Recent orders
SERVICE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
SERVICE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Abstract
Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House is my chosen serving learning agency. It is a child advocacy, sexual assault, and domestic violence prevention program that provides shelter and safety to victims of domestic and sexual violence, and helps them in navigating the legal system. This agency was chosen because it deals with issues that adversely impact the larger society. Domestic and sexual violence involve serious human rights violations and are considered severe global public health issues of concern with significant mental and physical health effects on the victims. Among the mental health effects of sexual and domestic violence include anxiety, depression, personality disorders, alcohol or substance abuse, eating and sleeping disorders, suicidal thoughts, social dysfunction, posttraumatic stress disorder, and an increased feeling of helplessness among victims, which adversely affects their self-esteem, increasing their risk of further violence. Physical effects of sexual and domestic violence include bruises, bite marks, cuts, broken bones, concussions, penetrative injuries, miscarriages, loss of vision and hearing, hypertension, broken bones, and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) which can eventually result in death. Culture contributes significantly to how certain people and societies perceive, view, and process the acts of domestic and sexual violence. Equal power is given to both men and women in feminist cultures. However, sexual and domestic violence are more likely to occur in societies where males are viewed as superior and women are perceived as inferior. Also, higher rates of sexual violence are predicted in cultures that support the objectification of women.
Service Learning Experience
Introduction
There are various areas in which one can gain unpaid or paid experience within the field of social work. These areas include independent sectors, statutory, or third sector agencies operating in this field. This essay reflects my social welfare area of interest and the population served during my learning experience. My chosen service learning agency is Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House. The essay discusses why this agency was chosen, my personal experience as I was oriented to and familiarizing myself with the agency’s policies and procedures, and my experience with the people I was assigned to work with. Also, an overall learning experience focusing on the application of core social work values and functions is presented.
The Choice of the Service Learning Agency/Population
The chosen serving learning agency is Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House. It is a child advocacy, sexual assault, and domestic violence prevention program that provides shelter and safety, and helps victims of sexual and domestic violence in navigating the legal system. Currently, Ruth’s Cottage has a 25-bed emergency shelter for children and women involved in sexual and domestic violence. This service learning agency was chosen because it deals with issues that adversely impact the larger society. Firstly, domestic and sexual violence involve grave violations of human rights.
Secondly, domestic and sexual violence are associated with significant long- and short-term mental and physical health effects on victims regardless of their gender (Kalra & Bhugra, 2013). According to the author, these traumatic life events give rise to embarrassment, a wide range of negative emotions, and increase the feeling of helplessness among victims, thus, adversely affecting their self-esteem. This increases their risk of further violence. Other mental effects of domestic and sexual violence include anxiety, depression, personality disorders, alcohol or substance abuse, eating and sleeping disorders, suicidal thoughts, social dysfunction, and posttraumatic stress disorder (Alejo, 2014; Moraes et al., 2012). Physical effects of sexual and domestic violence include bruises, bite marks, cuts, broken bones, concussions, penetrative injuries, miscarriages, loss of vision and hearing, hypertension, broken bones, and sexually transmitted infections which can eventually lead to death (Alejo, 2014; Sardinha et al., 2022).
Culture contributes significantly to the way certain people and societies perceive, view, and process the acts of domestic and sexual violence. Attitudes towards domestic and sexual violence and the representations of genders differ within ego-centric and socio-centric cultures. Equal power is given to both men and women in feminist cultures. Sexual and domestic violence are more likely to occur in societies where males are perceived as superior and women are inferior (Kalra & Bhugra, 2013).
Also, a spectrum of acceptable and unacceptable sexual violence exists across cultures, with transgressive coercion on one extreme and permitted coercion on the other. This spectrum of acceptable and unacceptable violence is known as the culturally legitimized type of violence. For instance, when apartheid was in place in South Africa, raping white women was punishable, but the rape of black women was tolerated as a normal part of life. Also, it is fairly uncommon in some parts of rural India to witness childhood marriages or sexual relationships with a girl who is not yet an adult. This is prohibited since it is considered some sort of sexual coercion. However, the issue is endorsed by personal laws of people who engage in such marriages. For instance, young men in South Africa consider sexual violence legitimate since they believe that lack of sex adversely affects mental health (Kalra & Bhugra, 2013).
