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Servant Leadership: Research

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Servant Leadership in Sport

Abstract

This chapter explores some of the key servant leadership research that has been conducted but starts with a comparison of servant leadership to other leadership theories including authentic leadership, spiritual leadership, charismatic leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership. Transformational leadership is most often identified as having the most similarities to servant leadership but key differences are explained including a transformational leader’s focus on outcomes and servant leader’s focus on follower need satisfaction. Research regarding antecedents of servant leadership is also shared. Proposed and researched antecedents of servant leadership include emotional intelligence, compassion, moral identity, character, personality traits, and negative connections to narcissism are shared. Despite its lack of focus on organizational outcomes, research on servant leadership consequences are discussed in the areas of creativity, trust, job satisfaction, engagement, leadership development, sales performance, and follower well-being. Finally, some of the sport-related research connected to outcomes is shared as well. Connections between servant leadership and athlete satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, enhanced performance, and organizational trust are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA

    Gregory S. Sullivan

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  1. Gregory S. Sullivan
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Correspondence to Gregory S. Sullivan .

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Sullivan, G.S. (2019). Servant Leadership: Research. In: Servant Leadership in Sport. Palgrave Studies in Workplace Spirituality and Fulfillment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11248-6_4

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