Sen Sendjaya

Servant Leadership: Its Origin, Development, and Application in Organizations

This paper examines the philosophical foundation of servant leadership by extracting several value-laden principles drawn from Greenleafs and Jesus Christs delineation of the concept. The primary intent and self-concept of servant leaders are singled out as the distinctive features of servant leadership. While empirical research studies are critically needed to develop the concepts underlying the servant leadership movement into sound theory, an accurate understanding of the conceptual roots of servant leadership is essential in the process. The current developmental stage of the servant leadership movement is explored in order to provide some useful signposts for future research directions.

Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations

This paper examines the development and initial validation of a multidimensional measure of servant leadership behaviour (Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale). Both qualitative and quantitative studies are reported to establish preliminary psychometric properties for the new 35-item, six-dimension measure. The resultant servant leadership model is characterized by its service orientation, holistic outlook, and moral-spiritual emphasis, thereby extending current models of servant leadership and existing works on contemporary leadership approaches. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

Exploring servant leadership across cultures: Comparative study in Australia and Indonesia

This study extends the GLOBE study of 62 societies by investigating an emerging model of servant leadership (SL) across cultures. SL is a holistic and altruistic approach of leadership that focuses on the commitment to serve other people. Adopting Implicit Leadership Theorys (ILT) premise that people hold cognitive categories to distinguish between prototypical leaders from non-leaders, we predicted that SL would exist in Australia and Indonesia, but its practice would be moderated by culture. Our predictions were supported, SL was perceived to be culturally universal in Australia and Indonesia. However, the different attributes perceived to make up SL were not all rated as equally important. We argued that individual self-construal, socialization and national context would explain how and why culture-specific perceptions of SL exist. The implications of our study on international management practice are discussed in the concluding section.

User satisfaction with business-to-employee portals: conceptualization and scale development

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate the business-to-employee portal user satisfaction (B2EPUS) measure. Five sequential stages of scale development were undertaken to achieve this purpose: conceptual model development, item generation, content validation, exploratory study, and confirmatory study. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the five dimensions of the B2EPUS, namely Usefulness, Confidentiality, Ease of Use, Convenience of Access, and Portal Design as the dimensions of the construct. Competing model analysis indicates that the second-order factor model is the better fitting for the B2EPUS construct. The theoretical and practical implications of the study as well as directions for future research are discussed in the concluding sections of this paper.

Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale: A hierarchical model and test of construct validity

Servant leadership is widely believed to be a multidimensional construct. However, existing measures of servant leadership typically suffer from highly correlated dimensions, raising concerns over discriminant validity. We set out in this study to examine the dimensionality of the hypothesized six-factor Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale (SLBS) and validate a hierarchical model of servant leadership. Using structural equation modelling, convergent and discriminant validity of the higher-order servant leadership construct was examined in relation to measures of character-related behaviour, Machiavellian leadership orientation, and social desirability. Our findings suggest that the SLBS assesses a single, higher-order construct of servant leadership with evidence of construct validity and absence of social desirability bias. The high correlation between servant leadership and character-related behaviour supports our expectation that servant leadership reflects in large part the character strength of the leader.

Creating future leaders: an examination of youth leadership development in Australia

Purpose – In light of the research‐practice gap in youth leadership development, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of youth leadership development in Australia, on the basis of a multidimensional and holistic framework of servant leadership.Design/methodology/approach – In total, three separate studies were conducted to achieve the above purpose, namely 33 interviews with student leaders; ten interviews with secondary college teachers and principals, as well as youth leadership facilitators; and 97 survey responses from recent secondary college graduates.Findings – There exists a significant gap between the perceptions of the students and those of the teachers/facilitators on what is being taught and what is required in youth leadership development programs. The study reveals that students have little exposure to ethics training throughout their leadership programs. The application of a holistic framework of servant leadership in youth leadership development programme is recommende...

Business leadership development in Iran

Throughout the twentieth century the economics of the Middle East rose and fell many times in response to the external environment, including European de-colonization and the US and former USSR competing to provide military and economic aid after World War II. Throughout these upheavals the Middle East has remained internationally significant politically and economically not least for the regions large reserves of oil and gas, as discussed in the Introduction to this volume. In recent decades, Western nations have moved to invest into the Middle East in the rapidly developing technology, tourism and education industries that have proliferated. For its part, Iran has been the worlds fourth largest provider of petroleum and second largest provider of natural gas and, despite years of political unrest, has made rapid expansion into information technology and telecommunications. Increased involvement in the global economy has meant that Iran has invested heavily in education and training and moved to modernize its management practices. Hitherto there has been little academic research into management in either Western or local organizations in Iran. This chapter seeks to address that gap in knowledge by exploring business leadership in Iran, with particular reference to cultural and institutional impacts.

Demystifying Servant Leadership

The servant leadership approach is the less travelled road of leadership. In the final analysis, it is not an outward leadership behaviour or skill, but an internal character of the heart. It is a matter of ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. This character-focused approach is what makes servant leadership distinct from other leadership models, and explains the proliferation of empirical studies in the field since the turn of the millennium. Complementing the explosion of empirically rigorous studies in servant leadership is the increase of anecdotal evidences of servant leadership practices in high-performing companies reported in the media and popular press. Typically, companies such as Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Ritz-Carlton, TDIndustries, Synovus, and ServiceMaster are cited (Gergen, 2001; see also Chapter 11). While these corporate practices can be downplayed as isolated cases, as critics may suggest, servant leadership has spurred curiosity beyond the capacity of scholars to keep pace, either theoretically or empirically.

Servant Leadership Research

This chapter provides an overview of research on servant leadership. The origin of servant leadership is outlined primarily on the basis of the philosophical support found in the Bible. Based on key qualitative and quantitative studies of servant leadership, this chapter also presents a comparison of servant leadership and other value-laden leadership theories, including charismatic, transformational, authentic, and spiritual leadership. Next its predictive ability relative to major outcomes such as creativity and innovation, trust, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and employee engagement is delineated. The development of the Servant Leadership Behavior Scale is briefly outlined in the subsequent section. Finally, the chapter concludes by addressing major objections typically erected against the servant leadership construct.

Other-focused leaders, self-focused followers, and citizenship behavior

Our study advances the servant leadership literature by theoretically and empirically linking servant leadership, through its unique feature of self-sacrificial acts, to follower perceptions of sac...