Abstract
Are servant leadership and ethics of care being practiced by public relations leaders? This study involved in-depth interviews with 32 public relations leaders working in a variety of organizational settings in the United States and provided insights from men and women, including people of color. We found evidence of an “other oriented approach” to leadership that involved prioritizing the needs and concerns of employees and a genuine concern for the wellbeing of others. The findings are consistent with characteristics associated with both servant leadership and ethics of care. The public relations leaders were able to provide specific examples of how these perspectives impacted their decision making and specific ways they demonstrate that they care about their employees. The leaders engaged in active listening, which allowed them to identify employee needs. They then had to access whether or not they could meet those needs, and at times that involved assisting employees in leaving the organization. Implications for theory and practice are included.
Introduction
Servant leadership and ethics of care both emphasize the importance of interpersonal relationships, listening to others and empathy, all of which are critical to public relations practice. However, these two perspectives have received limited attention in public relations scholarship (e.g., Fraustino and Kennedy, 2018; Lemon and Boman, 2022; Thelen and Yue, 2021), despite the fact that public relations theory and practice have long advocated that public relations professionals have an obligation to seek out and consider the views of internal and external stakeholders prior to making organizational decisions (Kent and Taylor, 2002; Macnamara, 2016).
Lumpkin and Achen (2018) emphasized that servant leaders focus on their followers while building relationships through activities such as listening, awareness, empathy, doing what is right, and serving others (Greenleaf, 1970). This focus on relationships is consistent with public relations theory and practice. As Hon and Grunig (1999) emphasized, the “fundamental goal of public relations” is to build and maintain relationships with an organization’s key stakeholders (p. 2) including employees.
Similarly, ethics of care is a moral perspective that involves a concern for others, particularly those who are impacted by decisions (Derry, 2005). Lemon and Boman (2022) claimed that there has been a “minimal embrace” of ethics of care due to ties to “feminine virtues and values,” and the fact it still considered to be in the conceptualization phase (p. 4). However, in a recent study, Plaisance et al. (2021) found that public relations leaders considered both fairness/justice and care concerns when making ethical decisions. In previous research, Tao and Kim (2017) conceptualized justice “as an organization’s efforts to ensure equitable and fair treatment of all parties involved…. by making impartial, verifiable, and reliable decisions according to rigid universal rules and principles that do not vary by the particularities of crisis contexts” (Botes, 2000: 693; Simola, 2003). In contrast, ethics of care described an “organization’s efforts to fulfill publics’ emotional and interpersonal needs …by tailoring organizational decisions, action, and communication based upon the needs and feelings of publics”…. which “entails the organization’s demonstration of care, compassion, and sensitivities” (Bauman 2011:693; Simola, 2003). As ethicist and feminist Gilligan (1987) explained “justice and care as moral perspectives are not opposites or mirror-images of one another, with justice uncaring and care unjust. Instead, these perspectives denote different ways of organizing the basic elements of moral judgment: self, others, and the relationship between them” (p. 22).
Through a systematic literature review of 105 journal articles published regarding servant leadership between 1996 through 2018, scholars found that 77% of the articles used quantitative research and only 14% of the empirical research was based on in-depth interviews (McQuade et al., 2020). For this reason, McQuade et al. (2020) concluded that “there is more scope for qualitative research methods to be employed when investigating servant leadership, as this is an area which is lacking” (p. 9).
It is appropriate to study servant leadership and ethics of care together due to overlapping concepts such as active listening, caring and genuine concerns for building and maintaining relationships with others, specifically in the context of the relationships of leaders and their employees. The main purpose of this study is to understand the ways servant leadership and ethics of care are understood and being practiced by public relations leaders. These insights will provide specific insights into how leaders can prioritize their employees’ needs and effectively demonstrate that they care, which can result in trusting relationships, higher employee engagement and commitment. Additionally, previous research has found that women leaders are more likely to display behaviors and hold values consistent with these leadership perspectives (Beck, 2014; de Rubio and Kiser, 2015). Thus, we would like to further investigate how women in general as well as people of color who serve in leadership positions in public relations are engaging in these leadership approaches. Specifically, this study examines issues such as how public relations leaders understand and practice servant leadership, ways they listen to their employees to guide decision making, how servant leadership is reflected in their priorities as leaders, and the degree to which personal virtues and ethics of care impact their decision making. To examine these issues, we conducted 32 interviews with public relations leaders working in U.S. organizations. The study makes several positive contributions to the scholarship and practice related to servant leadership and ethics of care in public relations. By framing effective leadership process around the principle of caring for followers first, public relations leaders will generate a significant impact on their organizations as ethical role models for their employees and their ethical leadership has an impact on society as a whole.
