Leader as Servant

A post in the class forum on Ethical Leadership. Enjoy!

Hi K:

Thank you for calling attention to the leader as servant.

Griffith (2007) argued that many of the questions of leadership ethics may be addressed through the lens provided by two essential questions. First, is the process of leadership ethical? Is it ethical to use an influence relationship of any type to attempt to determine the values, objectives and goals of a community? This initial question may, in turn, as posited by Griffith (2007) be further reduced to the determination of whether the leadership process is non-coercive and engaged in voluntarily by both followers and leaders, and whether the degree of mutuality of the agreed upon goals is adequate. According to Griffith (2007) transactional, transformational, and servant leadership may be sequentially applied to satisfy these requirements of ethicality. However, the requirements are not fully satisfied until servant leadership is employed. The second essential question is whether the content of the leadership, that is, the change intended by the community is itself ethical. Griffith (2007) used classical theories of ethics to address this latter question.

As we have been learning in class, the Kantian categorical imperative says to do what is right regardless of the consequences (Johnson, 2007). This view is clearly applicable in questions arising in the ethics and leadership domain, particularly in the subdomain of organizational governance. Indeed, it is not only applicable here, its application is mandatory (Griffith, 2007). Many of the most recent corporate ethical scandals may be seen to have resulted from a failure to adhere to this perspective (Griffith, 2007). The temptation to “adjust the numbers” to satisfy investors and to avoid delivering bad news to the ever present analysts is a clear violation of this principal. Doing whatever is right regardless of the consequences means reporting results forthrightly, forsaking the temptation to hide bad news, taking immediate and visible actions when ethical transgressions are identified, and acting with transparency in all these matters (Griffith, 2007).

As Griffith (2007) correctly stated, “Ethical issues are not fine wine; They do not improve with age” (p. 11).

I agree with Griffith (2007) that if leaders unfailingly act out of a primary regard for the welfare of the other stakeholders and insist that their own interests be subservient to the greater interests of the organization, then many ethical issues can be prevented. More importantly, leaders adhering to this perspective will more often make the more correct strategic and tactical choices for the right reasons (Griffith, 2007). Even when their actions are less successful than desired, their motivations cannot be questioned, for they will fail to prosper along with the rest of the organization.

Reference

Griffith, S. D. (2007). Servant Leadership, Ethics and the Domains of Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2007/griffith.pdf