Servant-Leadership at Forty: The Case for Contemporary Research

Authors

Dan Parrish, University of MichiganFollow
Kathleen Zimmerman-Oster, University of Detroit Mercy

Abstract

Kent Keith (2008) begins his book, The Case for Servant-leadership, with the following paragraph: This book is about creating a better world. There does not have to be so much pain and suffering, so much war and violence, so much starvation and disease, so many crushed dreams and untapped talents, so many problems unsolved and so many opportunities ignored. The world does not have to be like this. (p. IX; emphasis in original) Keith expresses a sentiment that is commonly held among adherents to servant-leadership: the world needs healing, and individuals, group members, and organizational leaders are each responsible for doing what they can to be a part of the solution. It has been forty years since Robert K. Greenleaf ([1970] 2008) penned his first essay and introduced the term servant leadership to the world. Perhaps, the concept is more relevant today than it was even then. In an age characterized by alleged corporate negligence that may have contributed to the catastrophic oil spill on the Gulf Coast, massive home foreclosures, and the struggle to provide a well-trained labor force for U.S. health care needs (Jenkins & Stewart, 2010), scholars and citizens alike are looking for ethical leadership principles that will provide for a safe and just society. Servant-leadership remains a powerful and poignant answer to many of the most vexing organizational dilemmas facing the modern world.

Recommended Citation

Parrish, Dan and Zimmerman-Oster, Kathleen (2010) "Servant-Leadership at Forty: The Case for Contemporary Research," International Journal of Servant-Leadership: Vol. 6, Article 7.
DOI: 10.33972/ijsl.190
Available at: https://repository.gonzaga.edu/ijsl/vol6/iss1/7

Copyright Information

Copyright 2010 The Author(s). All rights reserved