Abstract
This article introduces a new scale to measure executive servant leadership, situating the need for this scale within the context of ethical leadership and its impacts on followers, organizations and the greater society. The literature on servant leadership is reviewed and servant leadership is compared to other concepts that share dimensions of ethical leadership (e.g., transformational, authentic, and spiritual leadership). Next, the Executive Servant Leadership Scale (ESLS) is introduced, and its contributions and limitations discussed. We conclude with an agenda for future research, describing ways the measure can be used to test hypotheses about organizational moral climate, ethical organizational culture, corporate responsibility, and institutional theory.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, J.C., D.W. Gerbing. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin 103, 411-423.
Andreoli, N. & Lefkowitz, J. (2009) Individual and organizational antecedents of misconduct in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 85: 309-332.
Asparouhov, T. & Muthén, B. (2009). Exploratory structural equation modeling. Structural Equation Modeling, 16, 397-438.
Avolio, B. J. & Walumbwa, F. O. & Weber, T. J. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. The Annual Review of Psychology, 60: 421-449.
Babbie, E. (2004). The practice of social research, 10th ed. Belmont: Thomson.
Bansal, P.& Clelland, I. (2004). Talking trash: Legitimacy, impression management, and unsystematic risk in the context of the natural environment. Academy of Management Journal 47, 93-103.
Barbuto, J. E. & Wheeler, D. W. (2006). Scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. Group & Organization Management 31(3): 300-326
Bass, B. M. (1985) Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York: Basic Books.
Bass, B. M. & Steidlmeier, P. (1999) Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 10, 181-217.
Bellah, R. N. (1985). Habits of the heart. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bolden & Gosling. (2006). Leadership competencies: Time to change the tune? Leadership. 2(2), 147-163.
Brown, M. E. & Trevino, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly. 17, 595-616.
Bugenhagen, M. J.: 2006, Antecedents of Transactional, Transformational, and Servant Leadership: A Constructive-Development Theory Approach. Dissertation Abstracts International (UMI No. 3238409).
Burns, J. M. (1978) Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
Calabrese, R. L., Roberts, B. (2001) The Promise Forsaken: Neglecting the Ethical Implications of Leadership. The International Journal of Education Management, 15(6): 267-275
Carmines, E. G. & Zeller, R. A. (1979) Reliability and validity assessment. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Chang, G. and M. Diddams: 2009, ‘Hubris or Humility: Cautions Surrounding the Construct and Self-Definition of Authentic Leadership,’ in Academy of Management Proceedings
Chen, L. Y. & Barnes, F. B. (2008). The effect of servant leadership to customer relationship management implementation. Journal of International Business & Economics, vol 8, 69-79.
Chen, F. F., Sousa, K. H. & West, S. G. (2005). Testing measurement invariance of second-order factor models. Structural Equation Model. 12, 471-492.
Dannhauser, Z. and A. B. Boshoff: 2006, ‘The Relationships Between Servant Leadership, Trust, Team Commitment and Demographic Variables’, http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2006/pdf/dannhauser_boshoff.pdf. Retrieved 1/10/20.10
De Hoogh, A. H. B. & De Hartog, D. N. (2008) Ethical and despotic leadership, relationships with leader’s social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates’ optimism: A multi-method study. The Leadership Quarterly, 19, 297-311.
Dennis, R. S.: 2004, Servant Leadership Theory: Development of the Servant Leadership Assessment Instrument. Dissertation Abstracts International (UMI No. 3133544).
Dennis, R. S. & Bocarnea, M. (2005). Development of the servant leadership assessment Instrument. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal. 26, 7/8, 600-615.
Dennis, R. & Winston, B. E. (2003). A factor analysis of page and wong’s servant leadership instrument. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 24/8, 455-459.
Dickson, M. W., Smith, D. B., Grojean, M. W., & Ehrhart, M. (2001). Ethical climate: The result of interactions between leadership, leader values, and follower values. Leadership Quarterly, 12, 1-21.
Dienesch, R. M. & Liden, R. C. (1986) Leader-member exchange model of leadership: A critique and further development. Academy of Management Review, Vol 11, No 3, 618-634.
Ehrhart, M. G. (2004). Leadership and procedural justice climate as antecedents of unit-level organizational citizenship behaviors. Personnel Psychology. Spring 57, 1, 61-94.
Farling, M. L., Stone, A. G., Winston, B. E. (1999). Servant Leadership: Setting the Stage for Empirical Research. The Journal of Leadership Studies 6(1/2): 49–72
Fry, L. W. (2003) Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 14, 693-727.
