SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND SERVING CULTURE:
INFLUENCE ON INDIVIDUAL AND UNIT PERFORMANCE
Servant leadership is an approach to leading based on prioritizing the fulfillment of followers’
needs and thus, enabling followers to realize their full potential. Behaviors comprising servant
leadership include emotional healing (being sensitive to the personal setbacks of followers),
creating value for the community (encouraging followers to engage in volunteer activities that
benefit local communities), conceptual skills (problem-solving abilities and task knowledge),
empowering (delegating and allowing followers to make decisions), helping subordinates grow
and succeed (developing followers’ competencies), putting subordinates first (prioritizing
followers’ needs over one’s own), and behaving ethically. The purpose of this study was to
examine the process by which managers who engage in servant leadership behaviors enhance
employee performance as well as team performance. In other words, why are individuals and
teams who are managed by servant leaders higher performing compared to those with leaders
who are not engaging in servant leadership?
Based on surveys completed by 961 employees and their managers from 71 restaurants of a
U.S. chain, Dr. Robert Liden, Dr. Sandy Wayne, Dr. Chenwei Liao, and Jeremy Meuser found
 Store managers who engaged in servant leadership behaviors served as role models
to followers; in turn, followers (i.e., assistant managers and employees) modeled the
behaviors of their store manager, creating a serving culture.
 A serving culture is norms and shared expectations that managers and employees
actively assist each other.
 Restaurants with a serving culture were higher performing in terms of carryout
accuracy, delivery accuracy, customer satisfaction, maintenance of facilities, and
sanitation.
 A serving culture enhanced employee identification with their restaurant, increasing
employee performance, creativity and customer service, and reducing turnover.
Implications of the Results:
Organizations emphasizing customer service and promotion-from-within may especially benefit
from leadership approaches that develop employees to their full potential. Servant leadership,
with its inherent prioritization of fulfilling followers’ needs and developing their potential, is
well suited for such organizations. Servant leadership is more than creating a positive work
environment but clearly, based on the results of this study, impacts performance-related
outcomes. Leaders who engage in servant leadership create a serving culture, which facilitates
coworker interactions, even in the absence of the leader. In this way, servant leadership
creates a self-perpetuating cycle that drives organizational performance as well as employee
performance.
This study was funded by a grant from the UIC Institute for Leadership Excellence and Development (iLEAD) and the Society for
Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation. However, the interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of
the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the SHRM Foundation.