‘Pergumulan’ as the Starter and Sustainer of Servant Leadership: A Case of Academic Leadership in an Indonesian Private University

Abstract

In the disruptive era, every organization is expected to cope with change. This includes the ones in the sector of higher education. Servant leadership is considered as the leadership approach that enables Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) to deal with the inevitable changes. This research explores an academic leadership in a private university in Indonesia, which endorses servant leadership as its leadership approach. The case study involves the interview of twenty-six academic leaders who have asked to answer two fundamental questions: (1) How do they perceive the invitation to lead as an academic leader and (2) What did they do as they consider whether to take the offer to lead as an academic leader? The gathered data was processed using the Qualitative Data Analysis consisting data condensation, data display and drawing and verifying conclusion. Twenty-five academic leaders said no when they first offer and this initial refusal drives the researcher to find a term called ‘pergumulan’ as the common theme across the interviewees. ‘Pergumulan’ or a spiritual struggle happened during the pre-leadership journey and during the leadership journey of these academic leaders. The former suggests that ‘pergumulan’ is spiritual, intrapersonal and interpersonal. The latter indicates that pergumulan happens when the servant leaders search their motivation and figure out the way to improve themselves while serving their followers. Lastly, during their leadership, the servant leaders are also having the ‘pergumulan’ as they have to confront or rebuke their followers.