Dichotomy of Servant Leadership and Its practicality on the African Continent

Abstract

To many outsiders, Africa is a continent rife with famines, droughts, militia groups, and emaciated children. As far as leadership is concerned, Africa comes across as a continent whose nations are led by incompetent and arrogant, as well as economically ineffective and politically suspicious leaders who undermine their own democracies. As if to give credence to this observation, in 2012, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation failed to award its annual leadership prize, normally reserved for extraordinary performance in delivery of human rights, integrity, transparency in office and building social cohesion by an African head of state who has left power in the last three years. This leaves one wondering whether there is any chance for the emergence of a leader who truly believes and dedicates himself to the welfare of his people. A servant leader. It is important to understand the intricate details in the servant leadership theory and compare it to other leadership theories, as such an understanding helps leaders in adopting this leadership theory. This note examines the servant leadership theory, its dimensions, the behaviors of servant leaders, the strengths in the theory, criticisms against the theory, expected outcomes and goes on to compare the theory to other theories, before consequently drawing conclusions, thus setting an agenda for future research