Can servant leadership exist without spiritual and moral dimensions?

Can servant leadership exist without spiritual and moral dimensions?

Servant leadership is a leadership style that assumes that most effective leaders focus on serving others rather than gaining power or taking control. According to Gandolfi & Stone (2018), servant leadership works from a moral viewpoint because servant leadership focuses on safeguarding people and organizations against ethical and moral leadership failures. Therefore, servant leadership cannot exist without moral and spiritual dimensions. Servant leaders require morality to portray stewardship, empathy, and commitment to other people’s growth. According to Dierendonck & Patterson (2016), servant leaders portray stewardship by assuming a commitment to meet the needs of others and using openness and persuasion instead of control. Empathy is vital in understanding other people’s needs and embracing the good intentions of others. The spiritual dimension is essential in decision-making when implementing servant leadership. Sendjaya & Pekerti (2010) argue that spirituality in servant leadership includes religiousness, clarity of purpose, interconnectedness, and feeling whole. The clarity of purpose includes knowing what a leader is expected to do to achieve a specific goal.

Religiousness includes a leader’s organized beliefs. These beliefs influence servant leaders’ decisions to meet others’ needs. The sense of wholeness includes recognizing, understanding, reacting to, or valuing something. Servant leaders must understand, acknowledge, and react to the needs of others to demonstrate their commitment to meeting those needs. Interconnectedness includes being connected to others. Interconnectedness creates a foundation for effective servant leadership because it is linked to some characteristics, such as good listening skills, empathy, stewardship, persuasion, awareness, and commitment to people’s growth. Religious beliefs influence a servant leader’s choice of corporate social responsibility initiatives the organization should implement. For example, a leader with strong religious beliefs may suggest donating resources to support church projects such as the construction of churches and church-sponsored learning institutions.

References

Dierendonck, D. V., & Patterson, K. (2016). Servant leadership: Developments in theory and research. Palgrave Macmillan.

Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, Leadership Styles, and Servant Leadership. Journal of Management Research, 18(4), 261-269. https://www.lasnny.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Leadership-Leadership-Styles-and-Servant-Leadership.pdf

Sendjaya, S., & Pekerti, A. (2010). Servant leadership as an antecedent of trust in organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31(7), 643-663. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731011079673

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Can servant leadership exist without spiritual and moral dimensions?

Can servant leadership exist without spiritual and moral dimensions? Explain your response and include citations that support your rationale.