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Development of the servant leadership assessment instrument

Robert S. Dennis (Department of Veterans Affairs, Dayton, Ohio, USA)
Mihai Bocarnea (School of Leadership Studies, Regent University, Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 1 December 2005

16108

Abstract

Purpose

Building upon Patterson's servant leadership theory, this study aims to present an instrument to measure the constructs of this working theory (identified as agapao love, humanity, altruism, vision, trust, service, and empowerment).

Design/methodology/approach

Specifically, the seven component concepts, as defined by Patterson, were used to build items for a servant leadership instrument. This study used DeVellis' “Guidelines in Scale Development” to develop an instrument for Patterson's new theory of servant leadership. The participants for the study consisted of a stratified sample taken from the study response data base. The surveys were created, and administered, using an online survey using surveysuite.

Findings

Three separate data collections were used for the development of this instrument reducing the 71‐item scale to 42 items yielding five factors: empowerment, love, humility, trust, and vision.

Research limitations/implications

Recommend that future research include surveys at companies and organizations that advocate servant leadership concepts. Future research should include how each gender influences some of these items.

Practical implications

It is the intention that this instrument has the ability to predict or give measurement to the concepts of Patterson's theory of servant leadership so that a servant leader can measure his or her effectiveness as a servant leader.

Originality/value

According to the review of the literature, this is the first instrument to measure five factors on servant leadership.

Keywords

Citation

Dennis, R.S. and Bocarnea, M. (2005), "Development of the servant leadership assessment instrument", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 26 No. 8, pp. 600-615. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730510633692

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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