The Integrity of the Servant Leader

216 Pages·2016·4.352 MB·English

by  Robert Šumi, Dana Mesner-Andolšek

The Integrity of the Servant
Leader
The impact of the global financial crisis is still being felt today and the deeply
unethical behaviour of the top level leaders at those economic and financial organ-
isations, that were at the heart of the crisis, has served to highlight the importance
of integrity, and in particular the need for servant leadership, if we are to avoid
another major catastrophe in the management of both commercial and non-profit
organisations. Servant leadership has many features in common with transforma-
tional leadership but is primarily focused on caring about employees and their
personal development.
Ethical behaviour is one of the most important components of successful
leadership yet this remains insufficiently investigated, especially from an interdis-
ciplinary perspective. With the help of theory, empirical analysis and the relevant
methodological apparatus, the authors fill the gap in the analysis of integrity and
its impact on leadership and locate the significant factors which affect integrity
in general.
They develop and assess the forces that impact the servant leadership style, as
well as the ability to engender trust. As a starting point they make two assump-
tions: an important element in leading is the ethical dimension of leadership and
the ratio of factors that affect leading and the servant leadership style is complex,
but the integrity of leaders is the most important among them.
The authors examine four integrated scientific areas: ethics and business ethics,
human resource management and psychology and focus on the analysis of the
process of leadership and the factors within that process of leading that influence
its success and its ethical dimension.
Robert Šumi, PhD, is head of the Research and Social Skills Centre in the
Slovenian Police.
Dana Mesner-Andolšek, PhD, is Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social
Sciences, as well as a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of
Ljubljana (Slovenia).

The Integrity of the
Servant Leader
Robert Šumi and
Dana Mesner-Andolšek
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Robert Šumi and Dana Mesner-Andolšek
The right of Robert Šumi and Dana Mesner-Andolšek to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or reg-
istered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-21292-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-44964-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Sunrise Setting Ltd., Brixham, UK
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
Preface x
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 Integrity 8
The origin and the meaning of integrity 8
Definition of integrity 10
Ethics as the postulate of integrity 11
Virtue ethics 32
Integrity as a virtue 41
Personal integrity 45
Organisational integrity 55
Research on integrity 57
2 Leadership 67
Definition of leadership 67
Distinguishing between leadership and management 67
Defining leadership 70
Personal integrity in relation to leadership 73
Studies of leadership 79
Development of the models and styles of leadership 81
Ethical leadership 89
Servant leadership 101
Researching servant leadership 120
3 The social significance of integrity and servant leadership 128
4 How employees assess their leaders 132
How does integrity influence the servant leadership style? 133
Initial model 137
vi Contents
5 The assessment of servant leadership and leader integrity
through an employee perspective 139
The assessed leaders 139
The difference between non-profit and for-profit organisations 142
Differences among the assessed leaders 145
Dimensions of servant leadership and leader integrity 145
Factors influencing the dimensions of servant leadership and
integrity 146
Qualitative assessment 157
Reflection on identified impacts 157
Final model 167
Summary 170
6 Conclusion 174
Appendix 179
References 186
Index 201
Figures
1.1 Integrity 10
1.2 The difference between ethics and morality 12
1.3 Ethics through history 20
1.4 Dimensions of ethics in business 23
1.5 Periods of business ethics 26
1.6 The golden rule 27
1.7 Factors of unethical behaviour 29
1.8 Virtue ethics 34
1.9 Meaning of virtue through history 40
1.10 Personal integrity 43
1.11 Factors that determine personal integrity 44
1.12 Definition of integrity 49
1.13 Moral development 52
1.14 Organisational integrity 57
1.15 Positive impacts of leaders’ integrity on organisations 63
2.1 Leaders with and without integrity 75
2.2 Individualisation of management 80
2.3 Criteria that define ethical behaviour 91
2.4 Ethical leadership 94
2.5 Situational factors affecting the perception of employees about
the morality of leaders 95
2.6 Perception of ethical leadership 100
2.7 Ethical leadership studies 102
2.8 Questions that test whether someone is a servant leader 102
2.9 The first concept of servant leadership 104
2.10 Leadership styles 118
2.11 Positive effects of servant leadership 123
4.1 The influence of integrity on the servant leadership style: the
initial research model 137
5.1 The differences in mean values of the variables in the
questionnaire on servant leadership in for-profit organisations
and the non-profit organisation 143
viii Figures
5.2 The differences in mean values of the variables in the
questionnaire on leader integrity in for-profit organisations
and the non-profit organisation 144
5.3 Factor analysis of the variables in the questionnaire on integrity 147
5.4 Factors affecting the first dimension of servant leadership
(conceptual skills) 148
5.5 Factors affecting the second dimension of servant leadership
(empowerment) 149
5.6 Factors affecting the third dimension of servant leadership
(helping employees with personal growth) 150
5.7 Factors affecting the fourth dimension of servant leadership
(putting the employees first) 151
5.8 Factors affecting the fifth dimension of servant leadership
(on ethical behaviour and conduct) 152
5.9 Factors affecting the sixth dimension of servant leadership
(emotional support) 153
5.10 Factors affecting the seventh dimension of servant leadership
(caring for the community) 155
5.11 Factors affecting the integrity of the leader 156
5.12 The influence of integrity on the servant leadership style: the
final model 168
Tables
I.1 Examining the consequences of the moral behaviour of leaders 5
2.1 The role of management and leadership 69
5.1 Rating of the servant leadership style from the employee
perspective in non-profit and for-profit organisations together 140
5.2 The assessment of leader integrity through the employee
perspective in non-profit and for-profit organisations together 141
5.3 Dimensions of servant leadership for all leaders in for-profit
and non-profit organisations 146
5.4 Variance and the level of significance of the regression model:
‘index of integrity’ 155
A.1 Variance and the level of significance in the evaluated
regression models 185