Furthermore, research reveals that higher rates of sexual and domestic violence are predicted in cultures that support women objectification, which makes them look inferior to males (Esquivel, 2020). Also, the difference in the meaning attributed to womanhood and manhood in different sociocultural settings varies. Paternalistic cultures encourage the view that men are responsible for safeguarding women from harm, which gives the thought that women are unable to protect themselves (Rudman & Glick, 2021). This increases the risk of women being assaulted by their partners in marriage.
The acts of sexual violence perpetrated against women may also be predicted by how people see rape and rapists in their culture. Such stereotypes are adopted from male-dominated sociocultural societies. Sexual violence may result from the misogynists’ attitude prevalent in the culture. For instance, a girl’s sexuality regulation in rural India is completely out of her hands. Women are expected to get married and bear children. After marriage, the control of a girl’s sexuality shifts from their father to their husband. Similar to most cultures, in India, men are considered to have a dominant position in a woman’s life (Kalra & Bhugra, 2013). This places women at a higher risk of sexual and domestic abuse.
Experience During Orientation to the Agency’s Policies and Procedures
From an operational perspective, Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House aims to end sexual and domestic violence through a cooperative and multidisciplinary approach to advocacy, investigations, and support while serving in the society to change behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. Reflecting on my experience with the orientation to the agency program policies and procedures, I felt that the organization had established effective ways of helping the victims. Most women who experience domestic violence opt to run away and hide in a safer place where their abusers cannot find them. Therefore, providing the emergency rooms for women and children who have been abused was a great idea to me as this protects them from being attacked again by their abusers. I also felt it was a good idea to help victims of sexual and domestic violence in navigating the legal system since most victims are influenced by their friends and families to use out-of-court settlements, which I feel has contributed to increased cases of violence as perpetrators are not punished severely as they should when the cases are solved using out-of-court settlements.
Experience with the People I was Assigned to Work With
At Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House, I was assigned to work with mental health therapists. Our role was to encourage, empower, and give hope to the victims that everything would be alright. To ensure that we worked effectively and executed our roles as expected, we held meetings to discuss the needs of our clients. Particularly, we discussed the mental effects of domestic and sexual violence and ways of helping the victims to avoid mental distress. During these discussions, I felt that different people were impacted differently by the abuse and needed personalized treatment. However, since I was not a professional mental health therapist, I felt as if some of the professionals I was working with considered me incompetent in the field. I differed with majority of them. For instance, they refuted the idea of providing personalized treatment arguing that providing different classes for the victims would be expensive and time-consuming due to the high number of victims that visited the organization every day and suggested that offering the therapy services to people as groups would also be effective.
The meeting involved a discussion of various things relating to the treatment of mental illnesses. The mental health therapists explained to me different types of psychotherapy and informed me that psychotherapy is effective and appropriate in a wide range of conditions. We also discussed the benefits and drawbacks of different types of psychotherapy, including behavioral, cognitive, interpersonal, psychoanalysis, supportive, and psychodynamic psychotherapies. After the discussion, we concluded that Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was the most effective treatment for various mental sicknesses such as bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, and anxiety. The professional therapists also shared with me the different psychoactive drugs that are effective and widely utilized by psychiatrists and other medical doctors. Although I did know depression was the most common mental sickness affecting victims of domestic and sexual violence, I did not know the different classes of depressants used to treat depression. I was introduced to were Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), Norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), and Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs). Before the meeting, I was not aware of the most effective psychotherapy for treating mental illnesses. I also shared with my team members some of the practices that I had applied in real-life situations, such as behavioral treatments.
At the beginning of the meeting, I felt like I possessed very minimal knowledge about treatments for mental illnesses. The discussion of the different types of psychotherapy treatments for mental illnesses was very informative. I learned these types in detail and when they are applied. I also learned the benefits and drawbacks of different psychotherapy treatments for mental illnesses. Before the meeting, I thought Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) was the most effective type of psychotherapy. IPT is a diagnosis and time-limited targeted intervention for treating psychiatric disorders (Rajhans et al., 2020). After the meeting, I realized that CBT was the most effective treatment for various mental sicknesses. Also, although before the meeting, I believed our clients needed different types of psychotherapy depending on the type of mental illnesses, I changed this perception after the meeting since I realized that most treatment plans are intended to deal with a variety of mental illnesses. Thus, I agreed with the other professional that there was no need to have different treatment plans for every victim.
