REGENT UNI VERSI TY
Effective servant leadership:
A model incorporating servant leadership and the competing values
framework
Servant Leadership Research Roundtable  August 2004
Jeanine L. Parolini
Regent University
The concepts of servant leadership and the competing values framework are explored and brought
into a model for effective servant leadership which suggests that servant leaders enhance a firm s
business performance, financial performance, and organizational effectiveness by prioritizing human
resources, then open systems and internal process, and lastly, rational goals. The concepts of
servant leadership and the competing values framework are joined by shared core concepts and
their focuses on people, values-centered leadership, overcoming hierarchy, and team building in
managing trade-offs. Empirical research around the competing values framework reveals that top
leaders produce the best organizational performance by focusing on people and managing multiple
and competing priorities. Proposed research may help quantify the contribution servant leaders
make to an organization.
In the United States of America, the beginnings of this century have marked a time of public crises. Financial
and sexual scandals have devastated Americans, reducing public confidence in leaders and leaving Americans
ambivalent, angry, and hungry for reform ("Americans Speak", 2002). Reform can come through leaders that
are moral servants. A review of the literature on servant leadership and the competing values framework
reveals shared core concepts between the two including being values-centered, prioritizing people for
effectiveness, being paradoxical in nature, the ability to manage team and trade-offs, and being a response to
historical leadership patterns of hierarchy and autocratic leadership.
The Barna Research Group states that  people s reactions run the gamut from hostility to indifference but few
Americans retain a high level of trust in the leading cultural influencers, such as corporate executives
("Americans Speak", 2002, p. 1). The Barna Group found that only one of the seven roles investigated that of
teacher, held the public s confidence by just over 50%. Executives of large corporations were at 12% and
elected government officials at 18%. This poll suggests that America s trust and confidence in major leaders
has dwindled because of these crises.
Barna ("Americans Speak", 2002) suggests these crises are due to a lack of moral leadership character, which
stands in agreement with 55% of adults that suggest greed or immorality motivated the difficulties. Barna
states,  Skills can be learned but character is a reflection of the heart that is formed from a person s early
years and emerges as they age (p. 3).
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According to Yukl (2002), early leadership studies conducted in the 1930s and 1940s attributed leadership
success to traits including  tireless energy, penetrating intuition, uncanny foresight, and irresistible persuasive
powers (p. 12). Yukl suggests these studies failed to tie leadership traits to variables that influenced
leadership effectiveness and group performance. Barna ("Americans Speak", 2002) posits that a leader s
character is the force that allows the leader to move beyond the temptation to grab for power, prestige,
publicity, or other perks that can overpower the commitment to moral virtues and eventually lead to leader
downfall. Barna suggests that leaders must demonstrate character rather than skills or abilities in order to
build back America s trust.
Servant leadership may offer an answer to America s leadership dilemma in that morals, ethics, and values on
the part of the leader are central to its success (Graham, 1991; Laub, 2003; Russell, 2001). At the same time,
servant leadership is considered to be fairly new in the field of leadership study and has little empirical
research to support its philosophy (Farling, Stone, & Winston, 1999; Laub, 2003; Russell & Stone, 2002). Laub
suggests that questions as to how to identify it, when it is in use and not in use, and where is the research
base to support it continue to go unanswered. This paper seeks to respond to those questions by providing a
conceptual model that identifies effective servant leadership through the use of the competing values
framework.
As organizations move from managing by instructions, objectives, hierarchy, or autocracy toward managing by
values, different leadership styles are necessary (DiPadova & Faerman, 1993; Dolan & Garcia, 2002). Servant
leaders value serving first then leading as they see to it that people s highest priority needs are being served in
that followers are becoming  healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become
servants (Greenleaf, 1977, p. 27). The literature suggests that servant leaders skills are influenced by certain
character traits as well as their orientation toward people.
