•  
  •  
 
Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the impact of servant-leadership training on team effectiveness. It proposes using a perceptive behavior assessment tool (team effectiveness questionnaire (TEQ)), along with six servant leadership themes will increase a team’s effectiveness. This study aims to expand the literature on methods used when seeking to improve operational effectiveness of work teams.

Design/methodology/approach: This intervention study followed the two-group pre-test-post-test design. 18 teams were randomly assigned to either a control or experimental group. Each team completed the TEQ and identified one to two domains to focus their development on over an 8-week period. Experimental group teams were trained on the six servant leadership themes. At the end of the 8-weeks, teams completed a post-TEQ which was then analyzed using a Bayesian paired sample t-test.

Findings: Both control group and experimental group teams realized an increase in perceptive team effectiveness. Results indicated teams that focused on the six servant leadership themes saw higher rates of effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications: Due to the small sample size, generalizability is limited and therefore it is recommended to continue exploring the effect of structured experiential learning around servant leadership themes.

Originality/value: While there is considerable research around ways to measure servant leadership behaviors, there is limited literature on how to improve a team dynamic, like effectiveness, through the use of servant leadership behaviors.

Keywords: servant leadership, team effectiveness, training, team effectiveness questionnaire, servant leadership behaviors, experiential learning theory.

Article type: Research paper

Download

Share

COinS