THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERVANT LEADERSHIP, ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Phuoc D. Nguyen

Abstract

Leadership and management literature and best practices demonstrate the relationship between servant leadership, organizational culture, and leadership development. The purpose of this paper show the relationship between servant leadership and leadership development, the relationship between servant leadership and organizational culture, Collins’ (2001) humility and leadership level 5 (LL5), and the assessment of LL5 competency. The paper emphasizes characteristics of the commitment to the development of people and humility of the servant leader through organizational culture and discipline culture implementation. The paper has also analyzed the relationship between humility and leadership level 5 and the steps of the assessment of LL5 competency.

The Relationship Between Servant Leadership and Leadership Development

Patterson (2003) defined The servant leader as guided by virtues within. The following virtuous constructs define servant leaders and shape their attitudes, characteristics, and behavior. The servant leader (a) demonstrates agapao love, (b) acts with humility, (c) is altruistic, (d) is visionary for the followers, (e) is trusting, (f) empowers followers, and (g) is serving… Humility for leaders is the ability to grasp the idea of not knowing, understanding, or having all the answers. (pp. 8-16). mServant leaders bring results to the organization by bringing service to the forefront. They are often considered modest managers and appreciate the resources of the organization such as people, finance, and equipment. They are the people who respect the followers and are aware that followers are not the means of the servant leaders, but they are their teammates and friends. This leadership style focuses on the followers’ needs rather than the needs of the individual leader.

Malone (2015) defined The SLPR as derived from the Self-Assessment of Servant Leadership Profile (SASLP), which also was created by Page and Wong. The SASLP is one of the earliest servant leadership assessment tools and was developed as a valid and reliable measure of servant leadership. The SLPR’s 62 items were divided into seven new categories as follows:

1. Empowering and Developing Others
2. Vulnerability and Humility
3. Serving Others
4. Open, Participatory Leadership
5. Inspiring Leadership
6. Visionary Leadership
7. Courageous Leadership (pp. 28-30).

The servant leader dedicates himself to serving the needs of the organization members and focuses on meeting the needs of the people they are guided, developing people to give the best results. Servant leaders focus on training others and developing their competence and gifts, facilitating the development of good people. They listen to followers’ aspirations and build a common direction. This leadership style is highly effective and the distance between the leader and the follower is reduced. The needs of the followers are met effectively, and their potentials also have opportunities to grow optimally, so the people show their abilities in the best way. The leader’s focus is on the human being because the human being is the decisive factor in achieving the goal and fulfilling the set expectations. The servant leader is dressed up in a humble service, regarded as someone else being more respectful of yourself. The servant leader is not just a concept or a philosophy, but a way of life expressed by the principles of the inner love of a leader.

Caldwell, Ichiho, and Anderson (2016) defined “Humility is also accompanied by a wise about the value of others as both recipients of desired outcomes and potential contributors. Humility acknowledges the interrelatedness of individuals and their mutual interdependence in cooperative efforts.” (p. 726). Humility – Servant leaders do not promote themselves, they promote others . . . putting others first. They are truly humble, not humble as an act. Servant leaders understand it is not about them—things happen through others; exemplary servant leaders know they cannot do it alone. (Focht and Ponton, 2015, p. 50). Knowledge Center (nd) cited 10 characteristics or traits of Greenleaf’s (2003), including listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, the commitment to the growth of people, and building community.

After some years of carefully considering Greenleaf’s original writings, he has identified a set of ten characteristics of the servant leader that are viewed as being of critical importance—central to the development of servant leaders. Commitment to the Growth of People: Servant leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers. As such, the servant leader is deeply committed to the growth of every and every individual within his or her organization. The servant leader recognizes the tremendous responsibility to do everything in his or her power to nurture the personal and professional growth of employees and colleagues. In practice, this can include (but is not limited to) concrete actions such as making funds available for personal and professional development, taking a personal interest in the ideas and suggestions from everyone, encouraging worker involvement in decision-making, and actively assisting laid-off employees in finding other positions. (Spears, 2010, p. 29).

Review Patterson’s (2003) study to appreciate her findings about servant leadership’s characteristics and traits, Greenleaf’s (2003) and Spears’ (2010) studies that there are characteristics to distinguish in the style of servant leadership compared to other leadership styles. Here are the characteristics of the servant leader as follows:

1. Set service to priority position. Without the spirit of serving others, especially those servant leader’s companions, he will never become a servant leader.
2. Be humble with your teammates. Servant leaders must be humble and ‘respectful of others,’ even ‘more than themselves’ to serve others as a person doing the work of volunteering, or doing good to be virtuous, but they cannot be servant leaders if humility is not in them.
3. Effective listening: The ability to listen effectively, be determined to understand, and express the importance fully in mind what others are saying. Listening to others is when the servant leader grasps their needs to help him serve and care more properly.
4. Concerned about the perception of others: A concern and understanding of the feelings of others and the ability to make others feel the importance of the servant leader.
5. Help others get healing: People face many physical, mental, and spiritual problems. God is the source of the healing, leading people to come to Him for healing. When people are healthy, they live a life of high efficiency. Servant leaders are willing to help others deal with their physical, mental, and spiritual problems.
6. There is high awareness: Self-awareness, and what is going on in the world around profoundly and sensitively. Servant leaders influence others by serving with love, not with authority and order. It is important to have the interests of others, so servant leaders who must influence everyone to serve benefit team members.
7. Have a deep understanding: The servant leader needs to be able to see the bigger picture.
8. Predictions: This is the ability to see the long-term effects of the current plan, not bound by short-term needs.
9. Widely distributed: Ready to give a broad way to take care of the needs of others, individuals, and organizations. Be able to strive to build a sustainable future for everyone.
10. Commitment to the development of people: The servant leader always encourages the development of human beings for their benefit. Servant leaders find joy in realizing that everyone grows and optimally reaches their potential.
11. Community building: Strive to promote cooperation, share ownership, and dedication to build better communities.

The Relationship Between Servant Leadership and Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is based on a three-level concept, i.e. level of basic assumption, level of value, and level of the artifact, i.e. something left behind. The level of basic assumption is a human relationship with anything in the environment: nature, plants, animals, humans, and self. (Sihombing et al.,2018, p.508). The culture of an organization is expressed through three levels: Physical objects – The layout and decor of the workplace, material symbols, employee attire, working conditions, and the environment. Values ​​declared – Expressed in the way of communication and behavior of employees in the organization through the business philosophy, leadership style, etc. Assumptions – These are default values. When the declared values ​​are tested by the actual performance of the business, it is accepted by the employee and they will be maintained over time and gradually become implicit values. These implicit values ​​are often difficult to change and greatly affect the way employees work in the organization.

The results also showed that there was a significant indirect effect of human servant leadership on employee performance through rewards or organizational culture. The positive coefficient means that the higher the human servant leadership, the higher the employee performance through rewards or organizational culture. A significant indirect effect was also found of rewards on employee performance through organizational culture. A positive coefficient means that the higher the rewards, the higher the employee performance through organizational culture. (Sihombing et al.,2018, p. 513). Organizational culture determines the personality of the business. Organizational culture is often seen as the way people live in the organization. The concepts of organizational culture above-mentioned are related to something common to all members of the organization. These are general assumptions, systematic meanings, rules, and general knowledge. Values determine which behaviors are good and acceptable, and which are bad or unacceptable.

Culture involves the shared and learned concepts of traditions, shared beliefs, expectations, and accomplishments within organizations… if researchers can identify how leaders create the culture and how culture defines and creates leaders, then the potential for the organization’s success is much greater. Organizational culture is also the deepest level of the organization; therefore, it includes the less visible parts of the organization. The third characteristic of organizational culture is that it is pervasive and influences every aspect of the organization. (Tippey, 2014, pp. 23-24). Organizational culture is a series of values and norms that control the interaction between members of the organization and those outside it. Organizational culture is also a system of shared beliefs and values built into the organization and guiding the behavior of its members. Additionally, organizational culture is a system of values, beliefs, and norms shared by members of the organization, and guides the behavior of workers in the organization.

It is understood that the behavior of a leader who works to serve employees or followers, as well as upholding values such as empowerment, humility, and empathy, will make the employees engaged and loyal to the organization helping create a positive organizational culture. (Setyaningrum, 2017, p. 564). In addition, the concepts of organizational culture show the importance of ‘sharing’ in the development of these concepts. ‘Sharing’ means working with a common experience; when we share, we directly engage with others. Here emphasizes the similarity in the way people think and act. This is closely tied to the concepts of organizational culture. Cultural sharing means that each participant contributes to a larger cultural foundation.

A strong and positive culture is very significant for the development of strategic leadership in an organization. The choice of future strategic leaders, career planning and development, and succession planning can largely take care of the task of the development of strategic leaders. However, the real test of leadership development lies in making an ongoing process and practices to guide the organization in the right direction. (Singh and Panda, 2015, p. 141). The contribution and experience of each member are not the same. When it comes to culture as a system of meaning, values, beliefs, and knowledge, it is important to keep in mind that culture depends on both community and diversification. Culture allows for similarities but also recognizes and relies on differences. Another common ground of these organizational culture concepts is that all concepts emphasize the means of expression through which values ​​in organizational culture are communicated to the people. However, organizations can directly describe these values and meaningful systems through stories, examples, and even legends. Stories are the typical vehicle to reflect the important implications of values ​​in the organizational culture.