Reflecting on my experience at Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House, I must say the interaction was a learning process for everyone in the department I was serving in. We all learned from each other during the meeting since the discussions were open, and everyone was free to share their views and ideas. I also believe my team was very helpful to the agency since we helped the victims of sexual and domestic violence to deal with the mental distress that they were going through following their abuse and made it easier for them to open up and share their experiences. Research reveals that most sexual and domestic violence cases always go unreported due to various reasons such as stigmatization, shame, fear of retaliation, and economic dependence on the abusers (Wallace et al., 2019). The meetings were also useful in improving my communication skills and building confidence. Working with people from diverse backgrounds also improved my interpersonal skills.
Although we held various meetings discussing issues related to mental sickness, our last meeting was unique. The meeting was organized to bid farewell to all individuals who were on their internship and learning experience and who had completed their term. During this meeting, I had mixed feelings since I knew I would always miss the team that I had been working with. For sure, goodbyes are the hardest parts of our lives. I had bonded with the team members, and now we were more of friends rather than colleagues. During the meeting, I was complimented for playing an active role in the team and being respectful to all team members. When I was given a chance to address my team members, I appreciated each of them and asked for forgiveness if I had unconsciously wronged any of them.
Service Learning Experience Relating to the Application of Core Social Work Values and Functions
My overall experience at Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House was positive. In my opinion, all the six core social work values were upheld in the agency. First, the service core work value was demonstrated by helping protect victims of sexual and domestic violence and helping the mothers to take care of their children in a safe environment. The basic needs of the victims who were sheltered by Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House were provided, and their educational and emotional needs were addressed. Victims were also provided with safety planning services and helped with navigating the legal system. Secondly, social justice was upheld by the agency whereby victims were helped to become the voice in such situations and were protected from their abusers. The dignity and worth of a person were upheld by employees being mindful of the victims’ individual differences in behavior and thinking and the ethnicity and cultural diversity. Furthermore, the importance of human relations was acknowledged since, according to the policies of the agency, a lack of relationship between the mother or a child with the social workers then. These individuals would not feel safe when they are left to go back to society. Also, integrity was upheld in the organization. At Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House, information about the victims was kept confidential. Lastly, competence advocates were upheld in the agency, whereby the child advocates and mental health therapists hired by the agency were professionals in their field.
Also, the core social functions were applied at Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House. Firstly engagement was applied since employees held daily and weekly meetings to ensure that the mothers who had been sexually assaulted and those who experienced domestic violence were well prepared to enroll for a job and find a new home for themselves and their children. Also, assessments were provided to ensure that everything was running as expected. For example, after receiving mental treatment, victims were assessed to determine the state of their mental well-being. Furthermore, planning in the organization was observed on a daily basis to ensure that the set goals and targets were met. In relation to the implementation of core social work function, the professionals who had been hired to serve in the agency applied what they had learned and put it into practice to effectively help the victims of sexual and domestic violence overcome their situation. Also, workers evaluated and monitored the victims in the agency to ensure that they were progressively improving and were able to complete their daily tasks. After they were found capable of doing the same, they were placed into their new homes. Supportive counseling was also provided to the victims to empower and encourage them to face their situations bravery. Lastly, graduated disengagement was practiced where a family advocate worked with the school the affected children were going to ensure the child’s family needs were known.
During this learning experience, I realized that I was good at transferring the class gained knowledge into practice. Since we had read the core social work values and functions in a class, I could easily remember them and apply them in real-life situations. Also, the experience served to dispel some stereotypes that I previously held. Previously, I believed that men should always be treated as superior to their wives. However, as I continued to interact with individuals in the agency, I realized that such stereotypes promote sexual and domestic violence perpetrated against women. Before the experience, I believed that opening up about sexual and domestic violence issues was a good thing to do, and it helped victims heal from mental distress they may have been subjected to. Through this experience, this personal belief was affirmed. Also, during this learning experience, I reaffirmed the importance placed on the core social work values since upholding these values allowed the agency to run smoothly and achieve the set goals.
