Servant Research: A Philosophical and Organizational Framework for Research that Creates Meaningful Change

Abstract

AbstractServant Research is a new term to describe a framework for research that is grounded in social responsibility and humanistic principles and is designed to specifically and intentionally improve the lives of people and communities. Servant Research can be used to describe research that exists across many different research methodologies, settings, and disciplines and addresses a multitude of individual or societal problems, inequities, or needs. When scholars engage in Servant Research, they design, implement, and disseminate research that is embedded with core characteristics, including valuing people, giving back, empowering others, and performing service. A second new term introduced within the Servant Research framework, research humility, describes scholars who value the expertise of, and are willing to learn from, those who have traditionally not held positions of power. Scholars who engage in Servant Research face challenges, including rigid promotion and tenure guidelines, perceptions from some within the Academy that research of this type is less rigorous than other approaches, the lack of clear ethical guidelines to address the complexity of the work, the emotionally draining aspects of this type of scholarship, and the often-time-consuming nature of this work which can limit productivity. The introduction of this framework offers scholars a label to describe the meaning-making that is at the core of their research, provides a shared nomenclature for scholars using a multitude of methodologies and from a variety of disciplines, and gives a structure to a meaningful discourse about the engagement of scholars in the social responsibility mission of the university.