Validating Servant Leadership

In his recent paper 'SLBS-6: Validation of a Short Form of the Servant Leadership Behavior Scale', Dr Mulyadi Robin (head of the AC Leadership program) continues the work on Servant Leadership that he began under the leading scholar in the area, Sen Sendjaya. As recognized by his award of a Greenleaf Scholar's award at the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership (Seton Hall University, New Jersey), in this Dr Robin has applied high level statistical validation approaches to a commonly used 'short form' Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale. Nathan (2013) has demonstrated its usefulness in understanding youth leadership development, and Henning (2016) in perceived job satisfaction. Sendjaya, Sarros, and Santora (2008) point to the manner in which SL deals with the chronic problems evinced in the demise during the 2000s 'of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and scores of other companies in the United States', and the need for a fundamental rethinking of 'the bottom lines' on which businesses run. 

The psychometric properties of the SLBS-6 were examined on the basis of seven studies, and the construct validity of the Scale tested using a combination of all samples. Analyses of all datasets demonstrated the internal consistency reliability, criterion-related validity, and construct validity of the scale. As such, the study presents the SLBS-6 remains the shortest holistic measure of servant leadership to date that can be used with confidence for research and training purposes.

References:

• Henning, P. (2016). The relationship between servant leadership and employee job satisfaction in a Colorado nonprofit organization, Colorado Technical University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
• Nathan, E. (2013). 'Creating future leaders: an examination of youth leadership development in Australia',  Education & Training 55.6, pp.584-598.
• Sendjaya, S.; Sarros, J. C.; Santora, J. C. (2008). 'Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations', Journal of Management Studies 45.2 (March), pp. 402-424.
  
• Sendjaya, S., Eva, N., Butar Butar, I., Robin, M., & Castles, S. (2019). 'SLBS-6: validation of a short form of the Servant Leadership Behavior Scale'. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3594-3