Essay on Leadership Theory

Running head: ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP THEORY
Essay on Leadership Theory
Name of the university
Name of the student
Author note

1ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP THEORY
The purpose of this essay is to focus on servant leadership theory as a widely accepted
style among several contemporary business organisations instead of opting for an autocratic,
traditional approach for achieving organizational goals. According to Mahembe and
Engelbrecht, (2014), servant leadership style encourages teamwork and allows every
members to share individual opinion. This essay is going to argue on the fact that
effectiveness of servant leadership is more than other theories or not. In order to do that some
facts will be presented to support its relevance in contemporary business scenario and some
will highlight the drawbacks of servant leadership style. After evaluating both the positive
and negative facts and evidence about this approach, this report will try to achieve a
perspective that, whether the theory possesses relevance with contemporary business
framework or there are other leadership styles, which can be used more appropriately than
this.
The practice of this leadership style directly contrasts the ideas of traditional concepts
of leadership along with that it is being accepted widely as the time progresses (Shafie,
Baghersalimi & Barghi, 2013). The idea is to influence and motivate members to establish
trustworthy relationships within workplace and developing their skills and efficiency to add a
professional approach in employee profiles. As per the Rachmawati and Lantu, (2014),
central components of servant leadership style are listening, asking for suggestions, planning
long-term goals, building unified community and focusing on the growth of every employee
profile. There are numerous benefits of following this particular style yet the perspectives of
other styles such as, transformational, laissez-faire; deliver practical solutions in an easier
way at times than being a servant leader. The phase servant leader gives a sense of oxymoron
when brought together to define a theory as the question raises how can a servant possesses
the qualities of a leader. In order to be a servant leader as discussed in Liden et al., (2014),
the first query should be how he or she can serve the followers. This theory can be integrated

2ESSAY ON LEADERSHIP THEORY
with the biblical references. The way Jesus Christ worked to fulfil the commitments of his
followers for Gospel. This leadership theory can be referred as a successful implementation
of ancient principles.
A servant leader understands that management and leadership is not the similar thing.
Employees will trust the leader depending on his or her personal traits. Earning influence
takes time and extreme influential characteristics to make the employees work according to
the instruction. Simultaneously, providing liberty to take part in business operations,
encouraging for sharing opinion are gestures by which employees feel valued working under
such leaders. Managers, who believes to practice servant leadership to operate business
operations efficiently, consider every team members’ opinion before taking decisions
regarding business. Eventually, it takes time to decide as the leader lacks authority and
occasionally has to confront with conflicts during the process as he or she has to put
employees’ interest first beyond organizational objectives. Servant leader improves the
potential of members as future leaders and penetrate their capability to satisfy several
business responsibility. Therefore, following the characteristics of this style it can be stated
that it is a liberal approach to leadership, which delivers a strong sense of ethics (Hoch et al.,
2018) . Leaders concentrate on the needs of their employees and focus on everyone’s well-
being and growth towards a future leader.
The trend among business practitioners to adopt such approach is so extensive that is
raises the question what makes it so relevant to apply in a contemporary business setting. In
this case, if the history of employee management can be revised it would be immensely
helpful. Since the days of industrial revolution, managers has been considering employees as
machines of generating production. Employees tend to deliver the best output in a situation
where they feel valued and appreciated. That is why the approach of servant leadership is
achieving success. Managers have understood; employees will care about common