Introduction to Servant Leadership

This introductory chapter addresses the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of servant leadership. Following a brief outline of the servant leadership definition, it discusses a rationale for servant leadership encompassing five reasons – contextual, anecdotal, empirical, philosophical, and cross-cultural. First, contemporary organizations today are plagued by systemic problems associated with various forms of toxic leadership which deepens a longing for moral-based leadership. Second, anecdotal evidence suggests that servant leadership has been applied in the best workplaces which serve as an anomaly to the majority of today’s corporations. Third, empirical research suggests that servant leadership better predicts key organizational outcomes relative to other leadership approaches such as transformational leadership. Fourth, servant leadership is built on a distinct philosophical basis that encompasses the leader’s self-concept, service orientation, and standard operating procedure. Finally, the salient values of servant leadership are much more culturally universal hence is likely to be more generalizable to various cultures.