Literature review
Prior to beginning our study, we explored the conceptual definitions for servant leadership and ethics of care. Then as a theoretical foundation, we explored how both concepts are connected to virtue ethics and social learning theory. Finally, we examined prior public relations scholarship in this domain to identify gaps and develop our research questions.
Servant leadership
As the leading theoretical framework to guide our research, servant leadership has been of interest to leadership scholars for more than 40 years. Until recently, little empirical research on servant leadership has been conducted in public relations (Duhé, 2014; Thelen and Yue, 2021). The concept of servant leadership has been attributed to Christianity and the teachings of Jesus (Tran, 2014). Early scholarship in this area was associated with Robert Greenleaf, a former AT&T executive and leadership consultant, who emphasized that the leader is a servant first who places a priority on the needs of others (Greenleaf, 1977; Tran, 2014). Eva et al. (2019) conceptualized servant leadership as “an (1) other oriented approach to leadership (2) manifested through one-on-one prioritizing of follower individual needs and interests, and (3) outward reorienting of their concern for self towards the concern for others within the organization and the larger community” (p. 114). Some of the characteristics associated with servant-leaders include listening, empathy, emotional healing, self-awareness, use of persuasion rather than positional authority, vision, humility, integrity, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others and community building (Patterson, 2003; Russell and Stone, 2002; Spears, 2005).
Eva et al. (2019) provided a comparison of servant leadership with other popular leaderships styles. They pointed out that transformational leaders tend to place business goals above the needs of employees (Eva et al., 2019). Authentic leadership does share some similarities with servant leadership such as a focus on building meaningful relationships and integrity (Atwijuka and Caldwell, 2017). However, Eva et al. (2019) pointed out that for servant leaders, the inclination “to operate with a deep clarity of self-awareness and self-regulation might spring from a spiritual and/or altruistic motive to serve others, both of which are absent in the authentic leadership framework” (p. 113). Servant leadership shares some characteristics with ethical leadership, such as a focus on interpersonal relationships and role modeling (Brown et al., 2005). However, ethical leadership tends to focus on clear ethical standards, which are reinforced through rewards and punishments (Brown and Treviño, 2006; Lumpkin and Achn, 2018), while servant leadership is more flexible by considering contextual factors related to the follower and the organization (Eva et al., 2019). The consideration of contextual factors (e.g., key facts, feelings of others, and personal history) when making ethical decisions is consistent with ethics of care (Noddings, 2013).
Ethics of care
Servant leadership shares some characteristics with the moral theory of ethics of care such as a focus on relationships and empathy. Gilligan (1982) wrote “the ideal of care is thus an activity of relationship, of seeing and responding to need” (p. 62). Similarly, Noddings (2013) described caring as “stepping out of one’s personal frame of reference into the others’” and considering the other’s views, needs and expectations (p. 24). Ethics of care emphasizes that self and others are interdependent (Gilligan, 1982) and that “detachment, whether from self or from others, is morally problematic, since it breeds moral blindness or indifference--a failure to discern or respond to need” (Gilligan, 1987: 24).
In contrast, both servant leadership and ethics of care share the characteristic of empathy. Hoffman (2001) defined empathy as a “the involvement of psychological processes that make a person have feelings that are more congruent with another’s situation than with his own situation” (p. 30). Similarly, Tompkins (2009) characterized empathy as “the experience of an Other’s emotional state as one’s own emotional state” (p. 65). Fisher and Tronto (1990) pointed out that caring requires time, resources, knowledge and skills, which are limited and forces us to make choices. They identified four steps associated with caring including caring about (i.e., recognizing needs), taking care of (i.e., assuming responsibility for caring), caregiving (i.e., hands-on work) and care-receiving (e.g., response by the one receiving care) (Fisher and Tronto, 1990; Lemon and Boman, 2022).
Based on this framework along with the contributions of Fraustino and Kennedy’s (2018) applied model of care considerations, Lemon and Boman (2022) created a new model that incorporates ethics of care in the context of employee engagement. Collectively, these scholarly contributions provide insights into specific ways servant leaders can demonstrate care to their employees such as the practical resources they need to complete their jobs (i.e., physical landscape) and as well as health, wellness and emotional needs (i.e., human landscape) (Fraustino and Kennedy, 2018; Lemon and Boman, 2022).
