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administrative sciences

Review

The Functions of a Servant Leader

Michiel Frederick Coetzer *, Mark Bussin and Madelyn Geldenhuys

Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa; [email protected] (M.B.); [email protected] (M.G.) * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +27-79-896-1988

Academic Editors: Dirk van Dierendonck, Sigrun Gunnarsdóttir and Kathleen A. Patterson Received: 13 January 2017; Accepted: 20 February 2017; Published: 24 February 2017

Abstract: Servant leadership has been researched internationally and various types of favourable individual, team, and organisational outcomes have been linked to the construct. Different servant leadership measures have been validated to date and a clear distinction has been made between the theory of servant leadership and other leadership theories. However, it seems that research on the implementation of servant leadership within an organisation is still in need. The main functions of a servant leader are not yet conceptualised in the literature to help researchers or practitioners to implement servant leadership successfully within organisations. After conducting a systematic literature review, the main functions of a servant leader were identified. These functions were clustered into strategic servant leadership and operational servant leadership and supported by servant leadership characteristics and competencies as defined by current literature. The results of this study might help practitioners to develop servant leaders more effectively and assist organisations to cultivate a servant leadership culture within companies. Limitations and future research needs are discussed.

Keywords: servant leadership; practice; organisational development; systematic literature review

1. Introduction

For the past four decades, servant leadership has evolved as a reputable leadership theory and construct. Characteristics and measures of servant leadership are well described in the literature and empirical research has started more recently to show the positive impact of servant leadership in individuals, teams, and organisations.

Servant leadership offers a multidimensional leadership theory that encompasses all aspects of leadership, including ethical, relational, and outcome based dimensions [1,2]. It is similar to but also different from current leadership theories and proposes a more meaningful way of leadership to ensure sustainable results for individuals, organizations, and societies. Servant leadership includes practices known to sustain high performing organisations such as (a) establishing a higher purpose vision and strategy; (b) developing standardised and simplified procedures; (c) cultivating customer orientation; (d) ensuring continuous growth and development; (e) sharing power and information; and (f) having a quality workforce [3–5]. In addition, servant leadership showed to produce favourable individual and organisational outcomes such as enhanced corporate citizenship behaviour [6,7], work engagement [8–10], organisational commitment [7,11,12], sales performance [13] and reduced turnover intention [14,15].

Servant leadership can be defined as a multidimensional leadership theory that starts with a desire to serve [16], followed by an intent to lead and develop others [17], to ultimately achieve a higher purpose objective to the benefit of individuals, organisations, and societies [18]. Although servant leadership was coined by Greenleaf [16], its original principles can be found in the Bible. For example, in Mark 10: 42–45 (New International Version), Jesus said: “You know that those who are regarded as

Adm. Sci. 2017, 7, 5; doi:10.3390/admsci7010005 www.mdpi.com/journal/admsci

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rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be a slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” .

Servant leadership cuts across a variety of leadership theories, but is unique in the sense of its philanthropic characteristics, leadership intent and focus, and multi-dimensional leadership attributes. It focusses on serving people first [19], aims to achieve an extraordinary vision that creates value for the community [20], and includes situational, transformational, as well as personal trait dimensions of leadership. For example, the servant leadership theory shares similarities with transformational leadership in the way it focusses on people and results, but is different because it focusses firstly on people and applies a different leadership intent [19]. It also differentiates itself from transactional leadership in the serving practices it applies to achieve results [21]. Servant leadership also includes the relational aspects of leader-member exchange (LMX) to build relationships [22], uses the principles of situational leadership to develop people [21], applies the authentic attributes of authentic leadership, supports the collaboration aspects of enterprise leadership [23], includes some of the components of level 5 leadership [18], and shares the spirituality traits of spiritual leadership [24]. However servant leadership is much more comprehensive and include other important dimensions of leadership that are missing from these leadership theories [18].

Although the construct of servant leadership is well conceptualised in the literature and seems to provide favourable individual, team, and organisational results, research on the effective implementation thereof is still in need [8,25]. The application of servant leadership remains a challenge for researchers and managers [25] as the roles and functions of a servant leader are not yet clarified meaningfully in current literature. Researchers as well as practitioners call for more clarity on ways to apply servant leadership effectively within the organisational context [14].

