Discovering Servant Leader Relations with New Followers in Nonprofit Organizations: Does a Servant Leader Always Serve First?

Abstract

This study focused on discovering servant leadership in the nonprofit organization (NPO) of the church with a concentration on new follower relations. The investigation was conducted as an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) so as to be able to capture the life experiences and identifications of the servant leaders in the church clergy. Servant leadership theory is a management model and practice for the business community including large organizations, such as Southwest Airlines, to small businesses and to NPOs, including the church. The problem is the lack of clarity on how clear servant leaders in NPOs cultivate relationships with new followers and empower them to develop a caring community while meeting the NPO’s needs. The researchers investigated the experiences of servant leaders to receive and develop new follower relations in the NPO of the Christian Protestant church. The research revealed a potential lack of clarity and the need for specific research on new followers focused on the initial concept of servant leadership; the definition of a servant leader is a leader who serves first. The participants in this study were servant leader pastors from Christian churches in the Northern United States. Two research questions were developed to inquire, first, about how the participant’s actions were received when they were new followers and secondly, to inquire about the participants’ servant leader undertakings toward their new followers. The data were analyzed and superordinate themes were developed based on data provided by the interviews and the derived interlocking information produced. The resulting superordinate theme for research question one was “Commitment to the Growth of People.” The superordinate themes for research question two were “Empowering and Developing People” and “Providing Direction.” The results from the interviews and double hermeneutic analysis demonstrated that the servant leader participants taught new followers first and then, once the new follower attained a sufficient basic level of knowledge, were served by these servant leaders. Scholars highly regard the historical individual known as Jesus of Nazereth as one of the original servant leaders and his teachings to his disciples as prime examples of servant leadership guidelines. The generalizability of the research relates to any new follower who receives little to no screening in any organization, like the selected group of the NPO of the church, a secular NPO like the United Way, or a standard business which increases its workforce with little screening. The conclusions of this research study added to the extent information on servant leadership theory. This study can serve as a catalyst for future research regarding new followers using servant leadership.