Servant Leadership and Organizational Discipline

Abstract

The chapter examines various strategies adopted by servant leaders to ensure discipline in the organization. The study suggests that with their inherent pro-follower orientation, servant leaders' first preference is to create an organizational environment where employees do not feel the need to indulge in indiscipline. For this, they take certain proactive initiatives such as open door policy; leading by example; clarifying goals and roles; ensuring objectivity, fairness, and transparency; etc. In case some employees still indulge in undisciplined behavior, the servant leaders tend to adopt certain retroactive measures. They listen patiently and actively to transgressors' perspective in order to (1) diagnose the situation, (2) provide employees an opportunity to give catharsis to their feelings, and (3) persuade them to adopt disciplined behavior. Employees' failure to respond to these initiatives may force the servant leaders to take recourse to punishment as a last resort. But in servant leaders' punishment also there is a trace of care, concern, and compassion.