Servant Leadership and Faith-Based Organizations: Exploring Follower and Leader Perceptions
Abstract
Effective leadership is vital to the function and success of any organization. This simple reality has prompted copious research into the subject of leadership and its practice in organizational contexts. In 1977, Robert K. Greenleaf stated his opinion that leaders should seek to serve others first, coining the term “servant leadership” (Greenleaf, 1977). Since then, leadership development practitioners have sought to further define servant leadership and understand its use and effectiveness across organizational contexts. Using the Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ) developed by Liden et al. (2008), this study sought to add to the body of literature on servant leadership by examining its practice in faith-based organizations (FBOs). The researcher sought to examine both leader self-perception and follower perception of servant leadership behaviors in FBOs. The SLQ was delivered to both leaders and followers. Their scores across seven constructs of servant leadership were evaluated and compared to discover any significant differences. Results from the data analysis revealed no significant differences between leader and follower perceptions across the seven servant leadership constructs in FBOs. However, significant differences were found between leader and follower responses on two items of the SLQ. These items concerned the leader’s ability to perceive workplace issues and the amount of freedom followers felt to make important work decisions independent of their leader. Based on these findings, recommendations for further servant leadership education, training, and development practices were offered.
Subject
Servant LeadershipFaith-Based Organizations
Leadership
Followership
Education
Training
Development
Citation
Coyle, David P (2022). Servant Leadership and Faith-Based Organizations: Exploring Follower and Leader Perceptions. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /197210.