A framework that summarises the functions of a servant leader could assist researchers, practitioners, and managers to implement servant leadership systematically and consistently within organisations. Such a framework will be valuable if it is based on the characteristics, competencies, and outcomes of servant leadership as defined by current servant leadership literature. The overall purpose of this study was to conceptualise such a framework.

Research Objectives

The general aim of this study was to establish a framework that summarises the functions of a servant leader in a meaningful way after reviewing servant leadership literature. More specifically, this study focused on defining the characteristics, competencies, measures, and outcomes of servant leadership as recently described in the literature. These characteristics, competencies, measures, and outcomes of servant leadership were used to conceptualise a framework to make servant leadership practical within organisations.

2. Research Method

2.1. Research Approach

A systematic literature review was conducted to answer four research questions. The five step procedure proposed by Khan, Kunz, Kleijnen, and Antes [26] was used to conduct a systematic literature review, namely (1) framing the question; (2) identifying relevant publications; (3) assessing study quality; (4) summarising the evidence; and (5) interpreting the finding in a meaningful way.

2.2. Research Procedure

In step one of this systematic literature review, four research questions were used, namely:

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• What are the characteristics of a servant leader? • What are the competencies of a servant leader? • How is servant leadership measured? • What organisational outcomes are linked to servant leadership?

In step two, inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed to identify relevant publications. Academic articles were searched on the university library databases that included the words “servant leadership” in the article title. The results were filtered to peer-reviewed articles that were published in scientific journals between the year 2000 and 2015. The full text option was activated in the search method. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were then used to screen articles.. This produced a list of relevant articles. Duplicate articles were removed and a final list of articles was recorded and coded.

In the third step, the quality of the articles was evaluated using three different quality review forms. The same evaluation criteria that Parris and Peachey [25] used in their systematic literature review were used in this study to evaluate quantitative and qualitative studies. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative evaluation questions were used to evaluate mixed method type studies. The evaluation criteria of Pyrczak [27] were used to evaluate literature review type studies. A summary of the evaluation criteria used for each type of study is provided in Table 1.

Table 1. Summary of evaluation criteria.

Type of Study Evaluation Criteria

Quantitative

Clearly focused study

Sufficient background provided Well planned Method appropriate Measures validated Applicable and adequate number of participants Data analysis sufficiently rigorous with adequate statistical methods Findings clearly stated

Qualitative

Purpose stated clearly

Relevant background literature reviewed Design appropriate Identified researcher’s theoretical or philosophical perspective Relevant and well described selection of participants and context Procedural rigour in data collection strategies and analysis Evidence of the four components of trustworthiness (credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability) Results comprehensive and well described

Literature Review

Literature review was focussed

Literature review was organised Literature review was extensive on a topic Literature review was critical Current research was cited Researcher distinguished between research, theory, and opinion Quality literature sources were used

In the fourth step, the evidence was summarised in four evidence tables describing firstly the characteristics of a servant leader, secondly the competencies of a servant leader, thirdly the instruments used to measure servant leadership, and lastly the outcomes of servant leadership.

In the final step, the findings were interpreted in a meaningful way by means of conceptualising a framework to operationalise servant leadership in an organisation using the evidence tables from step four.

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2.3. Sample Framework

Initially 114 articles were found with the keywords “servant leadership” in the title of the article that were published in scientific, peer-reviewed articles between the years 2000 and 2015. Twelve duplicates were removed. An additional 26 key-referenced articles were added to the list. After a second review of the articles using the exclusion criteria, 41 articles were removed from the list. The final number of articles that met the requirements was 87.

Of the 87 articles, 28% (n = 24) were literature type studies, 63% (n = 55) were quantitative studies, 6% (n = 5) were qualitative studies, and 3% (n = 3) were mixed method studies. Studies included were conducted in South Africa (n = 3), Australia (n = 3), China (n = 10), India (n = 2), Italy (n = 1), Kenya (n = 1), Korea (n = 1), Malaysia (n = 1), the Netherlands (n = 2), United Kingdom (n = 1), New Zealand (n = 1), Pakistan (n = 2), Portugal (n = 1), Spain (n = 2), Argentina (n = 1), Mexico (n = 2), Sweden (n = 1), Taiwan (n = 2), Turkey (n = 1), Ukraine (n = 1), the United States of America (n = 16), and within other unknown countries (n = 8).