Conclusion
The chosen serving learning agency is Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House. This agency was chosen since it deals with sexual and domestic violence issues that adversely impact the larger society. Particularly, domestic and sexual violence are associated with significant mental and physical health effects on women and their children. Examples of mental health issues include anxiety, depression, personality disorders, alcohol or substance abuse, eating and sleeping disorders, suicidal thoughts, social dysfunction, posttraumatic stress disorder, and feeling of hopelessness. Physical effects of sexual and domestic violence include bruises, bite marks, cuts, broken bones, concussions, penetrative injuries, miscarriages, loss of vision and hearing, hypertension, broken bones, and sexually transmitted infections. It has been established that culture contributes significantly to how certain people and societies perceive, view, and process domestic and sexual violence acts. Feminist cultures accord equal powers to men and females, hence preventing sexual and domestic violence cases. Cases of sexual and domestic violence against women are more likely to occur in cultures where males are viewed as superior and women are perceived as inferior. Besides, cultures that support the objectification of women and make them look inferior to males contribute to a higher rate of sexual violence. During the orientation to the agency’s policies and procedures, I felt that the organization had established effective ways of helping the victims. At the agency, I was assigned to work with mental health therapists, and our team was tasked with encouraging, empowering, and giving hope to victims that everything would be alright. Interaction with the team was very informative to every other member of the team and me. The various core social work values and functions were upheld in the organization, which helped in the smooth running of the organization.
References
Alejo, K. (2014). Long-term physical and mental health effects of domestic violence. Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science, 5(1), 82-98.
Esquivel–Santos, M. G. (2020). The Spousal Violence on Women in Cabanatuan City.
Kalra, G., & Bhugra, D. (2013). Sexual violence against women: Understanding cross-cultural intersections. Indian journal of psychiatry, 55(3), 244-249. https://dx.doi.org/10.4103%2F0019-5545.117139.
Moraes, S. D. T. D. A., Fonseca, A. M. D., Bagnoli, V. R., Soares Júnior, J. M., Moraes, E. M. D., Neves, E. M. D., … & Baracat, E. C. (2012). Impact of domestic and sexual violence on women’s health. Journal of Human Growth and Development, 22(2), 253-258.
Rajhans, P., Hans, G., Kumar, V., & Chadda, R. K. (2020). Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Patients with Mental Disorders. Indian journal of psychiatry, 62(Suppl 2), S201. https://dx.doi.org/10.4103%2Fpsychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_771_19Rudman, L. A., & Glick, P. (2021). The social psychology of gender: How power and intimacy shape gender relations. Guilford Publications.
Sardinha, L., Maheu-Giroux, M., Stöckl, H., Meyer, S. R., & García-Moreno, C. (2022). Global, regional, and national prevalence estimates of physical or sexual intimate partner violence against women in 2018. The Lancet, 399(10327), 803-813. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02664-7Wallace, W. C., Gibson, C., Gordon, N., Lakhan, R., Mahabir, J., & Seetahal, C. (2019). Domestic violence: Intimate partner violence victimization non-reporting to the police in Trinidad and Tobago. Justice Policy Journal, 16(1), 1-30.
Service and manufacturing environment
Service and manufacturing environment
Students name
Affiliation
Instructor
Course
date
A manufacturing business requires raw materials to start its manufacturing processes
(Pinedo, 2005). The suppliers supplies the raw materials to the manufacturers. In this case there is sugars and water supply for the process of making Coca-Cola products. The manufacturers then starts the manufacturing procedure for the various soft drinks in different segmentation. The assemblers assemble the products from respective segmentation and sort’s them as different products. These products are divided into two thus, carbonated and non-carbonated drinks. The final chain happens when the product reaches the retailers who find markets in different places and makes sales to the consumers to give them satisfaction (Young, 2008).
