Servant Leadership Application - Essay Example

Servant Leadership Research and Application Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy whereby the leader is driven by the desire to serve other people without being driven by desire for power but instead driven by the need for the people’s welfare. According to James & Don (2009), a servant leader listens to the people he serve, is concerned about their growth and is committed to lead them. Servant leadership revolves around the concept of ethics, practice and the act of being meaningful (Kent, 2012). Additionally, servant leaders are people who are known to have character, selfless, good collaborators, and those who are good in communication. Thus, servant leaders have consideration for the needs of others, works on stewardship towards others and are people oriented and not self oriented. A servant leader, places themselves in the position of followers, allow for interaction and ensure that each and every person’s needs are met with inclusion of the stakeholders. A servant leader in an organization will ensure that they maintain an interactive working environment for all the employees. Comparison between servant leadership, autocratic, and democratic leadership Servant leadership involves a leader emerging from being a servant, pushed by desire to lead others and cater for their welfare. It is more of a participative leadership whereby the leader allows for participative decision making and delegation of powers. James & Don (2009) argue that style creates an environment whereby the followers can actually attain their full potential. The style thus focuses more on improvement of performance and satisfaction of employees. In contrast autocratic or authoritative leadership style requires clearly defined tasks, a close monitoring of their execution and results, and decision making authority resting on the executive. The style unlike servant leadership involves a clearly defined distinction between the authoritarian leaders and those being led and involves direct supervision of followers and may lead to an environment of fear to the followers. It involves a chain of command where authority flows from the leaders at the top to the employees. In this style, the followers are not involved in decision making but just follow whatever is set by the leaders and unlike in servant leadership, autocratic leadership involves a clear distinction between leaders and followers where followers have no ability to interact with the leaders (Bill, 2011). Democratic leadership on the other hand is more compared than contrasted to servant leadership as it involves the sharing of ideas between leaders and followers, participation whereby followers can participate in decision making but the boundaries of participation being determined by the organizational or the group needs. It is style whereby teamwork is encouraged and consensus attained by participation. The participation however requires guidance and control by a specific leader. Application of servant leadership to Carondelet St Joseph hospital Carondelet St Joseph hospital is a catholic nonprofit making acute care hospital, in the United States; it was formed in 1853, and has since then emerged to be the best healthcare provider with around 113500 employees. The vision of this hospital is to transform healthcare by offering advanced quality in a faith based healing environment .its goals are to ensure high quality and compassionate healthcare for body mind and spirit. Alongside providing the best working environment to employees, have a great impact to the community and maximize stockholders returns (Kent, 2012). Application of servant leaders to Carondelet St Joseph hospital Servant leadership to the hospital will introduce a better working environment to employees which further enhances their performance. The leadership style may be introduced by breaking down the many managerial hierarchy, introducing a participative decision making, and ensuring that the people in managerial position possess not just the professional qualifications but also leadership skills, and are able to lead other employees in a people centric manner, thus putting into consideration the needs of the employees in a way, involving them in decision making, providing them with good working environment whereby they feel at ease to work, and ensuring their satisfaction. Employee satisfaction will ensure that employees will give their best to the work and will be able to serve patients in the best ways and thus ensuring their health which is their satisfaction in this case, and further the entire community satisfaction achieved. The style further will ensure that a good relationship is created between employees and the leaders, which will give room for building of trust, enabling employees to be confident in their duties, and increasing their responsibility. The application of servant leadership therefore will not only bring customer satisfaction at the end but also contribute greatly to the hospital achieving its visions and to the realization of its goals since it would result to providing the best, high quality and compassionate health care for body, mind and spirit (Maselli & Fernandez, 2013). Implementation of servant leadership in Carondelet St Joseph hospital by a leader A leader in position would implement servant leadership in Carondelet hospital by first being able to understand the organization in terms of its mission statement, vision, core values, goals and objectives. By this, they will be able to understand what their efforts are meant to achieve. The leader will then require changing their leadership style so as to be able to fit to the lead by example principle. Harbrecht et al. (2009) articulates that the leader will thus modify the styles to ensure the growth and satisfaction of employees and customers rather than their own acquisition of wealth and power. The leader will need to break the long chains of command, go beyond just professional interactions and create a free environment by allowing participation of followers in decision making. The leader will further need to be a good listener, and stay close to the colleagues, understand them and make efforts to provide what they need to better their performance. The leader will also need to introduce methods of corporate responsibility so as to be able to serve the community of the hospital’s operation, recognize their strengths and weaknesses and be ready to call for assistance in their weak areas (Robert, 2008). The stakeholders in support of the implementation Any company or business organization operates with several types of stakeholders ranging from internal to external stakeholders. These stakeholders have different interest from the business and the business on return is has a different form of return to each of them. The stakeholders who would be advocates in implementation of servant leadership in Carondelet hospital are the founders who are the sisters of St Joseph Carondelet , management, other employees, suppliers, financial institutions, the donors, the patients it serves and its nursing school management (Scouller, 2011). Potential challenges during implementation According to Modrykamien & Stoller (2013), there are several challenges that will however be encountered in the implication of servant leadership. These include the fact that servant leadership will be considered as a long process that will take a lot of time to implement and thus many people will be reluctant to accept the change. Also there is a challenge of convincing people in managerial position to change from other leadership style for instance authoritative style that allows them to exert power to the employees, there is also the challenge of lack of consensus whereby some parties might be ready to embrace change while others might be reluctant to embrace the change. There also may arise a challenge when restructuring the organizational structure in the cases where the existing leadership style was autocratic and therefore requiring the breaking of the existing hierarchy. There may arise another challenge where the hospital is large and with several branches whereby the structural changes may be difficult and where communication might take a long time. References: Bill B. (2011). The journey to competitive advantage through servant leadership: building the company every person dreams of working for and every president has a vision of leading, West Bow press. Harbrecht, B. G., et al. (2009). Improved Outcomes With Routine Respiratory Therapist Evaluation of Non-Intensive-Care-Unit Surgery Patients. Respiratory Care, 54 (7), 861-867. James F. & Don F. (2009). Seven pillars of servant leadership. Paulist Pr. Kent M. (2012). Case for servant leadership. Greenleaf centre for servant leadership. Maselli, D. J. & Fernandez, J. F. (2013). Can respiratory therapist-driven protocols improve resource utilization? Respiratory Care, 58 (3), 546- 547. Modrykamien, A.M., & Stoller, J. K. (2013). The scientific basis for protocol-directed respiratory care. Respiratory Care,58 (10), 1662-1668. Robert K. (2008). Servant as a leader; Greenleaf centre for servant leadership. Scouller J. (2011). Three levels of leadership: how to develop our leadership presence, knowhow and skills. Management Books 2000 Ltd. Read More