Competing values research empirically shows that effective leaders value people first, then context and
systems, and lastly productive goals (Hart & Quinn, 1993; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981). Setting these priorities
is empirically linked to maximizing business and financial performance as well as organizational effectiveness.
The model in this paper suggests that as servant leaders bring specific character traits, a certain orientation
toward people, and a set of skills to their prioritization of people first, then context and systems, and lastly
productive goals, they will maximize business and financial performance as well as organizational
effectiveness.
Defining Servant Leadership
Greenleaf (1977) defined a servant leader as servant first in his statement:
It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to
aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to
assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. (p. 27)
In his statement, Greenleaf points out the extreme difference between the servant-first leader and the leader-
first leader. The servant-first leader takes all precautions to make sure other people s highest priority needs
are being served whereas the leader-first leader may forget others in his or her drive for power and
possessions. It is important to keep this in mind in looking at the variables that must be associated with a
servant leadership model in that servant leaders bring an inner character strength that is stronger than their
drive for power, position, and possessions.
Unfortunately, servant leadership has been confused with weak or subservient leadership. In Collins (2001a)
search for how to describe Level 5 Leadership, he and his team almost ventured to call it servant leadership,
but later backed off from the title in concern that it would appear weak or meek without expressing the
strength in humility and fierce resolve in it. Servant leadership is anything but weak or meek and is incorrectly
defined when described this way.
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Page and Wong (2000; Russell & Stone, 2002) offer a conceptual model of servant leadership that categorizes
200 items describing servant leadership into 100 attributes and then into 12 subscales. Page and Wong s 12
categories are similar to the 66-items categorized by Laub, which were later narrowed down to 6 with 18
subsets (Laub, 2003; Page & Wong, 2000). Page and Wong s model also appears to incorporate the extensive
list described by Russell and Stone. Page and Wong suggest the servant leader can have impact upon society
and culture by bringing specific character traits (integrity, humility, and servanthood) to an orientation toward
people (caring, empowering, and developing), which influence the use of leadership tasks (visioning, goal
setting, and leading) and processes (modeling, team building, and shared decision making) (see Figure 1).
Page and Wong s factor analysis yielded 8 of the 12 factors including leading, servanthood, visioning,
developing others, team-building, empowering others, shared decision making, and integrity. Dennis and
Winston (2003) conducted a factor analysis which yielded 3 factors including servanthood, visioning, and
empowering others. Based upon both analyses, it seems that the model has some merit.
Figure  1: Parolini s model for effective servant leadership using Page and Wong s conceptual framework for
measuring servant leadership
Page and Wong (2003) describe the servant leader s character and being in terms of the independent
variables of integrity, humility, and servanthood. Integrity, humility, and servanthood within the heart of the
leader make up the force by which the leader is able to overcome ego and a self-serving agenda in order to
value serving people first.
Integrity
Integrity is defined as the firm adherence to a code of moral values, which results in incorruptibility,
soundness, and completeness in terms of being undivided (Merriam-Webster, 2004). Honesty, which according
to Merriam-Webster is the synonym of integrity, implies a refusal to lie, steal, or deceive and results in fairness
and straightforwardness of action, sincerity, and adherence to the facts. Integrity incorporates aspects of
ethics, values, morals, honesty, and trust (Russell & Stone, 2002). Becker (1998) distinguishes between moral
integrity over personal integrity in that moral individuals are committed to a rational and objective set of
principles that support the greater good over personal subjectivism. He suggests society without moral values
and principles could be subject to a twisted form of integrity based upon personal subjectivism where leaders
have integrity to a set of principles that are out for their own interests and potentially harmful to others, such
as in the case of Adolph Hitler. Clawson (1999; Patterson, 2003) posits that integrity in effective leadership is
based upon the four values of truth-telling, promise-keeping, fairness, and respect for the individual. Lewicki
and Wiethoff (2000) define trust as an individual s ability to be consistent in words and actions as well as in
the ability to understand and appreciate the wants of others. Integrity is summed up as the leader s
commitment to an objective set of moral values that result in an inward and outward honesty, trustworthiness,
and fairness that serves the greater good.