Manufacturing process map
383857530333952743200300482016954503014345
A business firm requires accounting services to ensure that the company is on the right track. Without this services a company may end up failing or expensing and even going into debts (Bhatt, 2010). Public Accountants firms has bookkeepers that offer service to the company’s clients. The services they provide include payroll, billing, monthly and quarterly taxes, trial balances, ledger entries, bank reconciliations as well as accounts payable and receivable. The book keepers provide financial statements that are later presented to the customer. Accounting firms provide certified public accountants to run a firm and ensure perfect financial statements, client’s budgets and federal, local and state tax returns are properly made. The accounting firm offers business valuation and auditing services, determines client’s cash flow and monitors depreciations of company’s assets. In addition, it may offer forensic accounting to companies that has fraud issues as well as auditing information systems. Moreover, accounting firms provides advice to clients on financial strategies. Thus, they offer consultation of how to update a business plan and methods of offloading a client’s tax burden. The accounting firms may specialize in risk management as well as focus on financial investments management. The firm also ensures all the clients are aware of any regulatory changes. The accounting firm openly invoices publicly traded companies and their auditors to fund its operations.
40671751393190409575014027154076700716915
Differences
The main difference between manufacturers and service firms is the intangibility of the output. In accounting business the output of a service for instance consulting, bookkeeping is intangible while the Coca-Cola company output products are tangible. Service firms such as accounting firms do not hold inventory instead, they create a service whenever a client need it. Unlike manufacturers, inventory levels are essential to forecasts of market demand. Inventory is a cost for Coca-Cola manufacturing organization (Sherman & Zhu, 2006). The accounting firms does not produce any service until the customer needs it, however the firm designs and creates the content and scope of the service in advance in case of any order. The company offers 12hours of consultancy, 10hours of installation and 14hours of design. On the other hand, Manufacturers produces goods without having any customer order. An accounting firm only recruits Certified Public accountants. The Service offered is labor intensive and cannot be automated, However, Coca-Cola Manufacturers can automate their production processes to reduce labor requirements. For accounting firms there is no need for a physical production site. The accountants can deliver their services from any location. On the other hand The Coca-Cola Company must have a physical location for their production and stock holding operations (Heesen, 2012).
Similarity
Both The service and manufacturing companies create mission and vision statements for how the organization shall run and perceived by customers. Despite the fact that the service provider and manufacturer desires to lead the market in its specific industry, they both answer different questions and articulate different strategies when planning and managing on how an organization shall run (Pinedo, 2005). Accounting firms and Coca-Cola firms face many similar issues which affects the end result of the operation. For instance they both face cost control issues. Thus the Manufacturing operations must find the suppliers of raw materials at the lowest cost with the highest quality .Likewise, the service operations’ must keep low the indirect cost of providing services so as to provide competitive prices to the clients and still make a profit. Both service and manufacturing firms must forecast on demand for services and products as well as stay competitive in the marketplace.
Variability
Most Service firms struggle with a reality that is foreign to manufacturing firms: Thus the Customers tend “disrupt” with their operations. For a firm to deliver constant quality at sustainable cost, then it must learn how to manage that involvement (Emrouznejad & Cabanda, 2014). Available variability affects service providing firms since customers avail themselves at different times. When a customer arrives (available variability), he makes a request(request variability), Engages in the process demanding some level of capability( Capability variability) and effort,( Effort& subject variability) as well as assessing the experience in accord to personal preferences. It may be easier for service firm dealing with a narrow band of variety however may be insufficient for a wide band variability.
References
Bhatt, R. (2010). Services marketing. New Delhi: Commonwealth.
Emrouznejad, A., & Cabanda, E. (2014). Managing service productivity: Using frontier
Efficiency methodologies and multi-criteria decision making for improving service performance. Heidelberg: Springer.
Heesen, B. (2012). Effective strategy execution: Improving performance with business
Intelligence. Berlin: Springer Berlin.
Pinedo, M. (2005). Planning and scheduling in manufacturing and services. New York, NY:
Springer.
Sherman, H. D., & Zhu, J. (2006). Service productivity management: Improving service
Performance using data envelopment analysis (DEA). New York: Springer.
Young, T. (2008). Knowledge management for services, operations and manufacturing. Oxford:
Chandos Pub.
