Servant Leadership on Biblical Grounds

Question 1. 

The Biblical foundation of servant leadership and the Greenleaf’s principles on servant leadership are fashioned around the service role of a leader. Jesus was a servant leader who was accommodative of other people because he did not discriminate who he helped along the way. Servant leadership are supposed to act without prejudice but instead exercise the stewardship principle. Stewardship can accommodate multiculturalism in an organization. Foresight can also foster multiculturalism in an organization. For instance, an organization is likely to perform better when the leader has a diverse fields of employees who he can bring together to achieve the goals of the organization. Stewardship and foresight are closely related in this case. A good learn is in a position to know that employees from the Middle East are good with calculations and the future of the organization will require their expertise and ability (Greenleaf, 2016). A good leader will ensure even in a white dominated work force, the Asians are not discriminated.

Listening and empathy are also principles that can foster multiculturalism in an organization (Greenleaf, 2016). It is important for an organization’s leader to take into account the situations of each employee and use it to set a target for their performances. For instance, a good leader will understand an employee with diabetes cannot work as much as one who is free of any terminal conditions. Therefore, a good leader will have to be very active in interacting with their employees in order to know what they are going through. It is also not fair to expect a female worker with a disabled child to take on tasks that keep them away from home for days on end. This kind of an organizational environment is accommodating to people of all cultures and abilities that contribute to the achievement of the goals of the organization.

Question 2.

Servant leadership is more effective in the Western culture and Christianity. The culture and religion in the west favors the application of servant leadership because the people relate to the Bible. The servant leadership cases in the Western world are very many. Bill Gates is one good example of servant leadership going hand in hand with Christianity because he is a Roman Catholic. Bill Gates applied the principle of community building when he stepped down as the head of Microsoft and started a philanthropic organization. When comparing this type of servant leadership to the type in Asia, there is almost no similarity (Carroll & Petterson, 2014). Their way of handling employees differs a great deal. The Asian leaders are concerned about status and not the welfare of their employees. The most notorious of this batch of leaders hails from India according to a research conducted comparing the two cultures in leadership and religion.

The performance of the employees is dependent on their religions as well. The employees in Asian organizations are often expected to be at the service of their leaders and not vice versa. However, the religion in this continent is supportive of servant leadership as well (Carroll & Petterson, 2014). Servant leadership is tied to religion because that is what appeals to the hearts of people as they work. For servant leadership to work effectively, the leader is the one to start the employees on the trend. For instance; an employee cannot request their boss to come down to the production or packaging section of the organizations to work with them. On the other hand, however, the leader can go to the working area and participate in the activity at hand. This scenario means that the leader is the one to start the servant leadership trend among their workers.

References

Carroll, B. C., & Petterson, K. (2014). Servant Laedership: A Cross Cultural Study Between India and the United States. Servant Leadership: Theory and Practice, 16-45.

Greenleaf, R. K. (2016, December 31). Center for Servant Leadership. Retrieved from Greenleaf Centre: www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/