Servant leadership: An effective leadership model for achieving optimal financial performance and quality assurance excellence

Servant leadership has proven to be the ideal management model that goes beyond the limitations of traditional leadership to further support strategic quality initiatives and improve the bottom line. Although the benefits of servant leadership have shown to be effective in promoting quality excellence in products and services, it is difficult for many organizations to relinquish traditional leadership philosophies. The purpose of this study is to increase the awareness of servant leadership as a successful management model for businesses. This paper examines and contrasts the philosophical foundation of servant leadership by extracting several value-laden principles, drawn from reputable resources in recent times, historical references, and biblical portrayals of the concept. An analysis and comparison of eight known servant-led companies and the top eight S&P 500 companies is conducted to show how servant-led organizations use the benefits of servant leadership to achieve a higher level of quality excellence and financial performance.