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Full-Text Articles in Business

The Servicemaster Company As A Model For Bam Startups, Larry W. Sharp Jan 2022

The Servicemaster Company As A Model For Bam Startups, Larry W. Sharp

Pollard Research Fellowship Papers

A template/typology for Business as Mission startups using the redemptive methodologies of ServiceMaster, which focused on the people-first development of the employee, with a focus on areas of the world which restrict free speech.


Managing Diversity At Servicemaster, Maria Lai-Ling Lam Jan 2022

Managing Diversity At Servicemaster, Maria Lai-Ling Lam

Pollard Research Fellowship Papers

ServiceMaster developed their capacity of managing diversity in diverse global workforce, workplace, and marketplace through their deep-rooted four objectives: Honor God in all we do, help people to develop, pursue excellence, and grow profitability. The leaders used these four objectives to make quality decisions in the midst of differences, similarities, and the related tensions and complexities. The leaders practiced the concept of “shingles on a roof”, exemplified the characteristics of diversity-mature individuals, advocated the integration-learning perspective of diversity, developed religious inclusivity, promoted minorities and women as leaders, developed a teaching and learning organization culture. Managing diversity at ServiceMaster were embedded …


Management As A Liberal Art? Exploring The Connections, Laura G. Singleton Jan 2020

Management As A Liberal Art? Exploring The Connections, Laura G. Singleton

Pollard Research Fellowship Papers

Essay exploring Peter Drucker's claim for the field of management as a liberal art, comparing his writing with works on liberal education by John Henry Newman and Martha Nussbaum, and drawing upon examples of management practice from C. William Pollard of ServiceMaster.


Servant Leadership At Servicemaster: A Commitment To Love, Development, And Diversity, Helen H. Chung Jan 2020

Servant Leadership At Servicemaster: A Commitment To Love, Development, And Diversity, Helen H. Chung

Pollard Research Fellowship Papers

In recent years, servant leadership has gained currency as a promising pathway for inclusive organizations, where individuals can experience a sense of belonging and participate in decision-making. Given the framework’s significant attitudinal and behavioral demands, potential servant-leaders may need to consider the costs and benefits of the servant leadership mantle. Drawing from a conservation of resources theory, I propose that both individuals and organizations will increasingly need to consider the personal and environmental conditions (i.e., resource caravans) that support servant leader behaviors. Specifically, I examine servant leadership from a critical lens, asking the question of how women and members of …


Management As A Christian Liberal Art, Daniel Castelo Jan 2019

Management As A Christian Liberal Art, Daniel Castelo

Pollard Research Fellowship Papers

C. William Pollard, the long-time serving past CEO of The ServiceMaster Company, was often inclined to remark that “management is a liberal art.” This is a phrase attributable to one of Pollard’s friends and consultants, Peter Drucker, the pioneer of the academic discipline of management. Several features of the phrase are worth noting. First of all, few managers or specialists in the field would be inclined to speak of management in this way; therefore, the phrase stands as a kind of anomaly, as an odd remark in the face of “conventional” thinking in which profit and the maximization of shareholder …


Re-Personalising Work And Business: Bill Pollard And Servicemaster's Narrative Of Continuity Through Change, Gordon Preece Jan 2019

Re-Personalising Work And Business: Bill Pollard And Servicemaster's Narrative Of Continuity Through Change, Gordon Preece

Pollard Research Fellowship Papers

This paper addresses the Re-Personalising of Work and Business by Bill Pollard, the long-serving CEO and Chair of the U.S. and global service industry giant ServiceMaster. It uses two frameworks to shed greater light on this story. The first framework is Michael Goldberg’s Narratival Ethics Audit, which explores the role of character/virtue reinforced through connections to story via rituals and traditions. The second framework is the Cambridge UK-based Relationship Foundation’s measure of relational proximity in terms of equality, continuity, multiplexity etc. The mega-theme running through these frameworks, as largely maintained and carried by Pollard and ServiceMaster, is that of the …


Honoring God And Developing People: Servicemaster, Bill Pollard And The Heart Of The Corporation, Darrell Cosden Jan 2019

Honoring God And Developing People: Servicemaster, Bill Pollard And The Heart Of The Corporation, Darrell Cosden

Pollard Research Fellowship Papers

This study examines the model of faith-business integration developed at ServiceMaster, and relatedly Bill Pollard’s role in developing and implementing it. My argument is that ServiceMaster’s celebrated 4 corporate goals functioned both as a mission statement defining the core of the business, but at the same time also as “philosophy of Christian ministry” infusing their core business with the Christian faith. As used, the 4 goals functioned as a faith-business integration model in its own right, deserving a place alongside other models and thereby deserving reflective analysis and evaluation. To that end, this study examines how the model came to …