Humility
Humility is a display of character that supports leaders in overcoming egotistical tendencies of thought, feeling,
and action. Collins (2001b) describes humility as a duality of inward fierceness and outward modesty that
when combined, refrain one from letting ego interfere with making the best decisions. Hare (1996) describes
humility as a tendency to not over-value one s self so that the ability to value the worth of others is enabled.
According to Sandage and Wiens (2001), humility is the ability to focus on others, from a position of self-
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Effective Servant Leadership - Parolini
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acceptance, by keeping one s abilities in perspective. Humility within the leader counteracts and limits the
negative effects of too much self-interest (Patterson, 2003). Humility enables the leader to truly serve others.
Service
Servant leaders are motivated to serve first then lead (Greenleaf, 1977). Block (1993) posits servant leaders
choose service over self interest. Winston (2003) suggests the desire to serve is motivated by a focus on
serving as compared to a sense of servitude or requirement. Page and Wong s (2000) servant leadership self-
assessment describes the contentment, enjoyment, willingness, personal sacrifice, fortitude, and fairness that
servant leaders experience as they act in service toward others, and because of this, servant leaders inspire
others to serve. In a broadcast of Dateline NBC (Phillips, 2004), Larry Spears described the toughness and
strength of character that motivates sacrifice and service in servant leaders. This definition of service
describes the leader s choice and desire to serve, which is part of the leader s character. If the leader s choice
and desire is left out of the definition of servant leadership then the underlying motives of a servant leader
could be misinterpreted as weak or subservient. Choi and Mai-Dalton (1998) propose that followers respond to
a leader s sacrifice and service in reciprocal ways.
The servant leader s being, comprised of the independent variables of integrity, humility, and service,
influences and is influenced by the moderating variables of caring for, empowering, and developing followers
(Wong & Page, 2003). Buchen (1998) posits that the servant leader has worked though personal egotism so
as to be able to build into people and relationships.
Care
Servant leaders care for others in that they are listeners, understanding, accepting, and empathic (Greenleaf,
1977). Greenleaf posits that leaders naturally serve in making listening an automatic response to people and
problems. Listening helps leaders get to a significant place of understanding. Servant leaders, according to
Greenleaf, accept what the follower brings to the relationship while sometimes refusing to accept some of the
follower s effort or performance as good enough. Empathy on the part of the leader toward the follower can
help the follower to feel cared about even in the midst of confronting issues of effort or performance. A study
by Kellett, Humphrey, and Sleeth (2002) suggests that empathy, as one of several emotional abilities, is linked
with perceived effective leadership.
Empower
Buchen (1998) describes the reciprocity of power that takes place in the servant leader s most important
mission of empowering others. Winston (2003) suggests servant leaders empower through providing the
follower with authority, accountability, responsibility, and resources, as well as power, to achieve what the
follower wants in relation to the vision. Melrose (1995) elaborates on empowerment by explaining that it sets
clear expectations, goals, and responsibilities while allowing followers to self-direct and fail. Servant leaders
empower by encouraging followers to do their own thinking and not be overtaken by appealing to power or
position, which actually increases the potential for moral reasoning within the organization (Graham, 1995). In
a case study, Winston found some correlation between empowerment and followers perception of being
respected.
Develop
Kotter (2001) posits that the goal of empowerment is to create leaders at multiple levels within the
organization, which is a component of developing others. Buchen (1998) believes that the goal of servant
leaders is to develop other leaders within the organization through dealing with their own ego, empowering and
sharing knowledge, serving first, building relationships, and looking to the future and future generation of
leaders. Servant leaders look for the hidden talents in followers, bring out the best in followers, forgive and
help followers to learn from failures, invest time and energy in equipping followers, and raise up successors
(Page & Wong, 2000).
The servant leader s care, empowerment, and development of people moderates his or her ability to get things
done through the mediating variables of visioning, goal setting, leading, modeling, team-building, and shared
decision making (Wong & Page, 2003).
