Need for Servant Leadership in the Public Sector

Need for Servant Leadership in the Public Sector

Introduction

Leadership plays a significant role in determining the success or the failure of any organization. Effective leadership in an organization ensures that employees remain focused on the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives. However, a recent Gallup study has revealed that the current image of leadership could be missing something. Results from the study revealed that out of four employees, only one employee believes that they are served with meaningful feedback from their leadership. The results also show that only twenty-one percent of employees confirm that they are managed in a manner that supports them to do an outstanding job.

In most cases, employees are not allowed to participate in the running of the organization, for example, through decision making. Instead, the management makes decisions on their own and then pass the resolutions to the employees for implementation. In some cases, employees are not given an opportunity for clarification whenever changes occur. Leaders in some organizations avoid interacting with their employees. The lack of interactions between the leadership and the employees creates a drift between the two groups, which may result in reduced production. The paper will address the servant leadership and the need for this form of leadership in the public sector.

Literature Review

As mentioned above, leadership plays a critical role in controlling operations within an organization. A public sector is also a form of organization that requires proper leadership so that the intended objectives can be achieved. Different leadership styles can be used to achieve the intended purposes. One example of such leadership is the servant leadership style.

The servant leadership model/theory is a modern form of leadership in which the leaders serve as servants and not as leaders. According to the servant leadership theory, these servant leaders get the result for their hard work. They have all their attention and effort devoted to their followers and their follower’s needs. Contrary to other leadership approaches, the servant leadership approach provides the leaders with suggestions and recommendations on how the leaders can be efficient and effective in motivating and influencing other employees who are further down the hierarchy. This form of leadership stresses the importance of collaboration among the employees with an organization, the need for trust, ethics, and empathy.

According to the theory, an effective leader is one who considers him/herself as a servant leader. By recognizing him/herself as servants before becoming a leader, these leaders can lead their people and organization from the point of serving others effectively and not leading others to attain power or other self-interest reasons. Once the leader demonstrates his/her determination to lead and the respect for the followers, his followers will automatically reciprocate these efforts through increased teamwork, better performance, and deeper engagement within the organization.

The concept of a leader as a servant was first introduced in an essay in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf. After the introduction in 1970, other theorists also adopted the concept, for example, theorist Larry Spear. Spear significant contribution son the topic was the introduction of the ten characteristics of an effective servant leader. These characteristics are what make this mode of leadership appropriate in the public sector. They include; the ability to listen to other people’s suggestions and ideas, the ability to persuade the follower towards working hand to achieve the intended objectives and healing. Other characteristics include the commitment to the growth and development of others, stewardship, community building, and conceptualization.

The concept of servant leadership

After forty years of education, development, and management, Greenleaf concluded by writing the servant and the leader. Greenleaf was concerned with the traditional autocratic and authoritarian model of corporate leadership as he felt that this form of leadership failed to deliver the intended objectives. Greenleaf, therefore, concluded that the best model of leadership that all companies should adopt is a model in which the leader focuses on serving his followers to bring the best out of them. He argued that it is inappropriate for a leader to view himself as being superior as compared to other employees. This is because this form of leadership bring about division within the organizations, and the leader might not be in a position to have a proper understanding of his employees.

Other theorists and researchers have supported the Greenleaf idea of servant leadership. For example, Jim Collins, after researching the leadership history of more than fifteen significant companies, concluded in his book Good to Great that the most successful leaders are not the stereotypical charismatic and autocratic leaders but the modest and self-effacing. Both Greenleaf and Collins, while writing about servant leadership, acknowledged that this form of leadership helps to create an open environment where the employees and their leader can interact and share ideas. The creation of an open environment helps to empower the employees, thus encouraging them to deliver to the project. The two authors added that creating an open environment helps in paying the dividends in the form of engagement. It also serves to motivate employees who can come together to work towards the company company’s objectives.

Just like all the other forms of leadership, servant leadership also encounters certain drawbacks. Therefore, despite the benefits realized with the use of servant leadership in the public sectors, stakeholders also must be aware of the challenges of this model of leadership. For one, the use of servant leadership encourages employees to consult with one another and between the leaders and the employees, therefore, encouraging shared responsibility among the employees. However, it becomes difficult at the time of crisis for the groups to have a consultation. There are other situations where the employees may be required to beat deadlines, yet there is no enough time. The leader, under such circumstances, is forced to make decisions on his own even without consulting his employees.

Secondly, the public sector is one of the sectors that has created employment for the majority of the people in any country. This means that it has the largest number of employees as compared to the private sector. Unfortunately, these employees are usually accustomed to the traditional methods of leadership. Introducing a new way of leadership will require considerable effort to change employee’s attitudes and perspectives from the old method of leadership to the new leadership style. The change will also need a change in organizational culture, which might face resistance from some employees who might feel that they are not comfortable with the changes in organizational culture. Therefore, introducing such a change in leadership in the public sector takes time and requires adequate resources for the change to be effective. The process also requires support from every company stakeholder to actively work towards implementing the concept of servant leadership and the servant leadership model. However, despite these drawbacks, the model has more benefits to offer the public sector, and, therefore, the sector should be committed to implementing the model.

The need for servant leadership in the public sector

As seen from the above discussion, the majority of the organizations have been using the top-down management style. With the changes in time, forward-thinkers have begun to appreciate the need for servant leadership style, where the top management accords the junior employees the necessary support the make appropriate decisions. This section will highlight why servant leadership should be implemented in the public sector

Enhancing employee loyalty is one of the reasons why the public sector needs to adopt the servant leadership. Servant leadership, as discussed above, encourages employees in an organization to participate in decision making in the organization. Encouraging employees to cooperate and work as a group towards achieving common objectives. This helps to build on employee’s loyalty as time progresses. Having a loyal team will help the organization reap several rewards, which include increased performance and better employee retention. The public sector has, for a long suffered poor performance since most of the employees are not motivated and due to the gap between employees and the top management.

