Opportunities and Tensions of Servant Leadership
摘要
This chapter identifies different emphases or approaches to what it means to be a servant-leader. It answers fundamental questions concerning definition, application, and contribution and signals possible opportunities and tensions. A close examination of the literature reveals seven different yet complementary emphases of servant leadership: The Poets (or romanticists and visionaries), The Managerialists (or partly reconstructed Taylorites), The Egalitarians (or redistributive socialists), The Peripherals (or zealots and agnostics), The Discreet (or silent disciples), The Syncretists (or harmonizers and mystics), The Systematizers (or architect and quantity surveyors). The chapter emphasizes that the principles lying at a servant leader’s heart are crucial and non-negotiable: the greatest is the commitment to being a servant. The behavior that follows can manifest through different emphases, thereby recognizing personal preferences and organizational environment.