Communal solidarity in extreme environments: The role of servant leadership and social resources in building serving culture and service performance

Abstract

Research on extreme environments has highlighted the necessity of having response teams that serve both the community and team. Though researchers have discussed the need for “unit solidarity” or a “communal code,” our research is among the first to examine communal solidarity—that is, the building of unity in both the community and the team by serving both, which we operationalize as team serving culture—in an extreme environment. We use social resource theory to develop a model whereby serving culture starts with department level servant leadership. We theorize that department servant leadership influences team leader servant leadership, which enhances social resources including trust in team leader, trust in team, and team cohesion, which then translate into serving culture and team service performance in an extreme setting. We test our model with a sample of 344 officers and 104 leaders enlisted in Brazil’s Special Operations Police.