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Visioning
The servant leader is both able to inspire vision within the organization and its individual members. Page and
Wong (2000) suggest this ability is measured through a strong sense of personal mission, calling, and values.
Greenleaf (1977) describes servant leaders foresight and ability to conceptualize in his statement that they
need to  have a sense for the unknowable and be able to foresee the unforeseeable (p. 22). The servant
leader is able to provide a strategic vision for the organization as well as inspire, motivate, and move others
toward it, according to Greenleaf. Along with vision for the organization, the servant leader is an empowerer
and developer seeking to inspire followers toward their best fit in fulfilling the vision. Winston (2003) suggests
that servant leaders support followers in finding their purpose and inspire them toward it.
Goal Setting
Servant leaders bring the discipline necessary to set goals in guiding people and the organization toward the
vision. Page and Wong (2000) suggest serving leaders bring focus, discipline, clarity, and realism to goal
setting. Giampetro-Meyer, Brown, Browne, and Kubasek (1998) challenge servant leaders to consider business
goals and efficiency in their leadership, especially considering today s global market and strict competition.
Servant leaders see their first goal as serving people first (Greenleaf, 1977) and getting the right people on
board (Collins, 2001a). Overall personal values direct the servant leader s goals, priorities, and performance
(Page & Wong, 2000).
Leading
Servant leaders lead by inspiring and persuading others to move toward the vision, while keeping service at the
forefront of their motives and message. Huey (1994) suggests leaders must derive their influence from values,
which Malphurs (1996) says must come from within the leader in knowing his or her own value system in order
to transmit it through inspiring and persuading others. Servant leaders are effective problem solvers, able to
take input and carefully weigh the options, have a good understanding of what is happening within the
organization, are able to communicate ideas effectively, give power to others, and are able to move different
types of people forward in achieving results (Page & Wong, 2000).
Modeling
Merriam-Webster (2004) defines modeling as forming or planning after a pattern. Kouzes and Posner (1995)
describe modeling as providing a personal visible example for followers as well as a way to instill vision, values,
and ethics into the organization. Briner and Prichard (1998) suggest that the servant leader model attracts
followers into commitment, dedication, discipline, and excellence. Winston (2003) found a correlation between
leader modeling and follower respect for leader values, which implies that followers can focus on leader
ontology as much as task accomplishment in determining whether to follow the leader s model. Servant
leaders lead by example (Page & Wong, 2000), which demonstrates a value for integrity on the part of the
leader.
Team-building
Servant leaders build community and foster cooperation (Page & Wong, 2000; Spears, 1996). In the servant
lead organization, people work together well in teams and prefer collaboration over competition (Laub, 2003).
Gardner (1990) states,  [S]kill in the building and rebuilding of community is not just another of the
innumerable requirements of contemporary leaders. It is one of the highest and most essential skills a leader
can command (p. 118). He encourages leaders to develop community that nurtures its members, fosters
trust, respects one another, and has shared values. Page and Wong (2000) add that times of celebration,
creative and constructive ways to work through conflict, and embracing differences and each team member s
unique contribution are ways to foster teamwork. Gardner posits that good leaders are able to foster trust and
dependency among team members.
Shared Decision Making
Gardner (1990) says,  The taking of responsibility is at the heart of leadership. To the extent that leadership
tasks are shared, responsibility is shared (p. 152). He goes on to create a picture of how the wider sharing of
tasks and responsibility lower barriers to leaders and begin to offer more leaders the chance to test their skills,
the enjoyment of greater freedom, and the opportunity for increased purpose and responsibility. Gardner
suggests that this sharing of responsibility can actually build self-confidence and inclusion. Greenleaf (1977)
posits that servant leaders share power in decision making. In servant organizations, Laub (2003) describes
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Effective Servant Leadership - Parolini
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that people are encouraged to provide leadership at all levels of the organization in that power and leadership
are shared so that most people can contribute to decisions.
