Servant Leadership in India
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DOI No. 10.20968/rpm/2018/vl6/i2/141027 79 Servant Leadership in India: A Journey from Past to Present Adya Mishra Mamata Mahapatra Abstract "A Leader is the one who knows the way, show the way and goes the way; they are the primary of organizations across the various sectors" (quote from John Maxwell: https://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/john-c- maxwell/). A leader is responsible for guiding his/her followers to achieve the desired goal, make them committed towards objectives of the organization and take care of their personal, professional and emotional efficiency. Some of the aptly used leadership styles followed in organizations are democratic, transformational, transactional, charismatic etc. Servant Leadership style is still rare in practice and unexplored in research.The objective of this research paper is to analyze the concept of servant leadership as developed by Greenleafin (1970) and trace roots of the concept of the servant leadership advocated by Indian spiritual guru none other than Swami Vivekanada and the scripture like Bhagavad Gita. The paper intents to review the existing literature on servant leadership. Researchers will also makean attempt to analyze lessons from Servant Leaders of India in the corporate world viz. Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Ratan Tata and Dhirubhai Ambani. Keywords: Servant Leadership, Bhagavad Gita, Servant Leadership in India Introduction problems. According to a study conducted in 2016 about 88 per cent of the employees feel stressed Organizations today operate in the international and among these stressed individuals 40 per cent market having to compete with global brands. of respondents feel stressed as a result of work Competition for resources especially human overload (Kumar, 2016). The stress and burnout resources is real and all pervasive. Management experienced by the individuals at workplace as a of human resources involves thoughtful strategies result of competitive work climate generate negative of promotion, recognition, salary increment, and workplace consequences such as lack of motivation, many more. When aspirations of employees are low performance, absenteeism, organizational not fulfilled according to their own expectations, dysfunction and many more (Colligan, & Higgins, they are likely to generate negative emotions 2006; Latreille, & Sloane,. 2011; Bubonya, etal. such as feeling of envy with fellow colleagues, 2017; Ajayi, S. 2018). Further, workplace stress can reduction in the spirit of cooperation or antagonism result to many other physical problems such as back towards the co-workers (Eslami,& Arshadi, 2016). pain, coronary diseases (Schneider, S., Schmitt, The competition at workplace demands that the H., Zoller, S., & Schiltenwolf, M. 2005; Steffy, employees constantly chase deadlines. Due to B. D., & Jones, J. W. 1988). It is because of these constant pressure of deadlines, employees may negative consequences of competitive workplace experience stress, anxiety and many other emotional environment, the role of leadership becomes more dynamic as well as challenging. Leaders are thus Adya Mishra, PhD Research Scholar (Psychology), Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Amity required to be aware of such situations leading University, Noida, U.P. employees’ stress experience in order to create Dr. Mamata Mahapatra, Associate Professor, Center Head pleasant work environment that is likely to enhance Organizational Psychology, Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Science, Amity University, Noida, U.P. their overall productivity. Review of Professional Management, Volume-16, Issue-2 (July-December, 2018) ISSN: 0972-8686 Online ISSN: 2455-0647 80 Henceforth, apart from fulfilling the basic human of their emotional and psychological aspects along resource requirements, a leader should also take with the professional ones. Servant Leaders has care of psychological and emotional aspects of their the ability to create a trusting relationship between followers in order to make them more efficient. their followers and themselves (Rezaei, M., Salehi, Most of the leadership styles only focus on the S., Shafiei, M., & Sabet, S. 2012; Goh, S. K., & professional aspects of the followers. However, Low, B. Z. J. 2013). Servant Leadership has the capacity to take care of Servant Leaders are spiritual in nature, their altruistic holistic well-being of their followers. Their ability love, hope, trust, active listening and selfless nature to trust, be compassionate and spiritual nature towards their followers make them spiritual; there differentiates them from other leadership. exist congruence between servant leadership and Revisiting the Concept of Servant Leadership spiritual leadership as both the leadership styles have the capability to intrinsically motivate their The term “servant leadership” was basically followers, a servant leader creates meaningfulness coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in a seminal paper at workplace through their service (Freeman, G. published in 1970 inspired by Herman Hesse’s T. 2011). Servant leaders are prophetic in nature autobiographical novel, “Journey to the East”. and be described in spiritual terms. The prophetic Greenleaf defined Servant Leadership as follows: nature of servant leaders facilitates the formation of a new vision that unites and transforms individuals “It begins with the natural feeling that one wants as well as organizations. The prophetic and spiritual to serve and to serve first. Then conscious choice nature of a servant leader provides a vision to their brings one to aspire to lead. The difference in the followers by serving and empowering them (Bekker, quality of leadership manifests itself in the care C. J. 2010). Spirituality is the major construct of taken by the servant-first to make sure that other servant leadership by including four components: people’s highest priority needs are being served. interconnectedness, clarity of purpose, sense of The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those wholeness and religiousness (Sendjaya, S., & served grow as persons; do they while being served, Pekerti, A. 2010). This model of servant leadership become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, lists ten characteristics as mentioned mentioned more likely themselves to become servants? below: And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least, not be further • Listening: A good leader is the one who has good deprived”? (Giorgiov, A. 2010, P. 101; Greenleaf, listening skills. Listening can be very helpful in 1977 , P. 13) maintaining good interpersonal relationships with subordinates. Listening to their problems and The concept of servant leadership can be described suggestions can help the employees, the leader as as a leader’s intention to serve his/her followers. A well as the organization to grow. servant leader is first a servant to the followers and then a leader. He is empathetic and compassionate • Empathy: This characteristic of servant leaders towards the followers and has a genuine concern for distinguishes them from other leaders. Being the well-being of their subordinates (Maula-Bakhsh, empathetic towards the subordinates creates the R., & Raziq, A. 2016; Coetzer, M. F., Bussin, M. environment of trust. The servant leader is humane H., & Geldenhuys, M. 2017). They have the natural towards employees and empathizes with them. intentions to serve their followers and to take care The willingness to be receptive to colleagues, Review of Professional Management, Volume-16, Issue-2 (July-December, 2018) ISSN: 0972-8686 Online ISSN: 2455-0647 81 employees, and teammates does not mean that Servant leaders are committed to the growth of a servant leader accepts either bad behavior or others and do not treat employees as exchangeable shoddy work product. instruments to be used. The servant leader sees and cares for followers in a way that reaches beyond • Healing: The choice to heal instead of being each person’s contributions as an employee of the destructive when we deal with each other in organization. The servant leader appreciates the the workplace, is an essential feature of the professional, personal, and spiritual dimensions of relationship between servant leader and follower. each person’s life outside of the tangible everyday Leaders who see themselves as servants first are efforts of the individual in the workplace. On a approachable and open to discuss difficult topics more global level, the servant leader is well aware and emotionally charged issues. Healers are that the growth and complex nature of society and interested in their staff members as whole people. the creation of large and caring institutions have • Awareness: Servant Leaders are self aware, they made the need to build community more exigent are aware of their strengths and weaknesses and than ever. they also make their followers to be aware of the • Stewardship: Servant leaders do not coerce opportunities and threats in the business world. or manipulate staff members into compliance. • Persuasion: The ability to lead by persuasion, They serve their staff by enabling them to do instead of by the power of one’s position, is another excellent work. In cases where the leader/follower commendable quality of the servant leader. A relationship is not coalescing, the servant leader leader who spents time talking to followers; has the courage to act and the fortitude to have usually does not need to rely on coercion. meaningful dialogues with negative staff members for whom responsibility