Servant Leadership
Servant Leadership
Student’s Name
Course and Code
Instructor’s Name
Submission Date
Servant Leadership
1. Introduction
The human service industry, like any other organization, relies on strong leadership for management. Non-profit organizations, according to Rusell (2016) have a greater necessity for exceptional executives and governance than for-profit organizations. Individuals have a greater aspirations of service firms, that will be heavily criticized by the society if by any chance mismanaged. Personal well-being and the well-being of the society in general are aided by the accessibility to human services of high quality (Coetzer, Bussin, & Geldenhuys, 2017). As such, a good style of leadership plays a critical role in the human service sector.
2. Merits of Different Leadership Styles
I have held a number of leadership positions in my workplace. I held the position of a department head, responsible for handling daily operations in my department, reporting progress, and passing down information from management. I was also responsible for attending team meetings with the management and trying to pass down the message on performance and expectations back to my team. I have also been a local volunteer in the community responsible for coordinating charity work including blood donations and giving back to the community. In these situations, I found different leadership styles to be applicable including autocratic leadership, servant leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership approaches.
In the autocratic leadership approach, the leader is the primary decision making without making or considering other perspectives of people in the structure of decision-making. Every other individual under the top decision-maker has no opinion on decisions relating to daily running, strategy, or operations (Shao, Feng, & Hu, 2017). They are required to follow orders in accomplishing targets and the leader has complete responsibility on results. The merit of this style is that it does not lead to communication gaps because the leader is the primary decision maker and the levels of effectiveness are very high. Time needed to make decisions is very little and crisis situations and emergencies are handled with more effectiveness.
In the transformational leadership style, the leader is in constant attempts to explore the social changes and attitudes of employees when making decisions. Transformational leaders prepare employees for organizational changes and creates an environment that allows the leader to weigh the benefits of the changes before implementation. Therefore, a more interactive approach is preferred compared to a single decision-making structure. The merit of this approach is that it encourages group participation in decision-making and the employees are motivated to achieve targets (Al Khajeh, 2018). There is more interaction that enables the leader to weigh advantages or disadvantages of an issue in the organization. The open communication approach is beneficial to organizations. However, it may lead to slower decision making or poor reception of ideas if employees are not consulted.
Transactional leaders prefer a supervisory role in leading others. Rewards are offered for good results and performance and punishment accorded for poor performance and results. The target is provided for every employee to follow with the consequences (positive and negative) well-articulated before a project, task, or target. The merit of this style is that productivity is significantly higher. Doubts are eliminated on tasks and the decision-making process reduced to a few entities.
Servant leadership is discussed in detail below.
3. Preferred Personal Leadership Profile and Style
In my experience in different leadership roles, I found that servant leadership worked best to motivate people. Several ideas have influenced me to be a leader following the characteristics of a servant leader. Among them are being of service to others and promoting a sense of community.
4. Merits of Servant Leadership
In my experience as a department head and community leader dealing with people from various backgrounds, I found that there are several merits associated with servant leadership. A manager who prioritizes service and has a servant’s spirit is a priceless asset. Servant leadership does have a number of benefits that can help people and the firm;
4.1 Helps in Team Building and Increasing Commitment
Servant leaders reduce employee disharmony and disconnection, resulting in significant employee dispute. It produces a win-win situation for the whole group. It is the role of a servant leader to assist every member of the team in contributing depending on his or her specific abilities and expertise. Lastly, it enhances the company’s core “work together” culture.
4.2 Creates a Positive Culture
When it comes to setting objectives and organizational goals, servant leadership encompasses the entire group. Every person seems to have a say for every decision that are made. Servant Leadership creates a favourable culture in almost any firm due to its ideals, and it empowers people to determine their main performance metrics.
4.3 Helps in Better and Effective Management of Change
Change management that is done well develops a plan for the future. When a leader uses the servant style of leadership, he or she ends up deciding the firm’s objective and goals on the basis of the opinions of the employees. As a result, when personnel organize their destiny, they will be better equipped to handle their professions and achieve an optimal balance between work and life.
5. Theories that Resonate with My Style: The Trait Theory
In my experience as community leader and a department head in my workplace, I was not aware at the time that I preferred a servant leadership style. I was confronted with a number of issues such as leading individuals who are not motivated to do as they are required. Particularly, this was a conspicuous problem when it came to volunteer work. Donations and coordinating people to help in charity events was significantly difficult. People seldom go over and beyond to do things that do not benefit them. This is where I discovered the power of servant leadership and how well it works to identify issues and solve them.