Figure 1 sums up the outcome of servant leadership as bringing humility, integrity, and servanthood to caring
for, empowering, and developing others in living out the skills of visioning, goal setting, leading, modeling,
team-building, and shared decision making.
Defining the Competing Values Framework
Quinn developed the competing values framework to describe perceptions that are the foundation of social
action (Hunt, Hosking, Schriesheim, & Stewart, 1984). He suggests that social action is reflective of three core
value dimensions, which support four paradigms or worldviews. Quinn s structured analysis indicates that
people tend toward one main paradigm of action more than any of the others.
At the same time, Quinn and MacGrath (1982) have not meant to suggest one single-solution framework for
organizational success. In fact, they argue that organizational development has suffered from single-solution
frameworks that are not comprehensive enough to explain the complexities of organizational processes. The
authors believe the competing values framework can meet the needs for complex diagnostic and change
processes within organizations or smaller groups.
Initially, Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) created a program of research to investigate organizational
effectiveness criteria by asking successive panels of experts in organizational theory to make judgments about
the similarity or dissimilarity of effectiveness criteria. In the exploratory phase, six of the seven experts
presented published papers on the topic and were asked to participate in a two-stage judgment process to
reduce Campbell s (1977) list of 30 organizational effectiveness criteria. Using multidimensional scaling, three
dimensions emerged for measuring organizational effectiveness. At the conclusion of the exploratory study,
another panel of experts was used in conjunction with multidimensional scaling to attempt to replicate the
results with a larger, more diverse group of active theorists and researchers.
Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) found that researchers shared an implicit theoretical framework on
organizational effectiveness and could be sorted according to the three value dimensions of focus, structure,
and means and ends. Focus is the value for an internal (micro) emphasis on the well being and development of
people within the organization or an external (macro) emphasis on the well being and development of the
organization itself. The second value dimension of structure is defined as an emphasis on stability on one end
of the continuum to an emphasis on flexibility on the other end. The last dimension, means and ends, on one
end has to do with an emphasis on the processes that will reach the end goal (e.g., planning and goal setting),
to the other end of productivity. The three value dimensions resulted in naming four constructs of
effectiveness.
Quinn (1988) describes the human resources model as focused on internal flexibility with cohesion, morale,
and training as the means to reaching development of human resources. Teamwork is important to this model
as concern for people, commitment, discussion, participation, and openness are valued.
The open systems model is also high on flexibility but from an external perspective in that organizational
flexibility and readiness are focuses to reach growth and resource acquisition (Quinn, 1988). Quinn posits that
insight, innovation, and adaptation are valued in an attempt to secure external support, resource acquisition,
and transformational growth.
The rational goal model is externally focused to ensure a competitive position in that accomplishment,
productivity, profit, and impact are valued (Quinn, 1988). Planning, goal clarification, direction setting and
decision making processes are encouraged to gain control in maximizing output, productivity, and efficiency.
The internal process model is internally focused on information management and communication to reach
stability, continuity, and control. Quinn (1988) suggests that measurement, documentation and management
of information are central to the internal process model.
Servant Leadership Research Roundtable  August 2004
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The competing values framework has been well received and has empirical research to support it.
Organizational effectiveness research has tended to impose values systems on research and concepts
whereas the competing values approach brings values choices to the forefront and engages organizations in
making conscious choices in diagnosis and change to reach greater effectiveness (Rohrbaugh, 1983). In using
the tool for diagnosis and change, Quinn and McGrath (1982) found that  operating managers are particularly
drawn to this tension-based framework (p. 470) and quickly adopt the language and ability to interpret their
profile (DiPadova & Faerman, 1993).
