Bruce E. Winston

A CORRELATION OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP, LEADER TRUST, AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST

Purpose – Aims to explore the relationship between employee perceptions of servant leadership and leader trust, as well as organizational trust.Design/methodology.approach – Uses Laubs Organizational Leadership Assessment along with Nyhan and Marlowes Organizational Trust Inventory.Findings – Perceptions of servant leadership correlated positively with both leader trust and organizational trust. The study also found that organizations perceived as servant‐led exhibited higher levels of both leader trust and organizational trust than organizations perceived as non‐servant‐led.Originality/value – The findings lend support to Greenleafs view that servant leadership is an antecedent of leader and organizational trust, and to aspects of other servant leadership models.

Servant Leadership: Setting the Stage for Empirical Research:

Executive Summary Servant Leadership received attention in the popular press, but little empirical research exists to support the theory or the anecdotal evidence used in the popular press material. The authors of this paper present a model of servant leadership based on the variables of vision, influence, credibility, trust, and service identified in the academic and popular press literature. Other researchers are encouraged to engage in the empirical research activities required to advance this stream of literature to its next phase of maturation.

Distinguishing between transformational and servant leadership

Purpose – Although transformational and servant leadership has been in existence since the 1970s and theoretical assumptions about the differences began in the 1990s, this paper seeks to relate the first empirical investigation distinguishing between the two leaders, which was conducted recently by the first author.Design/methodology/approach – Through a review of the literature, the first author established 19 semantic differential scales and two self‐typing paragraphs to differentiate between the two leaders. The scales and paragraphs were formed into an online survey, reviewed by an expert panel, and distributed to 56 randomly selected contacts where 514 participants responded.Findings – Through discriminant analysis, five statistically significant (p=0.000) discriminant items were found that differentiated between transformational and servant leadership.Research limitations/implications – The paper proposes that the five statistically significant items revealed by the first authors research be brough...

A factor analysis of Page and Wong’s servant leadership instrument

This study conducted a factor analysis of Page and Wong’s servant leadership instrument and reduced the 99‐item scale to 20 items yielding three factors: vision (0.97 Cronbach alpha), empowerment (0.89 Cronbach alpha), and service (0.94 Cronbach alpha). While this study only confirmed three of the original 12 factors sought by Page and Wong the results indicate that Page and Wong’s instrument has merit and deserves further development and modification.

Towards a Deeper Understanding of Hope and Leadership

Recently a cognitive based theory of hope developed within the field of positive psychology has been discussed in relation to organizational leadership. (Shorey & Snyder, 1997) Hope in this context can be described as a positive motivational state that contributes to leaders and followers expending the requisite energy necessary to pursue and attain organizational goals. In an effort to further understand hope in relation to leadership the authors identify linkages between hope and theories of motivation, goal setting and goal pursuit commonly applied in leadership studies. This is followed by a review of emerging leadership concepts and theories that explicitly include the concept of hope. Implications for theory are discussed and questions for future research are presented.

Servant leadership at Heritage Bible College: a single‐case study

This case study used the variables of both Pattersons and Winstons models of servant leadership and examined the attitudes of employees at Heritage Bible College toward their leader to determine if the leader was a servant leader and if the variables of the two models helped explain the process by which leaders and followers serve each other in the organization. Thirteen employees and the leader provided data triangulated by three methods of data collection: the researchers observations over a two‐year period, the data from the Servant‐Shepherd Leadership Indicator, and responses to ten in‐depth interview questions. This case study supports the use of Pattersons and Winstons models of servant leadership, or at least confirms the specific variables examined by the interview question/topics: trust, empowerment, vision, altruism, intrinsic motivation, commitment, and service.

Toward a New Understanding of Leader Accountability: Defining a Critical Construct

This article defines leader accountability as (a) the leaders willing acceptance of the responsibilities inherent in the leadership position to serve the well-being of the organization; (b) the implicit or explicit expectation that the he/she will be publicly linked to his/her actions, words, or reactions; and (c) the expectation that the leader may be called on to explain his or her beliefs, decisions, commitments, or actions to constituents. This paper presents and defines accountability in a manner that provides greater clarity than prior literature attempts and sets the stage for future research.

Development of three scales to measure leader accountability

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to focus on the development of three scales to measure the three dimensions of accountability presented by Wood and Winston (2005): responsibility; openness; and answerability.Design/methodology/approach – The scale development process followed the method proposed by Spector in 1992 and DeVellis in 2003 in that each of the three constructs were defined and through a search of the literature the authors generated pools of 26, 21, and 19 items respectively. The items were submitted to a panel of six experts, who reviewed them for relevance to the construct and who made suggestions for the general improvement of the scales. The scales were then tested online by 148 participants.Findings – Factor analyses revealed that the item pools measured one construct in each of the scales. Reliability analysis revealed Cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.98 (Responsibility), 0.99 (Openness) and 0.98 (Answerability). The scales were reduced to 10 items by removing items deemed redun...

Seeking and measuring the essential behaviors of servant leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to clarify the nature of how servant leadership is established and transmitted among members of an organization. The second goal was to identify and evaluate the unique actions by a leader essential to establishing servant leadership. The authors’ efforts resulted in identification and validation of ten leader behaviors that seem to be essential to servant leadership. Design/methodology/approach – The authors’ methodology consisted of two stages. In the first stage, The authors developed an item pool of 116 items drawn from previously developed operationalizations of servant leadership. The authors then engaged a panel of 23 researchers attending a conference focused exclusively on the study of servant leadership to evaluate the. Each participant was asked to independently rate each item using a four-point scale where 1=not useful in describing servant leaders and 4=contributes greatly to describing servant leaders. The authors retained only the most highly rated ite...

Developing Dissertation Skills of Doctoral Students in an Internet-Based Distance Education Curriculum: A Case Study

Although preparing doctoral students for completing their dissertations is challenging in an on-campus program, it is even more difficult in an Internet-based distance education curriculum. This article examines the problems encountered and the solutions developed to address this requirement over a recent five-year period at Regent University. It discusses the process used for identifying the competencies needed for completing a doctoral dissertation and for planning how these competencies are taught within an Internet-based doctoral curriculum. The article includes a discussion of the lessons learned thus far, data on the progress of current doctoral candidates, and suggestions for further investigations.