Collins’ (2001) Humility and Leadership Level 5 (LL5)

Finnie and Abraham (2002) cited Collins’ (2001) “The five levels of LL5 – Executive – Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will; totally committed to furthering the organization’s interests, not his own. (p. 11). “Collins (2001) describes the person who is humble as one who demonstrates a compelling modesty and channels ambition into the company.” (Crowther, 2011, p. 4). Any leaping company with its ability could lead LL5 leadership in significant transition years. LL5 refers to a hierarchical pyramid representing executive power, in which LL5 is the highest. LL5 leaders are the paradoxical combination of personal humility and energy. They are ambitious, of course, but the ambition is first for the company, not for themselves. The LL5 facilitates successors to achieve greater success in the next generation. LL5 demonstrates modesty and cautiousness. LL5 is motivated by a burning desire to bring sustainable results. They are determined to do whatever is necessary to build a great company. Furthermore, LL5 demonstrates a diligence. Additionally, LL5 looks out the window and thinks that success is due to factors that do not belong to them.

Good-to-great companies have a culture of discipline. This culture is characterized by disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. The Level Five leader is an executive leader who builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. Level Five leaders are ambitious, yet not for themselves but for their company (Collins 2001). These leaders do not hold on to their lead but rather develop their company’s leadership from within. (Brown, 2010, p. 9). The formula of ‘Great organization = Discipline culture + Think critically’. Discipline culture – set goals and achieve them. The great company builds freedom and responsibility within the framework, discipline must begin with disciplined people, great companies employ disciples and do not need to be governed. They then manage the system, not human management. The counterparts try to jump right into the disciplinary action. Great companies take the benchmark to new heights. They built a sustainable discipline based on three circles. As a result, short-term companies have a remarkable advantage under the rule of a disciplined person, and then a drop is no less surprising when the dictator leaves without leaving actual discipline. Collins’ (2001) leadership level five is based on power and influence. The power due to respect and admiration – This power comes when employees have true feelings and are aware of the personality, dedication, leadership effectiveness, and benefits that the leader brings to the team. and themselves. This is the highest level of power and leadership in LL5 in terms of rating and leadership effectiveness.

The Assessment of LL5 Competency

Classification and ranking on Collins’ (2001) LL5: Collins (2001) mentioned the LL5 which is the highest level of leadership. The leader of level 5 also possesses the most powerful and influential type of power to subordinates – the power of respect and admiration. In addition, these leaders must have humility, simplicity but determination in action, extremely ambitious in goals but never personally.

WHY – Why is there a roadmap for leadership development? The goal of leadership development is to have capable team leaders who lead the organization or unit they are responsible for achieving their strategic goals. To achieve this goal, we need to answer the following questions: How can we identify who the ‘leaders’ need to be developed to become ‘talented’ leaders? How to identify areas where these potential leaders need to grow? How to develop them?

Leadership development path is the development of leadership should go from self, spreads to others, and then to the business. We should look at why we need this sequence:

Self: Can a leader influence others if they do not set an example for what they say?

Others: Suppose the company has leaders who are lessons for their followers.

The business: If the leader has done the two things mentioned earlier, it is the result of going in the right direction, and coordinating with other units to achieve the company’s common goal. Or is the effort of their unit deviated, not supported by the results of other units?

An important competency of every leader is the systematic view. This is the ability to have a process whereby the leaders absorb and motivate themselves. It is like the ability of vision, the accumulation from Self to individuals and then to the organization which is a process of development for leaders. It is important to emphasize that the leadership development process is to develop a capable leadership team. Therefore, leadership development needs a planned roadmap built following the company’s goals.

The HOW will answer the question – How to develop a visionary, self-development, the others as well as the whole business?

WHO – Who develops leadership in the company?

4 people must be the ones who roll their sleeves for the development of leadership for the company.

1. First, the head of the organization must be the one with the greatest determination.
2. Besides being the role of the immediate superior of the facilitator so that potential leaders are developed.
3. Next are the training-related parts which will directly design the training and development programs.
4. Lastly, potential employees need to be developed.

WHAT – Identify leadership needs to develop and determine the competencies to assess the current situation to know the competency gaps of the team compared to the required level. These competency gaps will show the level of development and training needs of the leadership team in a specific way.

Collins’ (2001) Inside-Out model: Self → Others → Business. This model reflects the influence of the leader and the order of development of leadership – Before he can influence others or business, he must lead himself. Under this roadmap, the development will lead the team to be sustainable from within. Businesses can apply similar models to develop leadership development pathways. The leadership development paths mean that the development goes from level 1 to higher levels 2, 3, 4, and 5. It should be noted that only higher levels are reached when lower levels are reached. This will help develop the ‘internal potential employees’.

Level 1 means we need to evaluate whether an employee has the potential to grow into a leader. They are potential at another company, but in this company do they meet the ‘potential’ requirement? This should be evaluated to put them into the talent development program.

With level 5 of this model, it is difficult for companies to design a program that satisfies them. Achieving the highest level at this time is a process of self-accumulation and self-discipline of the manager, especially in the aspect of personal humility and professional will as defined by LL5. Collins (2001) found that these leaders were humble, and they did not seek success for their glory; instead, success is essential for teams and organizations to thrive. They share the belief in success and they are the first individual to accept mistakes. Leaders level 5 are shy, but not afraid to make decisions.

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