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Servant Leadership has been an area of interest for businesses over the last decade (Sokoll, 2014). Greenleaf (1970, 1977), first studied servant leadership where he identified leaders that served their people first then mission (Sokoll, 2014; Song, Kwangseo, & Seung-Wan Kang, 2015; Van Winkle, Allen, DeVore, & Winston, 2014). The problem addressed in this study was if a supervisors’ leadership style may influence an employees’ commitment to a supervisor. Research indicates a significant change in servant leadership over the last 10-years (Zander, Mockaitis & Butler, 2012). Research currently exists for the use and results of servant leadership with supervisors, bank employees, and education employees; however, there are areas not explored like retail companies at locations mostly located in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between a supervisors' leadership style and an employee’s commitment to a supervisor. This quantitative study investigated the employee preference of supervisors’ servant leadership style and employee commitment to a supervisor. The research question addressed in this study was, “What is the relationship between employees’ perception of his/ her supervisor’s servant leadership style and employees’ commitment to a supervisor?” This study used a quantitative method to explore the relationship between employee perception of supervisor's servant leadership style and employees' commitment to a supervisor (Creswell, 2013). The correlational design is best for determining the relationship between the two variables using statistical data to validate and analyze gathered data (Creswell, 2013). The Essential Servant Leadership Behaviors (ESLB) instrument measured the supervisors' leadership style, and the Supervisor-Related Commitment instrument measured the employees' commitment to a supervisor. The results of this quantitative analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between supervisors' servant leadership style and employee commitment to the supervisor. The results from this study add to the breadth of the empirical body of knowledge regarding servant leadership and substantiating the validity and of the servant leadership theory. The findings from this study help validate the relationship between supervisors' servant leadership style and employee commitment to the supervisor within the North American retail industry. The research conducted not only provided empirical findings that support using the servant leadership style within the retail community and showed the value of practicing servant leadership in other industries.
Advisor: | Hughes, Larry |
Commitee: | Fenner, Charles, Sopko, Leila |
School: | Northcentral University |
Department: | School of Business and Technology Management |
School Location: | United States -- California |
Source: | DAI-A 81/2(E), Dissertation Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | Business administration, Management |
Keywords: | Commitment to supervisor, Employee commitment, Servant leadership, Servant leadership style, Supervisor |
Publication Number: | 13900526 |
ISBN: | 9781085612500 |