Discussion
Discuss about the Book Review for Gary Yukl Leadership in Organisations.
Leadership is a very important part for the running of an organisation. It is a true leader who can properly lead the growth and development of an organisation. It is the duty of a leader to maintain a harmonious work environment among the work force of an organisation. This leads to the proper functioning of the operations and the management which results in the development of the organisation. The concept of a servant leader was first developed by Robert K. Greenleaf. The words servant and leaders are paradoxical, but Greenleaf developed the idea of a leadership model which describes that to be a good leader one must learn the essentials of a servant first. The book, Focus on Leadership: Servant-leadership for the 21st century, edited by the Larry Spears focuses on this idea of servant leadership and describes the several aspects for the better understanding of the idea in the modern day scenario.
Focus on Leadership is a very interesting work edited by Larry Spears. The prime focus of the book is to support the ideas of Robert Greenleaf’s idea of servant leadership. The idea was conceived by Greenleaf in 1964 and after that he had done extensive research on the idea to prove its importance. Larry Spears identifies from the works of Greenleaf, ten important characteristics of a true servant-leader which gives Greenleaf’s ideas a strong standpoint (Spears & Lawrence, 2002).
Moreover, the book is well structured with well-balanced essays by different experts which talk about servant-leadership from different viewpoints and these helps to understand the idea even better. The first part of the book talks about the different characteristics that can be identified in a servant leader. The aspects about how a servant leader should act, or how he should teach, his necessary attitudes towards managing a work and the work-force are all part of the essays discussed in the part one of the book.
The second part of the book discusses about the importance of servant-leadership in a workplace. The essays in this part relates the practical application of servant-leadership and how it can affect the work-culture in an organisation. Well performed research work and detailed data analysis from different companies and institutions help in the better understanding of the practical application of servant-leadership in workplace.
The third part of the book discusses the importance of servant leadership in a community. The role of servant-leadership in community works and philanthropic works are an interesting aspect to study. It focuses on the creativity of a servant-leader and how it can help the leader to foresee the future and take beneficial decisions accordingly.
Discussing a key idea
The fourth and final part of the book discusses about the aspect of the servant leadership, with its importance in the world. However, the focus on the destruction of the old models, and focus on the newer models of leadership is the key aspect of the book. The role of a mentor that a leader plays are broadly discussed in different parts of the book. The role of a mentor in leadership development admonishes the idea of hierarchies and focuses more on the leadership to produce role-models to lead with example.
One of the most important key ideas of the book is the discussion of the characteristic features of servant-leadership. The first essay of the book is by the person who conceived the idea of servant-leadership, Robert Greenleaf. He explains how both personas of a servant and a leader be present in a single person and how it can help in the development of an excellent person who can balance both the aspects and considerably lead in very sustainable manner.
Greenleaf discusses how the idea was inspired from Herman Hesse’s Journey to the East, where the role of a servant and his importance for a task is highlighted and his abilities to lead are shown. This type of understanding of the social life made Greenleaf realize that it is the best servant, who can be mature enough to take the role of a leader (Spears & Lawrence, 2002). This type of approach helps to look into the issues of power and authority and how it can educate people to learn about the responsibilities of leadership programmes. However, Greenleaf also believes that his idea is not popular one as there are older and easier leadership ideas which are easy to adopt, compared to his revolutionary outlook of a servant-leader.
The true nature of a servant leader is to serve (Spears & Lawrence, 2002). Continuous development of character, while in service develops the ability to lead in the inner consciousness. It is generally believed that the work of a leader is to lead but not serve, but Greenleaf argues that these type of attitude causes an affinity towards material possession which in turn has a negative impact on the prime focus of the work (Spears & Lawrence, 2002). Service becomes a latter choice for these leaders. The difference between these two types of leaders portrays the polarity of the priorities and clearly determines who can serve the organisation better for its development and growth.
Comparison with Gary Yukl’s Leadership in Organisations
Greenleaf periodically refers to the character of Leo, a servant leader from Hesse’s book, to establish the identity of an efficient servant leader. He was reminded of the fact that Leo is the movement that has been started as a fight to establish a new nature of leadership which has the potential to be taller, stronger, healthier and more committed to serve and lead with example (Spears & Lawrence, 2002).
Greenleaf in his discussion of a servant leader produces a complete idea about how the aspects should be developed in a leader, contrasting to the idea of leading a team. The new ideas dramatizes the formation of present day leaders. However, as a reader is it impossible to take stance from one particular standpoint. It is wiser to compare and analysis the works of Greenleaf with that of the views of other authors to chalk out a more sustainable way of leadership development.
Gary Yukl’s book focuses on the larger aspect of a leadership programme, which focuses on the specific picture of the leadership programme, limiting its reach to a certain aspect of the leadership programme. However, the author backs his views with a huge amount of survey data of over 50 years which gives the analysis an in-depth and comprehensive structure and establishes its relevance in the modern day leadership programme theory (Yukl, 1994). On the contrary, Greenleaf’s idea about servant leadership provides an all-round view, discussing every aspect of the leadership programme that is wanted to be discusses and in the process creates a complete structure of the idea.
Greenleaf’s idea about servant-leadership is a broad theory based on the idea conceived from a philosophy of how a leadership can work. The discussions and revelations are theories backed by concrete ideas and practical implications. However, Gary Yukl’s aspect of leadership broadly discusses the characteristics of a leader based on the outcomes of the massive survey. The different situations presented in the discussion also helps to understand leadership in larger organisations, explained by practical data from managerial positions.
Gary Yukl discusses the aspects of effective leadership, participation and empowerment as the prime factors of the leadership behaviour which develops the personalities of power, influence, skills and the unique traits that are required in a leader to manage a team (Yukl, 1994). Greenleaf on the other hand discusses the importance of service and the attitude to put service before self and its importance in the building of a true leader. According to Greenleaf, it is the true servant who can become a true leader in the future.
Gary Yukl has tried to look into the works of different experts who has defined leadership. He has tried to synthesize the true meaning of leadership from their works. Analysing these different works he has inferred the idea that leadership is a real phenomenon that exists in the organisation and is important for the effectiveness of the organization. The major controversy that Yukl highlights is that whether leadership is a specialized role or just another position. The arguments develop on both sides of the issue to balance the idea of leadership. However, Greenleaf’s ideas develop the character of a servant-leader. It is not the argument for or against the idea, but the features that develop the idea. Greenleaf discusses the characteristics such as empathy or motivation as the factors responsible for the development of servant leadership. Gary Yukl tries to identify the importance of leadership, while Greenleaf establishes the importance of servant-leadership.
Conclusion:
The above discussion can be seen as an overall book review of the Focus on Leadership: Servant-leadership for the 21st century. The above discussion helps to draw the conclusion that the book is a well-balanced and researched academic material focusing on the importance of servant leadership. Secondly, Greenleaf’s ideas provide a concrete statement about what the book is all about. His detailed analysis of servant leadership and its application makes his standpoint clear from the reader’s perspective. Moreover, a comparative analysis with Gary Yukl’s highly researched and detailed Leadership in Organizations help in establishing the relevance of the book as a complete academic material which speaks of a definite idea which has relevance in the modern day work-culture.
Reference:
Spears, L. C., & Lawrence, M. (Eds.). (2002). Focus on leadership: Servant-leadership for the twenty-first century. John Wiley & Sons.
Yukl, G. A. (1994). Leadership in organizations. Pearson Education.
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