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IS SERVANT LEADERSHIP ALWAYS A GOOD THING?
Servant leadership is an approach to leading based on prioritizing the fulfillment of followers’
needs and thus, enabling followers to realize their full potential. Behaviors comprising servant
leadership include emotional healing (being sensitive to the personal setbacks of followers),
creating value for the community (encouraging followers to engage in volunteer activities that
benefit local communities), conceptual skills (problem-solving abilities and task knowledge),
empowering (delegating and allowing followers to make decisions), helping subordinates grow
and succeed (developing followers’ competencies), putting subordinates first (prioritizing
followers’ needs over one’s own), and behaving ethically. These behaviors sound “good” and it
might seem that everyone would desire them from their leader. The purpose of this study was
to test that assumption. Research has shown that people in general differ on what behaviors
they expect from a leader. We specifically investigated what happens when followers’ servant
leadership expectations match versus do not match their leaders’ behaviors.
Based on surveys completed by 118 employees and their managers from a Midwestern
manufacturing company, Jeremy Meuser, Dr. Robert Liden, and Dr. Sandy Wayne found
 Not all employees desire a servant leader to the same degree.
 Followers who want a servant leader perform significantly better and volunteer to
help coworkers more often in its presence than its absence.
 Followers who are ambivalent about servant leaders do not benefit from having one.
Implications of the Results:
As organizations move away from bureaucratic “one size fits all” to employee centric models,
attention to the style of leadership and pairing with needs of followers may become important
for the retention of key employees and, as the present research suggests, employee
performance and discretionary helping behaviors. Managers, even servant leaders, can be
mindful that not all employees prefer or desire the benevolent, altruistic behaviors of servant
leaders. While this study does not support the idea that servant leadership is a negative to
organizations, it does not eliminate that possibility. Practically, leaders have limited resources,
and applying servant leadership to those who do not desire it does not yield a return on that
investment – this in itself can be a costly waste. Organizations that plan to hire and promote
servant leadership should also be mindful to hire followers who likewise desire it in order to
gain the maximum benefit from the practice of servant leadership.
This study was funded by a grant from the UIC Institute for Leadership Excellence and Development (iLEAD).