LDR-630: Analyzing Servant Leadership in Veteran Affairs

This report examines the implementation of servant leadership principles at Veteran Affairs (VA), a healthcare organization serving veterans. The analysis covers how VA applies these principles in customer service, employee management, and policy-making, emphasizing empathy, listening, and community building. The report discusses the positive impact on the community and the common good, highlighting the importance of kindness, compassion, and justice in leadership. It also addresses potential conflicts and operational challenges that can arise from adopting servant leadership, such as the decentralization of power and cultural differences, and how VA leaders have addressed them. The study uses academic sources to support its claims, emphasizing the moral obligations of leaders to promote the well-being of both followers and the broader community. The report concludes by underscoring the benefits of leading with these values within a healthcare setting, contributing to a humanistic approach and a positive organizational culture.

Running head: SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Servant Leadership
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1SERVANT LEADERSHIP
 A summary of how the organization implements the principles of servant
leadership in providing customer service, hiring and managing employees, and
modeling operations and policies.
Veteran Affairs is a health care organization providing care for military and
war veterans all over the US. They provide care for all kinds of diseases and
surgeries. In order to serve their customers better, employee management and
operation and policy making, the organization uses principles of Greenleaf’s servant
leadership principles (Lanctot & Irving, 2010). To serve people in healthcare, leaders
need to have empathy. Understanding the needs of the patients and a drive to reduce
their pain and suffering is necessary for servant leaders. This aspect is also applicable
to their approach to operation modelling and policy making.
The principles of listening is also applicable to all three aspects. The leaders
need to listen to the problems and issues raised by patients, employees and other
officials in order to lead the organization effectively. Active listening has helped
Veteran Affairs to create different departments for services, add on services like aged
care and extended medical facility to family caregivers of the veterans and creating
effective employee grievance and whistleblowing committee (VA Administration,
2020). They also listen to patient requirements for which they have introduced new
departments for plastic and geriatric surgery.
The organization applies awareness and healing for the employees. They apply
persuasion and cooperation for the departments to work together. They also have
integrated foresight and stewardship. The organization earlier faced many complaints
about unethical practices and lack of protections against whistle blowers. They have
taken that into account and have created a committee for addressing these issues.

2SERVANT LEADERSHIP
 A discussion of how the implementation of servant leadership affects the
community and the common good.
Servant leadership is based on the concept of serving the consumers and the
other stakeholders so that a greater good can be achieved. The main characteristic of a
good servant leader is empathy, stewardship, community building and commitment to
people’s growth. Greenleaf believed that institutions should work to establish
themselves as a trustworthy institution for greater good for the society (Ford &
Harding, 2018). This idea of stewardship can be achieved is to be empathetic and
having a foresight. Leaders need to take lessons from the past mistakes and create
policies that will keep people or patients, in this case, at the top priority.
Commitment to people’s growth ensures that they provide the best care
possible and goes beyond mandated necessity to ensure the wellbeing of the people
that they care for. They ensure the professional and personal growth of the employees
and their mental health. Community building also creates common good as it creates
cohesion and cooperation among the people that are working together (Kincaid,
2012).
 An explanation of how adopting principles of servant leadership could result in
conflict or create operational challenges. Include how the leader has addressed
these challenges.
The servant leadership concept is based on decentralization of power and
giving up absolute authority. The organizational structure and power culture must
reject the top down and adopt flat structure. They will have to give credits to the
employees and that requires letting go of ego. The problem is that, different cultures
have different response to servant leadership. While some people may find it
motivating, others might find it confusing and lack of guidance.

3SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Servant leadership also leads to lack of employee morale and motivation, lack
of initiative for completing tasks, lack of authority of the leaders and managers and
lack of flexibility across organizations. The servant leaders are responsible for
mitigating them. The challenges that appeared here has been addressed by the Veteran
affairs leaders. They employ people from veteran population and the patients come
from similar background. Thus, keeping a flat organizational structure is counter-
productive. They have hierarchy but the employees also have the power to address
any issues or blow whistles for wrong doings (Westervelt, 2020).
 An explanation of the benefits and moral obligation of leading with kindness,
compassion, and justice for the good of followers and the community
Leading a healthcare organization with kindness, compassion and justice for
the community has many benefits. This approach to care facilitates a humanistic
approach where patients are not seen as subjects but rather humans. Their needs and
desires, their physical and mental wellbeing are all included into the care policy. This
approach also makes the organization more appealing to work. Kindness is necessary
quality for leaders as it enables them to see the good qualities and skills of people
(Ferrucci, 2016). They are able to find the aspects that makes the person stronger
rather than identify the negatives.
Compassion allows the leaders to feel the pain and understand the issues of the
people that they serve. These aspects for servant leadership falls under the moral
obligation of leaders and is extremely applicable in the healthcare sector (Ciulla,
2013). Justice ensures that everybody receives care and more and more people are
included into the facilities that they provide. This creates a better society and is likely
to build a positive organizational culture. their practice also trickles down to the
people that are working under them thus making a better organization in totality.

4SERVANT LEADERSHIP
References
Ciulla, J. B. (2013). Leadership ethics. International Encyclopedia of Ethics, 1-7.
Ferrucci, P. (2016). The power of kindness: The unexpected benefits of leading a
compassionate life. Penguin.
Ford, J., & Harding, N. (2018). Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and
illusion. Leadership, 14(1), 3-24.
Kincaid, M. (2012). Building corporate social responsibility through servant-
leadership. International Journal of leadership studies, 7(2), 151-171.
Lanctot, J. D., & Irving, J. A. (2010). Character and leadership: Situating servant leadership
in a proposed virtues framework. International journal of leadership studies, 6(1), 28-
50.
VA. Administration,. (2020). VA.gov | Veterans Affairs. Retrieved 29 January 2020, from
https://www.va.gov/health/aboutVHA.asp
Westervelt, E. (2020). For VA Whistleblowers, A Culture Of Fear And Retaliation. Retrieved
29 January 2020, from https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/601127245/for-va-
whistleblowers-a-culture-of-fear-and-retaliation