This document compares and contrasts servant leadership and empowerment leadership. Servant leadership focuses on helping subordinates succeed by focusing on their needs and teaching them values, while empowerment leadership gives subordinates power to control their work. Both styles can increase employee effectiveness and satisfaction by empowering employees and building trust. While empowerment can also be used individually, servant leadership relies on a leader-follower relationship where the leader ensures the subordinate's growth. When trust is broken, leaders may need to use a more directive autocratic style temporarily to regain control.

1. Servant Leadership and Empowerment Leadership: The Relationship Between Leader and Subordinate !1
Introduction!
! This paper will discuss the relationship between leaders and subordinates by
comparing and contrasting servant leadership and empowerment leadership. In my
opinion servant leadership is finding out how to help the subordinate and empowerment
leadership is enabling a subordinate to take control of his/her own job. Subordinates
can become leaders even if they do not have a management title. This paper will
discuss how empowerment is a part of the servant leadership theory, but it is also a
separate intrinsic leadership theory as well.!
!
Theory One!
! Empowerment is defined as a transfer of power to the subordinates, allowing
them to make their own decisions and take control of their job position within the
organization. Subordinates that are empowered tend to take command of their jobs and
focus on high contributions to the organization. By empowering the subordinate, the
leader allows the subordinates to satisfy their need of self-efficacy which, in turn,
motivates individual subordinates to feel effective at their task (Daft, 2011). Empowering
a subordinate can increase creativity and effectiveness leading to higher job
satisfaction. ! In the theory of empowerment, leaders use intrinsic motivation to fulfill the
subordinates’ needs to be effective (Zhang & Bartol, 2010). According to the research
done in the article, “Linking empowerment leadership and employee creativity...” (Zhang
& Bartol, 2010), we can see that by using empowerment, subordinates feel more
comfortable in their jobs and display higher amounts of creativity. The research states
that empowerment leadership implements the conditions that enable the sharing of
power (Zhang & Bartol, 2010). Leaders need to provide feedback, provide knowledge

2. Servant Leadership and Empowerment Leadership: The Relationship Between Leader and Subordinate !2
and skills, enable decision making, define the subordinates’ jobs, and provide rewards
for executing their job effectively (Daft 2011). When a leader follows these five steps to
empowerment, the subordinate is able to self-manage the tasks and focus on becoming
highly effective within the organization.!
! Because empowerment uses the intrinsic motivation, empowerment is an
individualized leadership style (Zhang & Bartol, 2010). Subordinates do not need to
have a leader/subordinate relationship to perform as an empowered leader. In the book
“You Don’t Need a Title To Be a Leader” Sanborn explains that empowered leadership
can be used in any job at any level of an organization (Sanborn, 2006). The philosophy
is that individuals can take it upon themselves to be a leader without a title or job
specifically associated with a leadership role (Sanborn, 2006). By focusing on what one
can contribute to the world, the individuals empower themselves to be positive leaders.
Individuals can use the six principles of empowerment to empower their lives and
become effective leaders themselves. !
! The six principles described by Sanborn are: 1) the Power of Self Mastery where
individuals take it upon themselves to positively influence the world; 2) The Power of
Focus on positive contributions to other people; 3) The Power of The People is
understanding that working with people and helping others is leadership, rather than
controlling or dictating other peoples’ behaviors; 4) The Power of Persuasion is
understanding how communication can affect people and we should practice positive
communication; 5) The Power of Execution is implementing the empowered leadership
principles and contributing to the world; 6) The Power of Giving is to teach others to
follow the principles and to become empowered in their own lives (Sanborn, 2006).

3. Servant Leadership and Empowerment Leadership: The Relationship Between Leader and Subordinate !3
Empowerment as intrinsic leadership prepares individuals to lead in their personal and
professional lives and focuses on external contributions rather than on personal needs.!
!
Theory Two! !
! Servant leadership is defined as an upside down leadership style in which the
leader sets aside self-interests to help subordinates develop their effectiveness in their
job and achieve success within the organization (Daft 2011). Servant leadership is
based on the relationship between leader and subordinate and is built on honesty,
integrity and equality. A servant leader often is the teacher and once the subordinate
understands the task, the subordinate only uses the leader as a resource to help
accomplish the task. If the subordinate encounters a problem, the leader will ask the
subordinate what help is needed, rather then making decision for the subordinate. !
! This question, “How can I help you to do your job better?”, is the fundamental
philosophy of the servant leader. For a servant leader to be an effective leader he/she
needs to set aside self interest and teach the subordinates his/her core values so that
the subordinates are empowered with the same values. !
! There are seven dimensions of a servant leader as described in the article,
“Examining the Impact of Servant Leadership on Salesperson’s Turnover
Intention” (Jaramillo et al. 2009). The seven behaviors are: “Relationship with
Subordinate”, “Empowering Subordinates”, “Helping Subordinates Grow”, “Behaving
Ethically”, “Having Conceptual Skills”, “Putting Subordinates First”, and “Creates Values
Outside Organization” (Jaramillo et al. 2009). We can see that empowerment is the
second servant leadership dimension which, when combined with the values of the
servant leader, creates higher job satisfaction (Jaramillo et al, 2009). !

