The Best Leadership Model for Organizational Change Management: Transformational Verses Servant Leadership

Abstract

The differences between the transformational and servant leadership models have significant implications concerning organizational change management. First, transformational leaders have a stronger focus on intellectual stimulation than servant leaders. Servant leader emphasize developing their followers’ personal potential and facilitating their personal growth whereas, transformational leaders emphasize enhancing employees’ innovation and creativity. This concept is important because it illustrates the servant leader’s focus on individual development and the transformational leader’s focus on organizational development. Second, servant leaders place greater emphasis on behaviors associated with valuing individuals at an emotional level and learning from others. Third, transformational leader are more willing to take risks to attain organizational success and eliminate ineffective processes and systems. The servant leader is willing to take initiative but only in the sense of initial strategic planning, new programs for added efficiency, and ultimate responsibility for the company’s success. The transformational leader’s focus on risk taking as an essential component of leadership is significantly greater than that of the servant leader. Fourth, the servant leader is more will to forsake self-advancement and rewards toward the betterment of followers. These differing attributes are analyzed in this paper to determine which model promises to be more effective in implementing organizational change management.