Quinn and Cameron (1983) discussed the relationships between stages of development in organizational life
cycles and organizational effectiveness and found the competing values framework to help predict the
changes in major criteria of effectiveness as young organizations develop through their life cycles. Organization
theorists and researchers are finding that leaders must assume multiple contradictory roles to meet the
emerging needs of organizational lifecycles and changes (Buenger, Draft, Conlon, & Austin, 1996; Denison,
Hooijberg, & Quinn, 1995; Rohrbaugh, 1981; Sendelback, 1993).
Buenger et al. (1996) confirm the existence of the framework within organizations and suggest that value
patterns differ within environmental and technological contexts, indicating the need for value tradeoffs based
upon where the organization needs to go. Researchers have found support for use of the competing values
framework in understanding, comparing, and evaluating organizational cultures as well as establishing
organizational direction (Brown & Dodd, 1998; Hooijberg & Petrock, 1993; Howard, 1998; Panayotopoulou,
Bourantas, & Papalexandris, 2003; Sendelback, 1993)
The framework has also been used to explain how managers and leaders can allow their strengths to put them
at risk by getting trapped in one area of the model while the organization needs to attend to another set of
values (Quinn, 1988). Quinn states:
The more that success is pursued around one set of positive values, the greater will be the pressure to take
into account the opposite positive values. If these other values are ignored long enough, crisis and
catastrophe will result. (p. 72)
In fact, Quinn found the models to be interwoven. He found one model to be the opposite of one of the others
and a complement to the two that remain (see Figure 2). During a staff development time, the author of this
paper took 58 staff members through Quinn s values questionnaire and grid to find that this was true with 57
staff members or 98% of the staff.
Figure 2. Quinn s theory on the complementary and oppositional nature of the competing values framework
Hart and Quinn (1993) used the framework to show that CEOs with the capacity to play multiple, competing
roles produce the best corporate performance. The moderator or human resources model was the only one of
the four which predicted all three dimensions of performance including business and financial performance as
well as organizational effectiveness. The vision setter or open systems model was predictive of business
performance and organizational effectiveness whereas the analyzer role or internal process model was also
predictive of both but less than the vision setter. Surprisingly, although executives who responded most
frequently played the taskmaster or rational goal role, it was not predictive of performance on any dimension.
Hart and Quinn s research of the 916 top managers using Venkatraman and Ramanujam s (1986) framework
for evaluating firm performance, reveals that those managers that focus on people were found to perform best
in terms of business and financial performance as well as organizational effectiveness. Additional research
suggests effective leadership comes through valuing and prioritizing human resources (Brown & Dodd, 1998;
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Effective Servant Leadership - Parolini
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Denison et al., 1995; Greenleaf, 1977; Panayotopoulou et al., 2003; Polleys, 2002; Sendjaya & Sarros, 2002).
The research proposes that those leaders that embrace multiple values tensions by prioritizing human
resources first, then internal processes and or open systems, and lastly rational goals direct the organization
toward its best performance in terms of business and financial performance as well as organizational
effectiveness (Hart & Quinn, 1993; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981) (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Effective leadership based on Hart and Quinn s research
The Integration of Servant Leadership and Competing Values
Dolan and Garcia (2002) posit that organizations are moving from managing by instructions and objectives to
managing by values. A system of values is vital to organizational integrity and growth (Dolan & Garcia, 2002;
Edgeman & Scherer, 1999; Rohrbaugh, 1983). Both servant leadership and the competing values framework
bring the core values and worldview of the leader to the surface. This paper suggests, through the use of Page
and Wong s (2000) conceptual model, that servant leaders bring the values of integrity, servanthood, and
humility to their leadership.
Leader character and integrity is the ability to hold to a set of rational values and live them out, enhancing
them as knowledge increases (Becker, 1998). Both servant leaders and effective leaders, through research
using the competing values framework, act from a consistent awareness of the greater needs of people and
the organization in choosing the best alternatives (Denison et al., 1995; King, 1994; Lee & Zemke, 1993;
Pepper, 2003; Pollard, 1997; Quinn, Hildebrandt, Rogers, & Thompson, 1991; Rohrbaugh, 1981; Sendjaya &
Sarros, 2002; Yang & Shao, 1996).
