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The Development of a Personal Philosophy and Practice of Servant The development of a personal philosophy and practice of servant leadership: A grounded theory study A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree DOCTORATE OF PHILOSOPHY of RHODES UNIVERSITY in DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT by SIMON TAYLOR June 2013 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to develop a substantive grounded theory explaining the development of a philosophy and the practice of leadership amongst young adults who had attended Hilton College and whom were exposed to their servant leadership development programme. The grounded theory method in this study was developed using conventions identified by Strauss and Corbin (1990) and relying upon a collection of incidents noted during interviews with former students, teachers, housemasters, headmaster and Hiltonian Society board members. In total thirty-six interviews were conducted over a period of four years in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Kenya. Using the grounded theory methodology, an understanding of the theoretical model emerged through the development of a personal philosophy and the practice of servant leadership. Related to the central phenomenon of individual leadership philosophy and practice, the causal condition of opportunity to lead, influenced how the individual philosophy and practice emerged. Strategies used by the participants to nurture their philosophy and practice of leadership were the leadership development programme, community service, feedback and reflection. The data identified the intervening conditions and conditions relating to the context of the leadership philosophy and practice. The consequences of developing a leadership philosophy and practice were related to leadership behaviour; self-esteem; growth; follower relations; empowering of others; and relationship to institutions. The theoretical model illustrated the holistic nature of an individual’s leadership philosophy and practice. In this instance, the nature of the data revealed that the individual’s leadership philosophy and practice that developed amongst the participants was predominately servant leadership. i The different approaches to leadership development were scrutinised with the intention of locating the grounded theory that developed in this study, within the available literature. The literature did provide some useful insights, in particular the social field theory of Bourdieu (1998), which offered a more encompassing explanation and showed much promise in providing an understanding of leadership development. Wheatley’s (1999) interpretation of field theory further explained the influence of servant leadership in leadership development. Finally, the researcher developed a set of propositions and recommendations for practice and future research and discussed the value of this research. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My supervisor, Professor Noel Pearse, has shown great interest in this research and has been an exemplary example of a servant leader. His understanding of the grounded theory, meticulous and constructive feedback was greatly appreciated. My co-supervisor, Professor Lynette Louw’s, detailed analysis, positive comments and contributions were of great benefit. My family, who have been very understanding and supportive over the years I have been doing this study. Thank you, Anne, Theresa and Claire. The value of qualitative research begins with the value of the data. I am greatly indebted to the former headmaster, teaching staff and former students of Hilton College and Hiltonian Society board members, who so willing participated in this research. The National Research Fund (NRF) for the scholarship award to conduct this research, I thank you for your support. My wife, Anne Taylor and good friend, Christine Marot, who helped me with the layout and proofreading, thank you for your patience and hard work. Finally, I would like to dedicate this research to the former headmaster of Hilton College, Mr Mike Nicholson, who had the vision and courage to do away with the prefect system and introduce a leadership development programme based on the leadership philosophy of servant leadership. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 The definition of terms ............................................................................................ 2 1.3 The intended contribution of the study ..................................................................... 3 1.4 Statement of the research question ........................................................................... 6 1.5 Limitations of this study .......................................................................................... 6 1.6 How this study is organised ..................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP THEORY ........................ 11 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Clarifying the philosophy of servant leadership ..................................................... 14 2.3 Key characteristics of servant leadership ............................................................... 15 2.4 Servant leadership in comparison to other leadership theories ................................ 24 2.4.1 Transformational leadership ........................................................................... 28 2.4.2 Authentic leadership ...................................................................................... 29 2.4.3 Ethical leadership ........................................................................................... 30 2.4.4 Level 5 leadership .......................................................................................... 30 2.4.5 Empowering leadership .................................................................................. 31 iv 2.4.6 Spiritual leadership ........................................................................................ 33 2.4.7 Self-sacrifice leadership ................................................................................. 34 2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 35 CHAPTER 3: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT ................................................................ 37 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 37 3.2 Leadership development themes emerging from the literature review .................... 38 3.2.1 Empowering and development of others ......................................................... 39 3.2.2 The role of emotions in leadership development ............................................. 40 3.2.3 Is leadership an individual action or a collective activity? .............................. 41 3.2.4 The role of ethics in leadership development .................................................. 42 3.2.5 Is there one best way in leadership development? ........................................... 43 3.3 Frameworks for a systematic leadership development programme ......................... 46 3.3.1 A framework for systematic leadership development...................................... 47 3.3.2 The social change model ................................................................................ 50 3.3.3 Various other leadership development frameworks ........................................ 51 3.4 Learning theories that are applicable to the process of personal leadership development .......................................................................................................... 53 3.5 The focus on servant leadership development ........................................................ 55 3.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 56 v CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 59 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 59 4.2 Theoretical paradigms and perspectives of grounded theory .................................. 59 4.2.1 The positivist paradigm .................................................................................. 63 4.2.2 The postpositivist paradigm ........................................................................... 64 4.2.3 The critical paradigm ..................................................................................... 66 4.2.4 Constructivist paradigm ................................................................................. 67 4.3 The nature of qualitative research .......................................................................... 68 4.3.1 The impact of epistemological assumptions on qualitative research ................ 70 4.3.2 The impact of ontological assumptions on qualitative research ....................... 71 4.3.3 Methodological approaches in qualitative research ......................................... 72 4.4 The grounded theory movement ............................................................................ 72 4.4.1 Philosophical assumptions of the grounded theory method ............................. 73 4.4.2 The Glaserian vs. Straussian grounded theory
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