2.4. Data Collection Method

Articles were retrieved from several databases in the university library. The following databases were searched: EBSCO host, McGraw Hill, Cambridge journals, Emerald, JSTOR, Oxford journals online, SAGE journals online, Springerlink, Taylor and Francis online, and Wiley online library. A search was conducted within the following disciplines: Business studies, entrepreneurship, human resources, humanities, management, multidisciplinary, and psychology.

A wide inclusion criterion was used to ensure a comprehensive literature search. The articles that were included were (a) published in English; (b) had the words “servant leadership” in its title; (c) published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal; (d) published between the year 2000 and 2015; (e) used a sample from the primary; secondary; and tertiary sector; and (f) were a qualitative, quantitative or literature review type study. Inclusion decisions were made after reading the title and abstract of each article.

After a more in-depth evaluation of each article, articles were excluded that were (a) published in a language other than English; (b) did not study servant leadership as the main topic; (c) published in a non-scientific journal; (d) published before the year 2000 or after the year 2015; (e) used a sample from the quaternary sector; and (f) were literature from sources other than qualitative studies, quantitative studies or literature reviews (i.e., grey literature, books, book reviews, magazine articles, conference papers, and white papers).

The inclusion and exclusion criteria used in this study are summarised in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Inclusion Criteria Exclusion Criteria

• Published in English • “Servant leadership” in the article title • Published in a peer-reviewed journal • Published between the year 2000 and 2015 • Sample from the primary, secondary, and tertiary sector • Qualitative, quantitative or literature review type study

• Published in a language other than English • Published in a non-scientific journal • Published before the year 2000 or after the year 2015 • Sample from the quaternary sector • Grey literature, books, book reviews, magazine

articles, conference presentations, and white papers

2.5. Data Analysis

The quality of included articles was evaluated using quality review forms. For each study type, a different quality review form was used.

Quantitative studies were evaluated using eight quality evaluation questions adopted from the Institute for Public Health Sciences [28] namely (1) Was the study clearly focussed? (2) Was sufficient background provided; (3) Was the study well planned? (4) Was the method used appropriate?

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(5) Was the measures used validated? (6) Was the number of participants adequate and applicable? (7) Was adequate statistical methods used? and (8) Was the findings clearly stated?

Qualitative studies were evaluated using a critical review form [29] that consisted of eight quality questions, namely (1) Was the purpose of the study clearly stated? (2) Was relevant background literature provided? (3) Was the research design appropriate? (4) Was theoretical or philosophical perspectives identified? (5) Was the selection and context of participants well described and relevant? (6) Was procedural rigour evident in the data collection and analysis? (7) Was there evidence of the four components of trustworthiness (credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability)? and (8) Was the results comprehensive and well described? Both quantitative and qualitative review forms were used for mixed method studies.

Literature review type studies were evaluated using seven quality review questions. Four questions were adopted from Pyrczak [27] namely (1) Was the literature review extensive on a topic? (2) Was the literature review critical? (3) Was current research cited? (4) Has the researcher distinguished between research, theory, and opinion? The following three questions were added: (4) Was the literature focussed? (5) Was the literature review well organised? and (7) Were quality literature sources used?

Articles were appraised individually using the abovementioned quality review forms. If an evaluation criterion was met, a score of 1 was allocated. A total score and percentage was then calculated for each article. Thereafter articles were categorised into high quality, medium quality, and low quality. A list of the final articles used is available in Appendix A, Table A1.

After evaluation, the research questions were used to extract data from the articles. The results were themed and summarised into four evidence tables. The quality rating of the articles was used to classify the strength of evidence supporting a theme. Three evidence classifications were made, namely (a) strong evidence; (b) moderate evidence; and (c) insufficient evidence [25]. A strong evidence classification was assigned when two or more high quality articles or one high and two medium quality articles supported a theme. A moderate evidence classification was assigned when one high and one medium quality article or two medium quality articles supported a theme. An insufficient evidence classification was assigned if a theme was not supported by either strong or moderate evidence.

The results of the data analysis are described in the next section.

3. Results

In general, the findings indicated that servant leadership is researched internationally, measured by different instruments, and are linked to favourable individual, team, and organisational outcomes. The findings showed that no consensus has been reached to date by researchers on the characteristics, competencies, and measurement of servant leadership. However, servant leadership has shown to be a reputable leadership theory distinguishable from other current leadership theories.