As organizations support the importance of managing by values, there is a trend toward flatter organizational
structures and the need for facilitators rather than  bosses (Dolan & Garcia, 2002). The gap between the two
groups labor and management is being closed and the barriers that have kept hierarchical levels separate
are being broken down (DiPadova & Faerman, 1993). Instead of looking to the old paradigms of leadership
which include dynamic, charismatic, force-of-personality characteristics, Polleys (2002) states,  The call for
servant leaders looks instead to traits that flow naturally from deeply held beliefs about the worth of persons
(p. 121). Both servant leaders and effective competing values leaders recognize the importance of
empowering, team building, and shared decision making to manage all the needs of today s organizations.
Over the years, observers have become sensitive to the nature of change, contradictions, and chaos in
effective management and organizational behavior (Cameron & Quinn, 1988). Both the terms servant leader
and competing values hold paradoxes within their definitions. Managing paradox and trade-offs is key to
effective leadership today (Buenger et al., 1996; Quinn, 1988) Van de Ven and Poole (1988) describe paradox
as  the simultaneous presence of two mutually exclusive assumptions or statements; taken singly, each is
incontestably true, but taken together they are inconsistent (p. 21). The need to manage paradox, competing
roles, and competing values has caused the emergence of team in that a team of people is required to meet
all of these emerging demands (DiPadova & Faerman, 1993; Martin & Simons, 2002; Yang & Shao, 1996).
Today s leaders are being required to diligently develop their human resources so as to meet these emerging
needs (Brown & Dodd, 1998; Panayotopoulou et al., 2003). Servant leaders manage paradox and trade-offs by
developing and empowering others on their team to help manage all the competing values.
The following hypotheses predict how effective servant leadership is carried out in organizations as well as how
it can be most effective to the organization.
Servant Leadership Research Roundtable  August 2004
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Hypothesis 1: Servant leaders are defined by their ability to bring integrity, humility, and servanthood
into caring for, empowering, and developing of others in carrying out the tasks and processes of visioning, goal
setting, leading, modeling, team building, and shared-decision making.
Hypothesis 2: Servant leaders first prioritize human resources, then open systems and internal
processes, and lastly, rational goals in bringing the best overall business performance, financial performance,
and organizational effectiveness to their firms.
Figure 4. Parolini s model for effective servant leadership using Page and Wong s conceptual framework and
the competing values framework
Discussion and Conclusion
This paper seeks to further explain the specific character, people, task, and process traits associated with
servant leadership, as well as how effective leadership is defined through the use of the competing values
framework. Two hypotheses are suggested for further research to confirm that effective servant leaders bring
these skills to their leadership in valuing human resources first, then open systems and internal processes,
and lastly, rational goals to ultimately contribute to the firms business performance, financial performance,
and organizational effectiveness.
Further research is suggested by analyzing 10 organizations from these three aspects: (a) evaluating their
leadership from the perspective of servant leadership; (b) evaluating their organization from the perspective of
the competing values framework; and (c) analyzing their business and financial performance, as well as
organizational effectiveness using Venkatraman and Ramanujam s (1986) framework. Servant leadership
would be investigated using both qualitative and quantitative research in performing interviews as well as
using Page and Wong s (2000) Revised Servant Leadership Profile or Laub s (2003) Organizational Leadership
Assessment. Qualitative research would be performed through the use of interviews and analysis around
Quinn s (1988) tools to measure competing values. A quantitative assessment would be provided through one
of Quinn s tools or developed from the qualitative interviews. Organizations records would be analyzed based
upon Venkatraman and Ramanujam s framework to determine business and financial performance as well as
organizational effectiveness. All 3 sets of information would be further analyzed on the 10 organizations to
investigate servant leadership in the context of living out the priorities of competing values and how this
affects firm performance.
From the perspective of this author, this research could define effective servant leadership in a way that would
contribute to a greater understanding of its value upon the organization s performance.
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