Question
This is a business assignment where the student is required to Compare and contrast followership and servant leadership.
Servant Leadership and Followership
Servant leadership refers to a model of leadership in which the leader has intrinsic motivation to serve others (Davis, 2017). In servant leadership, the leader focuses on the well-being or growth of other individuals rather than the acquisition of power. In organizational settings, servant leadership is evident in the nature of relations between leaders and employees.
In the traditional style of leadership, organizational leaders were focused more on maintaining hierarchical relationships with followers. On the contrary, servant leadership promotes synergies between organizational leaders and their followers. As servant leaders attempt to establish synergistic relations, the concept of followership holds that both leaders and followers are in an interdependent relationship.
Followers are not just passive participants in the relationship but also take an active role (Davis, 2017). Followership in organizations helps to complement servant leadership. In other words, the leader-follower relationship is more of a mutual bond where both parties benefit from one another.
Servant leadership and followership are nevertheless distinct in certain ways. Servant leadership and followership emphasize on different roles between the leader and the follower. The leader is responsible for motivating the followers and giving them necessary support to accomplish their goals. Another expectation is for the leader to involve the followers in decision making in order to build a sense of trust.
Followers, on the other hand, develop goals and work towards achieving these goals. Another difference is that servant leaders mainly focus on serving others while followers focus on accomplishing their set goals. In other words, servant leadership is for a collective purpose while followership is more for fulfillment of personal interests. Servant leaders provide motivation for work while followers may not provide any form of motivation.
Reference
Davis, C. J. (2017). Servant Leadership and Followership: Examining the Impact on Workplace Behavior. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
