Servant Leadership – The Economic Times

Today, the corporate world is challenged by cut-throat competition and stress of employees. To address these challenges, building enriched workplace culture with honesty, trust, creativity, personal fulfilment and employees’ commitment to organisational goals is of paramount importance. A humanistic work environment enhances employee morale, ethical conduct, honesty and trust, improves individual performance and productivity, leading to organisational growth and profitability. In this context, the seminal work on ‘Servant Leadership‘ of management expert Robert Greenleaf is of relevance.

He developed the concept of servant leadership reading the German writer Hermann Hesse’s novel ‘Journey to the East’. The novel narrates the story of a group of knowledge seekers who undertook a journey in pursuit of the ‘Ultimate Truth’.

Servant Leadership stands on the core principles of respecting the values and dignity of the subordinates and serving others, which include customers, partners, fellow employees and the community at large. The concept contains elements of particpative leadership. With the transformation sprouting from globalisation, technological advancement and changing employee demography, servant leadership presents a new paradigm that is of significance to meet the evolving changes of this century.