4. Servant Leadership and Empowerment Leadership: The Relationship Between Leader and Subordinate !4
!
Discussion!
! Servant leadership and empowerment leadership share a common connection in
that the subordinates are given the freedom of self-managing their jobs. This, in turn,
gives the subordinates the motivation to provide their own effectiveness within the
organization.!
! In the book, “The One Minute Manager”, the story depicts how a servant leader
creates a highly effective empowered work force by teaching subordinates his values.
The one minute manager uses many of the seven basic dimensions to establish the
working relationship and teach subordinates how to become effective and develop into
one minute managers themselves. The key behaviors used by the one minute manager
are empowerment, building a relationship, and conceptualizing the goals for the task.
The one minute manager teaches the subordinate what he expects, how to meet his
expectations, and then monitors the subordinates’ progress to ensure that he/she is
learning how to be effective. The one minute manager monitors the progress of
subordinates at the beginning of each task and makes it a point to highlight positive
behaviors giving subordinates praise for their accomplishments. However, if there is a
bad behavior the one minute manager reprimands the subordinate when the mistake
happens and reinforces with positive encouragement after the reprimand. By following
the one minute manager steps of goal setting, praising, and reprimanding, the
subordinates learn to understand the process, why it is effective, and how to avoid
negative behavior in the future. By teaching subordinates this process, the one minute
manager is teaching his subordinates to be empowered. The servant leader has to set

5. Servant Leadership and Empowerment Leadership: The Relationship Between Leader and Subordinate !5
aside his/her own personal interests to teach, grow, and empower the subordinates to
match the values of the servant leader and the organization.!
! The two theories of leadership are very similar in that they both focus on
teaching and developing subordinates to manage themselves. Servant leadership and
empowerment theories are philosophies a leader uses to build a relationship with the
subordinate. !
! The benefits of both servant leadership and empowered leadership are that both
provide high job satisfaction and high contributions from the subordinate to the
organization. In the article, “Servant Leadership on Salesperson’s Turnover Intention,”
servant leadership increases salesperson’s contribution and decreases turnover
(Jaramillo et al, 2009). The article goes on to explain that by matching the values of the
subordinates to the servant leader, and the organization, effectiveness does increase.
Empowerment shows similar results in the Zhang & Bartol (2010) article, “Linking
Empowerment Leadership and Employee Creativity...”, whereby creative contributions
by the subordinates increase as the empowered relationship grows. In both articles
subordinates increase effectiveness, stay loyal to the company, and display increased
job satisfaction. Servant leadership and empowerment leadership can be used to create
a highly effective working environment for the leader and the subordinates. !
! The difference between servant leadership and empowerment leadership is that
empowerment leadership can also function as personal leadership motivation.
Subordinates do not need a leader to empower them. Subordinates can learn, grow,
and display empowered leadership by focusing on how to positively affect their world
around them. For servant leadership to exist there still is a leader and subordinate

6. Servant Leadership and Empowerment Leadership: The Relationship Between Leader and Subordinate !6
relationship with the leader monitoring and maintaining the effectiveness of the
subordinate. !
! The two leaderships can be ineffective at different points within the relationships.
As a new leader/subordinate relationship is being formed, the effectiveness of
empowerment is very low, because a trusting relationship has not had time to develop.
Therefore, the leader feels the need to Task-Manage the subordinate. With both
theories, trust between the leader and the subordinate needs to be established and built
upon to make the relationship effective. If the trust is broken, then the leader will find
empowerment and servant leadership to be ineffective and will have to default to an
Autocratic leadership style to regain effectiveness. Both servant leadership and
empowerment depend greatly on the relationship, which can be fragile if not respected
by both leader and subordinate.!
!
Conclusion!
! In conclusion, servant leadership and empowerment both can be used to
increase effectiveness and build a positive work environment. Both theories are based
on the values and relationships between the leader and his/her subordinates. If the
relationship is built on honesty, integrity and equality, then both theories create
hardworking, loyal subordinates. However, if the relationship loses trust then a leader
must resort to an Autocratic leadership style until the trust can be re-established.
Empowerment is a part a servant leadership. However, empowerment can also be used
as an individual leadership style. This paper has discussed the relationship between
leaders and subordinates and how leaders can increase effectiveness by building trust
with subordinates.!

7. Servant Leadership and Empowerment Leadership: The Relationship Between Leader and Subordinate !7
References!
!Blanchard, K., & Johnson, S., (2003) The one minute manager, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. !
pp 11-107.!
!Daft, R.L. (2011) The leadership experience, fifth edition. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning, pp !
176-180, 245-247!
!Jaramilo, F., Grisaffe, D.B., Chonoko L.B., Roberts J.A., (2009) Examining the impact of servant !
leadership on salesperson’s turnover intentions. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales ! Management,
Vol. XXIX, no 4., pp. 351-365.!
!Sanborn M. (2006) You don’t need a title to be a leader, New York: Random House, Inc. pp. 25-90.!
!Zhang, X., & Bartol, K.M. (2010) Linking empowerment leadership and employee creativity: The influence
! of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy
! of Management Journal, Vol 53. No 1, pp.107-128. !
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