In this study sample, servant leadership was researched in 21 different countries and consisted of 5 qualitative studies, 55 quantitative studies, 3 mixed method studies, and 24 literature reviews. 2 (40%) qualitative studies were rated as high quality, 1 (20%) as medium quality and 2 (40%) as low quality. In terms of quantitative studies, 48 (87%) were rated as high quality, 5 (9%) as medium quality, and 2 (4%) as low quality. 2 (67%) mixed method studies were of high quality and 1 (33%) of low quality. 12 (50%) literature review type studies were rated as high quality, 8 (33%) as medium quality and 4 (17%) as low quality.

The themes that emerged from the data are discussed in the next section in accordance with the research questions.

3.1. The Characteristics of Servant Leadership

This systematic literature review identified eight characteristics of a servant leader, namely:

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(1) Authenticity (2) Humility (3) Compassion (4) Accountability (5) Courage (6) Altruism (7) Integrity (8) Listening

Strong evidence was found for all the abovementioned servant leader characteristics. Authenticity was described in the literature as showing one’s true identify, intentions,

and motivations [30], adhering to strong moral principles [31], and being true to oneself [32]. It was also seen as being open to learn from criticism [33] and having consistent behaviour. Authenticity was mentioned in 17 different articles as a characteristic of a servant leader.

Humility was defined as being stable and modest with a high self-awareness of one’s strengths and development areas [9,34], having a humble attitude [7], being open to new learning opportunities [18], and perceiving one’s talent and achievements in the right perspective [34]. Humility was not described as a self-depreciating attribute (thinking less of oneself), but rather as a characteristic that focusses more on others (thinking of oneself less) [18,23,35,36]. Humility seems to be the opposite of prideful or egocentric behaviour [36,37]. Humble leaders value and activate the talent of others, enjoy helping others succeed, and give credit to others when a task was completed successfully [18,38]. Humility was also described as a virtuous attitude that uses positional power to the advancement of others [36]. Humility was cited in 27 different articles as a characteristic of servant leadership.

Compassion was perceived in the literature as having empathy [17,39–43], caring for others, being kind, [17,20,44,45] forgiving others for mistakes [46], accepting and appreciating others for who they are [18,31,37], and showing unconditional love (agape love) towards others [36,38,44]. Additional keywords referenced in the literature to describe compassion were to value people, serve others, putting others first, and being good to others [18,25,45,47–52]. Emotional healing also seems to be closely related to compassion. It was described as helping others recover from hardships or difficulties [41], having a concern for the professional healthcare of others [44], being sensitive towards others [43], assisting in healing relationships [17], and healing oneself and others to become whole [42]. Compassion was referenced by 42 different articles as a characteristic of servant leadership.

Accountability was described in the literature as being responsible [18], ensuring transparent practices [53], holding others accountable, monitoring performance [18], and setting clear expectations in accordance with an individual’s capability [10]. It was mentioned in 7 different articles as being a characteristic of servant leadership.

Courage was cited in 6 different articles as one of the characteristics of servant leadership. It was defined as being open to take calculated risks, standing up for what is morally right, despite negative adversary [31,46], and having high ethical conduct [13].

Altruism was described as being others orientated, selfless [37,47,50], and having the desire to positively influence and helping others become better in life by serving their needs consistently [36,41]. This behaviour is extended to make a positive difference, not only in people, but also in organisations and in society [41,50]. This servant leadership characteristic was mentioned in 17 different articles.

The keywords referenced to describe integrity in the literature were: being honest, fair [31], having strong moral principles [32,50,53], behaving ethically, and creating an ethical work climate [32,43,50]. Integrity was cited in 30 different articles as a characteristic of a servant leader.

Listening was described as a deep commitment of a leader to listen actively and respectfully [17,41,54], by asking questions to create knowledge [54,55], providing time for reflection and silence [17], and being conscious of what is unsaid [17,52]. Listening was referenced as a servant leadership characteristic in 20 different articles.

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3.2. The Competencies of Servant Leadership

This study made a distinction between the characteristics and competencies of a servant leader. A characteristic was perceived as a personality trait that regulates the way a person think, feel, and behave [56]. Competency, on the other hand, was understood as a combination of cognitive and technical knowledge, skills, traits, and habits applied systematically to achieve a specific standardised outcome [57,58].

