Servant leadership philosophy and practice: development of training activities to implement servant leadership in organisations

Abstract

Research on servant leadership in the past few years has covered several theoretical and practical aspects. The growing literature on servant leadership supports its positive impact on individuals and organisations. However, the literature witnesses very few efforts to address the underlying philosophy of servant leadership, which is the precursor to servant leadership theory. Philosophy is about knowing reality. Interestingly, despite systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the aspect of servant leadership philosophy has been overlooked. Further, despite several causal studies, there is a paucity of field experiments or practical activities to implement servant leadership in different organisational settings. There is a dire need to address these neglected aspects of servant leadership. This paper aims to address gaps in the available literature regarding servant leadership philosophy and activities to develop servant leadership. In doing so, this study explores the historical roots and identifies the philosophical association of servant leadership with the ideas presented by Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and Peter Drucker. Considering the multidimensional and widely used measure of servant leadership developed by Dirk van Dierendonck, this study also devises a number of activities to foster servant leadership in organisations in terms of all servant leadership dimensions, and the methods to assess the extent to which servant leadership is effectively implemented. These activities can help practitioners successfully implement servant leadership in different organisations. This literature and activities discussed in this paper imply that scholars’ prime focus should be more on how to develop servant leaders than on what a servant leader is, and that servant leadership is a cost-effective approach to practice in daily life.