SERVANT LEADERSHIP

Servant Leadership in hospitality organisation

Servant Leadership in hospitality organisation

Introduction

In the globalized and integrated world of the 21st century, morality and ethics are confounded by less visible national borders, cultural differences, historical perspectives, and continuous change (Youssef, et al, 2007). Organizational Servant Leaders are key players in establishing and maintaining the critical relationship between organizations and society. They are responsible for organizational planning, direction, and resource utilization. The most pivotal aspect of their role is their responsibility to “chart the course” and influence the behaviour of all other hospital organizational members (Lord & Maher, 1991) toward the achievement of shared goals.

Several existing theories and models (e.g., transformational, transactional, charismatic, authentic, and others) sufficiently support the rationale for the way Servant Leaders approach the task of leading (Northouse, 2004). As such, the philosophy of Servant Leadership provides a different way of understanding the responsibility of Servant Leadership, and the servant leader assumes an attitude of service, acting as a steward over his or her area of responsibility (Kuzmenko, 2004).

Servant Leadership is founded upon relationship building, challenging the status quo, and exercising the ability to not only visualizes a personal perspective, but the desires and dreams of others as well. Servant Leaders glean results by creating an environment that allows others to achieve their maximum potential while challenging the organization as a whole to consistently grow beyond pre-established boundaries (Trevino, et al, 2003). This paper discusses the importance of servant leadership in a hospitality industry in order to develop an environment where employees are motivated and entrusted to carry out their jobs with highest quality standards. Discussion

Effective Servant Leadership is sought after in both the private and public sectors. The same holds true for charitable non-profit organizations as this type of Servant Leadership is the competitive edge that every organizations strives to find and retain. According to Williams (2005), effective Servant Leadership requires equal parts personal character traits and business habits. He further suggested that today's successful Servant Leaders require six key attributes: honour, humour and health (all considered personal) and foresight, focus and friends (all considered business-specific).

The concept of Servant Leadership has attracted the attention of many researchers in the last few decades. The qualities of Servant Leadership underlie the principles of morality and justice for all. The premise and scope of Servant Leadership is based on the societal impacts of Servant Leadership, whereby each culture has its own viewpoint on how they perceive Servant Leadership and remain devoted to their followers.

Servant Leadership is not a novel concept; rather it encompasses different phases of Servant Leadership on the whole since a long time. It remains one of the most prominent Servant Leadership philosophies that had been a centre of critical appraisals. The current and anticipated Servant Leadership gap is a very serious global concern among public and private business sectors. Many researchers contend that the shift of the goals and orientation of Servant Leadership is very important in taking Servant Leadership to new heights (Sendjaya, Sarros & Santora, ...