Graen, G., Liden, R. C., & Hoel, W. (1982) Role of leadership in the employee withdrawal process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 868-872.
Graham, J. W. (1991). Servant-leadership in organizations: inspirational and moral. Leadership Quarterly, 2(2), 105-119.
Graham, J. W. (1995). Leadership, moral development and citizenship behavior. Business Ethics Quarterly 5: 43-54
Greenleaf, R. K.: 1970/1991, The Servant as a Leader (Robert K Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, Indianapolis, IN).
Greenleaf, R. K.: 1972/2009, The Institution as Servant (Robert K Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, Indianapolis, IN).
Hale, J. & Fields, D. (2007). Exploring servant leadership across cultures: A study of followers in Ghana and the US. Leadership vol 3(4): 397-417.
Hambrick, D. C. (2007). Upper echelons theory: An update. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, 334-343.
Hambrick, D. C., Mason, P. A. (1984) Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Academy of Management Review, 9(2): 193-206.
Irving, J. A.: 2004, ‘Servant Leadership and the Effectiveness of Teams: Findings and Implications’, http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2004/pdf/irving_servant_leadership.pdf. Retrieved 1/6/10.
Irving, J. A. and G. J. Longbotham: 2006, ‘Team Effectiveness and Six Essential Servant Leadership Themes: A Regression Model Based on Items in the organizational Leadership Assessment,’ http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2006/pdf/irving_longbotham.pdf. Retrieved 1/6/10.
Jenkins, M. and A. C. Stewart: 2008, Enhancing Nurse Job Satisfaction: The Importance of a Servant Leader Orientation in Health Care Management. Paper Presented at Academy of Management Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
Johnson, C. E. (2009). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Jonsson, S., H.R. Greve, T. Fujiwara-Greve. (2009). Undeserved loss: The spread of legitimacy loss to innocent organizations in response to reported corporate deviance. Administration Science Quarterly 54: 195-228.
Joseph, E. E. & Winston, B. E. (2005). A correlation of servant leadership, leader trust, and organizational trust. Leadership & Organization Development Journal . 26(1/2): 6-22.
Kalton, G. and D. Kasprzyk: 1982, ‘Imputing for Missing Survey Responses’, in 1982 Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods (American Statistical Assn).
Kuhnert, K. W. & Lewis, P. (1987) Transactional and transformational leadership: A constructive/developmental analysis. Academy of Management Review, Vol 12, No 4, 648-657.
Landy, F. L. (1985) Psychology of work behavior. Homewood: Dorsey Press.
Laub, J. A.: 1999, Assessing the Servant Organization: Development of the Servant Organizational Leadership (Sola)Instrument. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Florida Atlantic University.
Lawrence, P. and Nohria, N. (2002). Driven: How human nature shapes our choices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Liden, R. C. Wayne, S. J., Zhao. H., & D. Henderson. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. Leadership Quarterly. 19, 161-177.
Martin, K. D., and Cullen, J. B. (2006). Continuities and extensions of ethical climate theory: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Business Ethics. 69: 175-194.
Merton, R.K. (1969). The social nature of leadership. American Journal of Nursing, 69 (12), 2614-2618.
Morgan, G., Ryu, K., & Mirvis, P. (2009). Leading corporate citizenship: Governance, structure, systems. Corporate Governance, Vol 9 No 1, 39-49.
Mulki, J. P., Jaramillo, J. F., & Locander, W. B. (2009). Critical role of leadership on ethical climate and salesperson behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics. 86: 125-141.
Neubert, M. J., Carlson, D. S., Kacmar, K. M., Roberts, J. A., & Chonko, L. B. (2009). The virtuous influence of ethical leadership behavior: Evidence from the field. Journal of Business Ethics. 90: 157-170.
Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16, 145-179.
Ostrem, L. M.: 2006, Servant-Leadership and Work-Related Outcomes: A Multi-Level Model. Dissertation Abstracts International (UMI No. 3208082).
Page, D. & Wong, P. T. P. (2000). A conceptual framework for measuring servant-Leadership. In Adjibolosoo S. (Ed.), The Human Factor in Shaping the Course of History and Development , 69-110. Lanham MD: University Press of America.
Parolini, J. L.: 2005, ‘Investigating the Relationships Among Emotional Intelligence, Servant Leadership Behaviors and Servant Leadership Culture’, http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2005/pdf/parolini_invest.pdf. Retrieved 1/6/10.
Patterson, K. A.: 2003, Servant Leadership: A Theoretical Model. Dissertation Abstracts International (UMI No. 3082719).
