Question

Servant leadership is explored within different cultural contexts in chapter 10 of your textbook. Identify at least two culturally specific variables that impede the adoption of servant leadership within one specific cultural perspective. If you were transferred to that country to work, armed with this knowledge, what would you do differently to bring about a change in perception of servant leadership??

Answer 1

There are various reasons as to why servant leadership has not been fully adopted, I have chosen to speak about the Latin American Culture (Spanish speaking) perspective on servant leadership. One of the variables that impede leadership adopting Servant Leadership is due to the cultural perspective of how a leader should be. While research shows that the concept of Servant Leadership and qualities of a servant leader are desirable in Panama (Serrano, 2006) the barrier of semantic confusion between “servant” and “slave” keeps leaders from fully adopting the practice of Servant Leadership (McIntosh, 2009). This is further shown in Portuguese speaking countries like Brazil, where they also demonstrated a language disconnect between the difference of “servant” and “slave”, as showing in Marinho’s (2005) research. Another variable that impedes the adoption of Servant Leadership within the Latin American perspective is “high-power” distance that is prevalent in Latin American countries. McIntosh (2009) cited that in Peru this distance between leadership and the people led to those surveyed to demonstrate hesitancy and skepticism about Servant Leadership being effective in their cultural climate. In the country of Brazil this is further discussed as followers expect leaders to be more authoritarian, which also can provide a “high-power” distance between leader and follower. After working with Evangelical Brazilian church leaders, Amaral (2007) found that while the leadership style had changed after receiving a six month course on how to implement Servant Leadership, the church leaders felt they were not “meeting the cultural expectations of followers for more authoritarian forms of leadership”.