LDRS 591 Activity 10.2

 

Unit 10 Learning Activities

 

” why you think evidence-based decision making is important for the Transformational Servant leader? “

 

The first time I heard of the term “transformation servant leadership” was when I was talking to the counsellor prior to enrolling for this course. It struck a chord with me, as it intuitively seemed to be just the kind of leader I wanted to be. Since then I have learned about the different models of leadership.  In my studies so far “transformational” and “servant” leadership have been described as different models of leadership. I am not sure if there was an attempt to put them together, though it would not be surprising or hard, as they do have some overlapping principles.

In my opinion a good transformational servant leader must use evidence from research in their area, in addition to their own judgement, to make informed decisions that are important to their organization and employees. As per Bass and Avolio (1994), transformational leadership can “be used in improving team development , decision-making groups, quality initiatives, and recognizations”. As per  Coetzer, M. F., Bussin, M., Geldenhuys, M. (2017), servant leadership “proposes a more meaningful way of leadership to ensure sustainable results for individuals, organizations, and societies”. Of all the leadership models we have learnt so far, I find that “transformation” and “servant ” leadership resonate the most with me. For a leader to be a good “transformation servant leader” , they need to be well versed in the research process and also its analysis. Even if one is not an active researcher, a good leader should know how to evaluate research so that they can find ways how to best apply it. I apply evidence based decision making in my practice, and it has helped me immensely, especially when in doubt. 

 

References

Bass, B.M., & Avolio, B.J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Coetzer, Michiel Frederick; Bussin, Mark; Geldenhuys, Madelyn. The functions of a servant leader.  Administrative Sciences 7 (1), p. 1-32.