019). Exploring trust, dialogue, and empowerment in servant

leadership: Insights from critical pedagogy. Journal of Management Research, 19(4),

285-290

Kiker, D. S., Scully Callahan, J., & Kiker, M. B. (2019). Exploring the boundaries of servant

leadership: A meta-analysis of the main and moderating effects of servant leadership on

behavioral and affective outcomes. Journal of Managerial Issues, 31(2), 172-197.

Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary

things happen in organization. (6th ed.). Wiley.

Letizia, A. (2017). Using servant leadership: How to reframe the core functions of higher

education. Rutgers University Press.

Liu, H. (2019). Just the servant: An intersectional critique of servant leadership. Journal of

Business Ethics, 156(4), 1099-1112.

Maxwell, J. C. (2018). Developing the leader within you 2.0. Harper Collins Leadership.

Padron, J. (2012). Higher education leadership: Servant leadership and the effects on student

satisfaction. (Publication No. 3532040) [Doctoral dissertation, Argosy University-

Sarasota]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Parris, D. & Peachey, J. (2013). A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in

organizational contexts. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(3), 377-393.

Spears, L. C. (1995). Reflections on leadership: How Robert K. Greenleaf’s theory of servant

leadership influenced today’s top management thinkers. John Wiley & Sons.

Stauffer, D. C. & Maxwell, D. L. (2020). Transforming servant leadership, organizational

culture, change, sustainability, and courageous leadership. Journal of Leadership,

Accountability, & Ethics, 17(1), 105-116.

Tate, T. F. (2003). Servant leadership for schools and youth programs. Reclaiming Children and

Youth: The Journal of Strength-based Interventions, 12(1), 33-39.

Uslu, O. (2019). A general overview to leadership theories from a critical perspective. Marketing

& Management of Innovations, 1, 161-172.

Wheeler, D. (2012). Servant leadership for higher education: Principles and practices. Jossey-

Bass.

Wu, J., Liden, R. C., Liao, C., & Wayne, S. J. (2020). Does manager servant leadership lead to

follower serving behaviors? It depends on follower self-interest. Journal of Applied

Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000500.

Zhou, D., Liu, S-M., Xin, H. (2020). Servant leadership behavior: Effects of leaders’ work-

family relationship. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 48(3), 1-

12.