Servant Leadership A Review of Literature Review

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Running Head: SERVANT LEADERSHIP 30SERVANT LEADERSHIPServant LeadershipAbstractOver 100 research articles on servant leadership have been published in the past half a decade. However, lack of clarity and coherence on the subject matter has resulted in the development of its theory. This detailed, integrative research paper offers a conceptual clarity of servant leadership through critical leadership techniques and provides a completely new servant leadership definition. The paper evaluates servant leadership measures based on their validation and scale construction rigor. It also maps servant leadership’s nomological and theoretical network based on outcomes, antecedents, mediators, and moderators. Finally, the research paper also presents study limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research. The paper generally gives a holistic picture of servant leadership and the direction for future research.IntroductionEvolutionary leadership biology indicates that humans evolve, evolution occurring over a long period, and most needs of the hunter-gather within people remain unfulfilled. Leaders in hunter-gather tribes were known to their tribesmen intimately; hence there was no difference between the public and private self (or the life) of a leader. Today, large bureaucratic companies with mobile employees dispersed worldwide have embedded the small, family-like, hunter-gatherer tribes into the organizations (Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2010). However, the modern organization has failed to provide employees with a sense of tribal belonging that the human mind needs. Servant leadership has come in to fill this eminent gap. It gives followers a sense of social identity and creates kinship-like teams similar to those found in the societies of hunter-gatherers. Team members help and develop the capacity of each other.Servant leadership can deliver leadership that can solve most modern workplace challenges while providing humans with a hunter-gatherer sense of belonging. This explains why Southwest Airlines and Starbucks continue to grow, calling for servant leadership research. Servant leadership is based on a holistic approach that engages the ethical, relational, spiritual, emotional, and other dimensions of leadership followers (Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2010). The leadership approach empowers followers to grow to their maximum potential. Firstly, the leadership approach allows followers to grow based on their leaders’ ethical and altruistic orientations.Servant leadership prioritizes followers’ growth and general well-being, making them more effective and engaged in their specific work (Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2010). As organizations’ stewards, servant leaders are determined to grow the finances and resources of the company entrusted to them. Therefore, servant leaders emphasize their followers’ personal development without overlooking organizational performance expectations. Servant leadership, unlike leadership approaches based on performance, focuses on long-term sustainable performance. The leadership approaches based on performance promote organizational growth and profit at the expense of the people.Servant leadership research is grouped into three stages: conceptual development, measurement phase, and analysis of servant leadership against outcomes (Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2010). The third phase, the model development stage, involves complex research designs that do not just look into essential servant leadership relationships with outcomes but also cover mediating mechanisms, antecedents, and boundary circumstances around this type of leadership.

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Since the pioneering Graham (1991) foundation research on servant leadership theory development, research has theoretically, and empirically differentiated servant leadership from other leadership approaches. Lack of clarity and coherence in the servant leadership subject despite a surging academic interest also informs the purpose of this research.Research on servant leadership has been done across multiple disciplines, including top-tier management, education, nursing, youth, tourism, public, and not-for-profit sectors, and appeared in respective journals. Decades of research across multiple disciplines have advanced the servant leadership theory, but the fragmented studies are not integrated (Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2010). The existing measures of servant leadership are yet to be assessed. This research paper evaluates…

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…or strengthen existing servant leadership research designs. Data is collected from many time points in the design phase to develop servant leadership antecedents and outcomes from multiple sources to eliminate common method bias. Furthermore, researchers would use ESM to safeguard against common method bias often linked to memory bias and cross-sectional survey designs (Akbari et al., 2014). However, followers have to recall particular behaviors. Future studies should include multiple competing variables within the research design to showcase the true impact of servant leadership.ConclusionThere is an increased interest in servant leadership research. This research paper discussed how servant leadership is understood in the existing literature and provided a completely new and clear definition of servant leadership. The paper reviewed various servant leadership measures used in research. It concluded that SL-7, SLBS-6, and SLS are the only three measures that have been evaluated thoroughly for validation and construction, hence the most recommended for research. The paper also analyzed and mapped the servant leadership nomological network, presenting the context of existing research studies. It also detailed a plan of research to particularly enhance how research on servant leadership is done in the field.The research paper has showcased that the field of servant leadership has progressively advanced over the last two decades. However, the field is still heavily critiqued. For example, the empirical and conceptual overlap between ethical, transformational, and authentic leadership approaches and servant leadership remains questionable. And, critiques argue that existing servant leadership research has little to show because it is limited by its research design. Restarting the field would be premature because most existing issues arose due to poor measurement, poor construct clarity, and poor research design. With the advice, recommendations, and suggestion for further studies in this research paper on servant leadership, it is anticipated that highlighted issues can be resolved.….....

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