Strong evidence was found for the following four servant leadership competencies:

(1) Empowerment (2) Stewardship (3) Building relationships (4) Compelling vision

Empowerment was mentioned in 54 of the sampled articles as an undertaking of a servant leader. Empowerment was defined by researchers as a commitment to the process of:

• Developing others to prosper personally, professionally, and spiritually [17,18,39,40,42,49,59,60], • Having a transformational influence on followers [24], • Transferring responsibility and authority to followers [7], • Providing clear directions and boundaries [43], • Aligning and activating individual talent [7,35,36,54,61], • Sharing information and encourage independent problem solving [17,43], • Providing the necessary coaching, mentoring, and support according to the need of an individual [62], • Creating an effective work environment [63], • Building self-confidence, wellbeing, and proactive follower behaviour [9,46,55,63], and • Helping followers mature emotionally, intellectually, and ethically [33].

Stewardship was defined in the literature as the process to take accountability [10,64] for the common interest of a society, an organisation, and individuals [6,10,36,41,50,65], and to leave a positive legacy [66], with an attitude of not being the owner, but rather a caretaker [6,10,35,36,41,50,61,67]. Stewardship was referenced by 37 different articles as a servant leadership practice.

Building relationships was cited by 54 articles as a fundamental role of a servant leader. It was defined by literature as the process to:

• Build trustful relationships with individuals, customers, and the community [13,18,19,24,32,36,43, 45–47,53–55,68,69],

• Create an environment of care, support, encouragement, and acknowledgement [18,37,46], • Communicate effectively [17] by spending quality time with followers [24] to share and create

knowledge [54,55], • Understand the needs, aspirations, potential, and mental model of others [18,32,43,54,55,59], and • Work in collaboration [17,18,24] and having common values [32].

Setting a compelling vision was described as the ability to conceptualise a higher vision [17,18,36], to link past events and current trends with potential future scenarios [6,17,18,39,50,65], and to create value for a community. These keywords related to this servant leader role were mentioned in 31 articles.

3.3. Measurement of Servant Leadership

The sampled literature indicated 10 different servant leadership measures. The first instrument, called the Organisational Leadership Assessment (OLA), was developed by Laub [70] and measures servant leadership as a six factor construct. The factors included in this instrument were authenticity,

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shares leadership, valuing people, developing people, builds community, and providing leadership. It was used in one high quality study in the sample and was cited in another six high quality articles.

The second servant leadership questionnaire was developed by Page and Wong [71] and measures 12 servant leadership attributes, namely humility, caring for others, servant-hood, integrity, empowering others, developing others, leading, modelling, team-building, shared decision-making, visioning, and goal setting. Two high quality studies within the sample used this instrument and another seven high quality articles referenced it.

A third instrument was developed by Dennis and Bocarnea [72] and measures humility, agape love, empowerment, trust, and vision as servant leadership characteristics. This measure was used by one high quality study in the sampled literature and cited by another six high quality articles.

A fourth servant leadership questionnaire evaluates seven servant leadership attributes, namely putting subordinates first, behaving ethically, empowering subordinates, helping subordinates grow and succeed, forming relationships with subordinates, conceptualising skills, and creating value for the community [73]. Thirteen high quality studies within the sample used this instrument to measure servant leadership. It was also mentioned in another five high quality studies as a suitable measure for servant leadership.

The servant leadership questionnaire (SLQ) of Barbuto and Wheeler [41] was another instrument referenced. This instrument consists of five servant leadership dimensions, namely emotional healing, altruistic calling, organisational stewardship, persuasive mapping, and wisdom. The SLQ was used by 8 studies (5 high quality, 2 medium quality, 1 low quality) within the sample and cited by another 9 high quality articles.

Hale and Fields [48] also developed a servant leadership questionnaire that measures three servant leader attributes, namely humility, service, and vision. This questionnaire was cited by one high quality article. No studies within the sample used this instrument.

A seventh servant leadership measure was developed by Wong and Davey [74] that measures servant leadership as a six factor construct. The factors are modelling authenticity, humility and selflessness, modelling integrity, serving and developing others, and inspiring and influencing others. It was referenced by one high quality article. None of the sampled articles used this instrument.

Liden, Wayne, Zhao, and Henderson [43] combined items of three previously developed questionnaires of Barbuto and Wheeler [41,71,73] to develop a seven factor servant leadership questionnaire (SLQ). This servant leadership questionnaire measures the following attributes: emotional healing, putting subordinates first, behaving ethically, helping subordinates grow and succeed,

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