Conduct some webbased research into one organization that pr

Conduct some web-based research into one organization that professes to have adopted a servant leadership philosophy (e.g., SWA, Men\'s Warehouse, TDIndustries). What are the organization\'s values? Compare these organizations to another in the same industry using major performance metrics (employee turnover, market share, profitability, etc.) and conclude whether or not you think having a servant leader philosophy makes a significant difference in company performance.

Solution

Servant Leader philosophy can be well described as a leadership quality where the leader is actively involved in the day to day activity of the organisation and typically implements a horizontal hierarchy system. The value system implemented through this philosophy, makes the organisation people centric. The people here are not just the employees but also the customers and other stakeholders.

Conducting research on different set on companies, we shall find that \'Virgin Group\' under the leadership of Richard Branson follows a Servant Leadership philosophy. The attributes attained by this organisation can be easily identified through comparison with philosophy of other industry leaders. The comparison is as stated-

Analysing it performance metrics we can conclude upon following points-

We should not conclude that the success of one company through one philosophy standardizes the philosophy. It actually depends upon the organization structure, the industry, the demographics being catered to, etc to conclude upon the choice of philosophy. The Virgin group had been successful because they are a innovation driven company, where a great emphasis is required to design the next disruptive innovation. But if a company with a focus on sustainablitiy attempts to implement Servant Leadership Philosophy, they are bound to fail. This can be easily justified by the fact that the sustaninability focused companies depends largely on Long term Vision and hence cannot afford to be dynamic in their approach towards their organisational strategy building.