Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

8-2019

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Dr. James H. Lampley, Chair

Committee Members

Dr. William B. Flora, Dr. Virginia Foley, Dr. William B. Greer

Abstract

Servant leaders work for the betterment of their followers while also seeking to achieve goals for the organization. Servant leaders, in particular, are among those who strive to work for the greater good of those they serve. Servant leaders possess ethical and moral traits that allow them to serve as an example for followers within an organization, including the public school system.

Permission to use the Servant Leadership Measures Survey was given by the lead author of the survey. The survey measured the degree that leaders exhibit leadership characteristics that are most associated with the servant leadership dimensions of Emotional Healing, Creating Value for the Community, Conceptual Skills, Empowerment, Helping Subordinates Grow and Succeed, Putting Subordinates First, and Ethical Behavior. A 28-item survey was distributed to the 4 Directors of Schools that self-identified as servant leaders. The same 28-item survey from the employee perspective was distributed to teachers within the participating school districts.

The purpose of this study was to compare the self-reported servant leadership scores of Directors of Schools to their faculty members’ scores. Participants included Directors of Schools and teachers from 4 public school districts from the First Region of Tennessee. A non experimental, quantitative approach was used to determine whether Directors of Schools shared the same perception of their leadership style as the teachers who work within their school district.

According to the findings Directors primarily scored themselves within the high range for showing servant leadership traits, and teachers in all districts scored their Director from the moderate to high range for demonstrating servant leadership characteristics. However, despite scores typically falling within the same range, there were overall significant differences between scores as teachers’ scores were significantly lower than their Director’s scores for several of the dimensions.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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