There is one theory that resonated with me the most, that is, the trait theory of leadership. Arguably, the ‘great man myth’ led to the trait theory of leadership, which highlighted leadership characteristics that enabled leaders to lead with absolute authority (Gandolfi & Stone, 2018). The notion of the great man as a leader reveal little about the interpersonal qualities required to lead effectively. In a community whereby dominance, coercive techniques, and individuality are greater ideals than humility, cooperation, and power sharing as well as authority with everyone, the servant’s selflessness and gentleness are “considered as weak and ineffective.”
6. Learning and Development Opportunities and Experiences of Benefit to My Style
Past experiences in positions of leadership indicate that a leader who focuses on the needs of other people before their own has a better chance of influencing and inspiring them to become followers. In my experience, I found that people are not willing to step out of their comfort zones especially where there are no motivations in terms of finances, salaries, or academic gains. For example, being a liaison community leader meant coordinating community events, the local calendar on special occasions, with the national schedules to ensure that charity activities did not interfere with the stipulations of the law or other major events. In this role, I found that people need a leader to see direction. A servant leader is a better choice because then people are able to identify with his style and to understand their roles. Servant leadership develops ones skills in terms of being an empathetic listener, better communicating, making decisions from a present position, providing guidance through example, and being able to inspire through leadership.
As a part of my individual development, I found that I made people feel valued. I have, over the years, gathered servant characteristics including awareness, listening skills, stewardship, foresight, empathy, and conceptualization. I have strong skills in relation to authenticity, compassion, contribution, creativity, fairness, honesty, humour, openness, and trustworthiness. I perceive these skills and knowledge to be the most important in regard to motivating and inspiring people to achieve set goals.
However, I needed to develop firmness in decision making and speedier decision making because I lacked these skills. These skills will be built by acquiring boldness, authority, and an ability to strike a balance. To acquire more knowledge as a servant leader, I will follow complementary leadership mentoring. This will allow me to be paired with mentors and leaders who have stronger competencies in areas that I am weak. These areas include the ability to develop others and employee engagement. Leadership mentoring will help to reduce these weaknesses. I will also practice job shadowing to get a feel of how leaders in my field approach issues relating to authority and boldness and how they achieve a balanced leadership style.
The leadership development strategy will commence immediately and be completed after two months. The success measures will be conducted monthly and at the end of the mentoring program. To achieve this, an assessment survey will be performed. A formal appraisal from the mentors will also be conducted combined with a peer review of my individual progress.
Servant leaders are much like any other leader when it comes being aggressive, enthusiastic, and determined (Gandolfi, Stone, & Deno, 2017). They simply have a distinct focus and collection of motivations that govern their decision-making and management. In reality, the central emphasis on the subordinate is what distinguishes servant leadership from several other leadership styles.
7. Conclusion
The emphasis a servant leader puts on the wellbeing and advancement of everybody within the firm is the essential to engaging people. The servant leader is motivated by the fact that he or she seeks out any chance to positively influence workers’ behaviour first, thereby establishing a difference in people’s lives. It is a ‘natural calling’ of servant leadership, that is always a commitment for the purpose of others’ professional and personal progress, rather than for selfish enrichment. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that servant leadership be better defined to include other aspects not only in leadership but also in management.
References
Al Khajeh, E. H. (2018). Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal
of Human Resources Management Research, 2018, 1-10.
Bilal, A., Siddiquei, A., Asadullah, M. A., Awan, H. M., & Asmi, F. (2020). Servant
leadership: a new perspective to explore project leadership and team effectiveness. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Coetzer, M. F., Bussin, M., & Geldenhuys, M. (2017). The functions of a servant
leader. Administrative Sciences, 7(1), 5.
Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, leadership styles, and servant
leadership. Journal of Management Research, 18(4), 261-269.
Gandolfi, F., Stone, S., & Deno, F. (2017). Servant Leadership: An Ancient Style with 21 st
Century Relevance. Review of International Comparative Management/Revista de Management Comparat International, 18(4).
Shao, Z., Feng, Y., & Hu, Q. (2017). Impact of top management leadership styles on ERP
assimilation and the role of organizational learning. Information & Management, 54(7), 902-919.