Moreover, increasing employee loyalty among the employees will enable the sector to improve its recruitment hiring outcomes. The current leadership model, i.e., top-down leadership, has discouraged the majority of the employees in the public sector to the extent that these employees discourage potential employees from seeking employment in the public sector. Improving employee loyalty through the servant leadership model may better recruitment opportunities for the sector as the employees are likely to refer their friends and family members to seek these employment opportunities.

Servant leadership will also help to create a stronger and more cohesive culture in the public sector. One of the most significant features of the servant leadership style is the ability to instill trust and honesty within a company or any organization. Implementing the servant leadership style will, therefore, enable the culture in the public sector to become stronger and cohesive amongst the employees. Employees tend to feel empowered and entrusted to deliver to the best of their abilities once the team feels comfortable in expressing their concerns to the management. In addition, employees can perform their duties with independence and integrity. The result of such actions is the strengthening of the bond among the team members, thus enabling them to help one another whenever a need arises and to solve challenges together.

Servant leadership also helps to increase productivity. Servant leadership encourages employees to lead within their departments. Freedom enables them to carry out their activities to the best of their abilities resulting in increased productivity in the organization. Unlike the traditional leadership styles that encourage micromanagement, servant leadership provides the employees with the freedom to learn new things and resolve challenges on their own. This will gi the employees in the public sector with a sense of job satisfaction, improve productivity, and feel more professional and personal fulfillment in their career growth.

Servant leadership is also needed in the public sector to encourage diversity. Employees in the public sector have a variety of traits, talents, personalities, and modes of operation. The use of servant leadership helps to recognize and encourage diversity in the organization. Every servant leader acknowledges that diversity with the organization is one of the vital factors that determine the success of the organization. Through this form of leadership, employees are allowed to express their views and ideas on the changing circumstances. This helps to strengthen bonds between the employees and the management.

Servant leadership also enables the leaders to encourage employees into thinking of themselves and trying their ideas. Unlike traditional leadership styles, servant leadership helps to create a low-risk space where the employees can put into practice their ideas. These leaders give the employees a chance to use time management, thus accelerating development. Instead of discouraging employees when they try to become innovative, these leaders encourage them to come up with innovative approaches. This enables people to access their skills and knowledge in different areas of life, thus learning from their successes and failures.

Servant leadership is also needed to save time in the public sector. As noted above, this form of leadership encourages employees to work together. This helps to avoid egocentric individuals at the workplace by allowing every individual to express their views. It also helps to reduce confrontational office politics, thus creating an enabling environment for the employees to do their work. Servant leadership ensures that the leader is always present, thus ensuring that all the employees are on the best of their behavior. This helps to avoid time wastage as the employees think of o0ffice politics. Instead, all employee effort is direct towards achieving the organizational goals and objectives.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Leadership plays a significant role in determining the success or the failure of an organization. There are several methods of leadership. The majority of organizations have been using the top-down model of leadership in which decisions are made by the top management and communicated down to the employees. In the top-down model of leadership, junior employees are not allowed to participate in decision making nor share their views. This creates challenges within the organization, for example, lack of cooperation, a division between the top management and the employees. This has resulted in reduced production and inefficiency in business operations. Fortunately, these challenges can be addressed by a new model of leadership known as servant leadership. It is a form of leadership in which the leader interacts freely with the employees and allows them to participate in decision making through the sharing of their views. This form of leadership acknowledges the diversity of ideas, thus facilitating the making of informed decisions.

The public sector is an example of an organization and, therefore, requires an efficient leadership model to deliver as per public and government expectations. Lack of effective leadership in the public sector may result in several negative consequences such as misuse of resources and poor performance since the employees are not motivated to deliver. The public sector mainly uses the top-down model of leadership, where the management is the sole decision-maker. Junior employees are only informed of the decision made by the management and are expected to implement them. Also, opinions for these individuals, a potential resource for the sector, are not considered. This has resulted in errors during decision making, where leaders make wrong decisions due to the lack of consultation. As mentioned above, these challenges can be addressed by the implementation of modern models of management called servant leadership.

Servant leadership encourages the leaders to serve as servants to the organization and not as leaders. The leaders, therefore, interact freely with other junior employees in the organizations to have a better understanding of what these individuals encounter as they provide their service to the organization. Leaders also have an opportunity to collect the views of the employees on how certain things should be done and how to solve the challenges that the organization is facing. By collecting the ideas from the employees, the leaders can make informed decisions, thus avoiding errors that might cost the organization significantly.

Servant leadership also plays a significant role in the public sector by ensuring that the employees are motivated and feel appreciated. Unlike in the top-down leadership model, servant leadership helps to motivate the employees by allowing them to participate in decision making through the sharing of ideas. This makes the employees feel valued, thus making them love what they do. The employee feels that the leadership in the public sectors cares about them and that the management has their interests at heart. This motivates and therefore encourages them to deliver as per the leadership expectations.

The public sector should also implement this form of leadership that helps to create a cohesive culture. The culture is built through instilling employees’employees’ trust and honesty. When employees have trust in the leadership, they become motivated to deliver as per the leadership expectations. Additionally, this model of leadership gives the employee the freedom to inquire whenever there are concerns. This helps to address these concerns before they can progress to have negative impacts on the organization. Addressing challenges in a company as soon as they arise helps to improve productivity as the employees will be working together towards a common goal.