SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN SINGAPORE
Servant leadership has been demonstrated as an effective leadership style that promotes
individual, team, and organizational performance. Yet, most of extant studies have been
conducted in the United States and little research has been done in Eastern countries. In this
study, with the support of Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (Asia), Dr. Chenwei Liao, Dr.
Sandy Wayne, Dr. Robert Liden, and Junfeng Wu investigated 409 employees and 78 managers
from 10 organizations in Singapore. Singapore is one of the four Asian Tigers that have made
tremendous economic growth since 1960s. With this study, we sought to explore three major
questions: 1) To what extent is servant leadership being practiced in Singapore? 2) To what
extent do Singapore employees desire to be led by servant leaders? and 3) Are servant leaders
able to effectively influence followers’ positive work attitudes and behaviors in Singapore?
To summarize, we found
•
In general, employees perceived a moderate level of overall servant leadership in all of
the 10 organizations.
•
On the contrary, employees reported a strong desire for servant leadership in 7
organizations and a moderate to strong desire for servant leadership in 3 of the 10
organizations.
•
The biggest discrepancies between servant leadership and desire for servant leadership
are “Helping subordinates grow and succeed” and “Behaving ethically.”
•
Servant leadership is positively related to a number of positive outcomes in Singaporean
organizations, including an array of employee positive work attitudes, motivations, and
behaviors. Specifically,
• Employees were more likely to identify with and trust servant leaders and see
servant leaders as role models.
• Servant leaders enhanced followers’ prosocial motivation and confidence in
completing the job creatively.
• Employees imitated servant leadership behaviors; employees were more likely to
improve their job performance, become creative and helpful, and speak up with
ideas for improvement.
Implications of the Results:
Our results suggest that organizations need to create awareness among top management of
benefits of servant leadership because servant leadership plays a key role in enhancing
important and favorable employee attitudes, motivation, and behaviors. Thus,
organizations should regularly assess their managers’ levels of servant leadership. Based on
the assessment, organizations may employ servant leadership training programs to
minimize the gap between actual servant leadership practices and employees’ desire for
servant leadership.
This study was funded by a grant from the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (Asia). However, the interpretations,
conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Greenleaf Center for
Servant Leadership (Asia).