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174 PART 3: THE PERSONAL SIDE OF LEADERSHIP

Exhibit 6.5 Changing Leader Focus from Self to Others

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Control Participation Empowerment Service

Authoritarian Participative Stewardship Servant
leader leader leader leader

Self-
Obedient Team Whole
responsible
subordinates players employees
employees

Control Centered in Control Centered
the Leader in the Follower

Servant leadership represents a stage beyond stewardship, where leaders give up
control and make a choice to serve employees. Along the continuum, the focus
of leadership shifts from leader to followers. In the following sections, we will
discuss each stage of this leadership continuum in more detail.

Authoritarian Management
The traditional understanding of leadership is that leaders are good managers who
direct and control their people. Followers are obedient subordinates who follow
orders. In Chapter 2, we discussed the autocratic leader, who makes the decisions
and announces them to subordinates. Power, purpose, and privilege reside with those
at the top of the organization. At this stage, leaders set the strategy and goals, as
well as the methods and rewards for attaining them. Organizational stability and
efficiency are paramount, and followers are routinized and controlled along with

machines and raw materials. Subordinates are given no voice in creating meaning
and purpose for their work and no discretion as to how they perform their jobs. This
leadership mindset emphasizes tight top-down control, employee standardization
and specialization, and management by impersonal measurement and analysis.
Participative Management
Since the 1980s, many organizations have made efforts to actively involve em-
ployees. Leaders have increased employee participation through employee sugges-
tion programs, participation groups, and quality circles. Teamwork has become an
important part of how work is done in many organizations. One study, sponsored
by the Association for Quality and Participation, revealed that more than 70 percent
of the largest U.S. corporations have adopted some kind of employee participation
program. However, most of these programs do not redistribute power and authority
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to lower-level workers. The mindset is still paternalistic in that top leaders determine
purpose and goals, make final decisions, and decide rewards. Employees are expected

to make suggestions for quality improvements, act as team players, and take greater
responsibility for their own jobs, but they are not allowed to be true partners in the