Podsakoff, P.M., S.B. MacKenzie, J-Y. Lee, N.P. Podsakoff. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J. Applied Psychology 88, 879-903.
Polleys, M. S. (2002). One university’s response to the anti-leadership vaccine: Developing servant leaders. Journal of Leadership Studies, Winter, 8, 3, 117-130.
Richardson, H.A., Simmering, M.J, & Sturman, M. C. (2009). A tale of three perspectives: Examining post hoc statistical techniques for detection and correction of common method variance. Organizational Research Methods 12, 762-800.
Russell, R. F. & Stone, A. G. (2002). A review of servant leadership attributes: Developing a practical model. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal. 23, ¾, 145-157.
Schminke, M., Arnaud, A., & Kuenzi, M. (2007) The power of ethical work climates. Organizational Dynamics, Vol 36, No 2, 171-186.
Sendjaya, S. & Sarros, J. C. (2002). Servant leadership: Its origin, development, and application in organizations. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies , 9 (2), 57-64.
Sendjaya, S, Sarros, J. and Santora, C. (2008). Defining and measuring servant leadership behaviour in organizations. Journal of Management Studies 45 (2): 402-424.
Sheehan, K. (2002) Online research methodology: Reflections and speculations. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 3(1), 56-61.
Smith, B. N., Montagno, R. V., & Kuzmenko, T. N. (2004). Transformational and servant leadership: Content and contextual comparisons. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. Vol 10, No 4, 80-91.
Spears, L., ed. (1995). Reflections on leadership: How Robert k. Greenleaf’s theory of servant-leadership influenced today’s top management thinkers. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc,
Spears, L., ed. (2002). Focus on leadership: servant-leadership for the 21st century. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc
Spears, L. C. (2004). Practicing servant leadership. Leader to Leader, 34(1) 7-11.
Stone, A. G., Russell. R. F., & Patterson, K. (2004). Transformational vs Servant Leadership: a difference in Leader Focus. Leadership & Organization Development Journal 25 (4) 349-361.
Trochim, William. (2001). The Research Methods Knowledge Base, 2nd ed. Cincinnati: Atomic Dog Publishing.
Vidaver-Cohen, D.: 1993, ‘Creating and Maintaining Ethical Work Climates: Implications for Managing Change’, Business Ethics Quarterly 3(4), 343–358 (Best Paper 1992, Society for Business Ethics).
Vidaver-Cohen, D.: 1995, ‘Creating Ethical Work Climates: A Socio-Economic Perspective’, Journal of Socio-Economics 24(2), 317–343 (Best Paper 1994, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics).
Vidaver-Cohen, D. (1998). Moral climate in business firms: A conceptual framework for analysis and change. Journal of Business Ethics 17 (11), 1211-1226.
Waldman, D. A., Siegel, D. S., & Javidan, M. (2006). Components of CEO transformational leadership and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Management Studies, 43:8, 1703-1725.
Walumbwa, F. O., D. Mayer, P. Wang, H. Wang and K. M. Workman: 2010, Opening the Black Box: Linking Ethical Leadership to Employee Performance. Paper Presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Washington, R. R.: 2007, Empirical Relationships Between Servant, Transformational, and Transactional Leaders. Paper Presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, Phila, PA.
Washington, R. R. & Sutton, C. D., & Field, H. S. (2006). Individual differences in servant leadership: The roles of values and personality. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. Vol. 27, No. 8, 700-716.
Whittington, J. L., B. A. Frank, R. C. May, B. Murray and V. L. Goodwin: 2006, Servant Leadership in Organizations: Scale Development and Validation. Paper Presented at the Academy of Management Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
Williams L.J., Buckley, M.R. and Cote J.A. (1989). Lack of method variance in self-report affect and perceptions at work: Reality or artifact? Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(3) 462-468.
Wong, P. T. P. and D. Page: 2003, ‘Servant Leadership: An Opponent-Process Model and the Revised Servant Leadership Profile,’ http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2003pdf/wong_servant_leadership.pdf. Retrieved 1/6/10.
Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations, 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0813-1
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reed, L.L., Vidaver-Cohen, D. & Colwell, S.R. A New Scale to Measure Executive Servant Leadership: Development, Analysis, and Implications for Research. J Bus Ethics 101, 415–434 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0729-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0729-1
Keywords
- servant leadership
- leadership
- scale development
- ethical leadership
- transformational leadership
- authentic leadership
- spiritual leadership
- moral climate
- ethical organizational culture
- institutional theory
- corporate responsibility
- interpersonal support
- moral integrity
- altruism
- egalitarianism
- transactional leadership
- building community