Consistent with the moral philosophy of ethics of care, altruism, a teleological approach in leadership research, suggests that leaders’ actions are considered moral if their primary purpose is to promote the best interests of their followers and others. Altruism is pivotal to demonstrating servant leadership (Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999). More importantly, this approach explores ethics from the viewpoint of a leader’s character, which contributes to virtue-based research in ethics and leadership and focuses on who leaders are as people (Pojman, 2005). An overview of virtue ethics is addressed in the following section.
Virtue ethics and social learning theory
Some of the characteristics associated with servant leadership and ethics of care are consistent with the virtues that scholars have encouraged in public relations practice in general such as humility, respect for others, empathy, and caring (Baker, 2008; Neill, 2021). A virtue or habitus refers to a “predictable disposition to choose the good whenever confronted with a choice” (Pellegrino, 1995). Borden (2019) wrote that virtues are “embedded in relationships, practices and cultures” and cannot be easily separated from that context (p. 176). Similarly, Pellegrino (1995) asserted that “one cannot completely separate the character of a moral agent from his or her acts, the nature of those acts, the circumstances under which they are performed, or their consequences” (p. 254). Based on these perspectives, it is appropriate to not only identify the virtues that public relations leaders espouse, but also seek out specific examples of times they have lived out those virtues specifically in their role as leaders.
Identifying the virtues that servant leaders have developed along with their influence on leaders’ behaviors is significant because of their role as ethical role models to their followers (Trevino et al., 2000). In their examination of authentic leadership and ethical behaviors, Hannah et al. (2011) argued that based on a “social learning perspective (Bandura, 1977), when leaders signal that followers should stand up and act in line with their values, thus showing moral courage, and the leader consistently demonstrates similar behavior, members would be more likely to emulate such moral courage” (Hannah et al., 2005: 564). Baker (2008) makes the connection between virtue ethics and leaders as role models. She wrote that “inherent to the virtue ethics perspective” is the concept of role models who teach us to live moral lives by their example (Baker, 2008: 239; Pojman, 2005: 163, 166). Moberg (2000) identified four requirements that are essential in order for someone to learn ethical behavior from a role model such as an organizational leader: (1) attention to the behaviors of the role model, (2) a motivation to learn from the role model, (3) retention of the behavior that has been modeled, and (4) reenactment of the behavior. He also identified characteristics associated with a role model such as similarity demographically, relevance, and attainability (Moberg, 2000). Perhaps the most important of these characteristics is attainability, which is related to self-efficacy or the “belief that one can successfully perform a particular action” (Gecas, 1989: 294).
Prior public relations scholarship
Both servant leadership and ethics of care have received limited attention in public relations scholarship. Much of the research focused on public relations leadership has examined transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and situational or contingency leadership (Aldoory, 1998; Aldoory and Toth, 2004; Jin, 2010; Men, 2014). Transactional leadership has been described as avoiding emotional involvement, one-way communication through commands, and offering rewards or punishment for performance (Aldoory and Toth, 2004; Jin, 2010). While transformational leadership and servant leadership share some similar characteristics such as a focus on collective identity and vision (Aldoory and Toth, 2004; Ehrhart and Klein, 2001; McWhinney, 1997), scholars have pointed out some significant differences. Sendjaya et al. (2008) claimed that servant leaders are more likely to “serve marginalized people” and to prioritize followers above the organizational objectives and their own needs (Graham, 1991: 403). In contrast, transformational leaders tend to prioritize organizational goals above the needs of their followers (Sendjaya et al., 2008; Van Dierendonck et al., 2014).
While ethics of care has been explored in the context of crisis communication (Fraustino and Kennedy, 2018; Tao and Kim, 2017), corporate social responsibility (Formentin and Bortree, 2019), employee engagement (Lemon and Boman, 2022) and global communication campaigns (Kennedy, 2016), a thorough examination of ethics of care in the context of servant leadership is merited. Previous studies have been focused on external stakeholders or organizational objectives, while servant leadership is focused on employees’ needs and personal development. In addition, it is important to examine the virtues and character of servant leaders, which inspire their decision making and consider their influence as ethical role models for their employees. Therefore, we argue that there is a strong need to explore the meaning of servant leadership in public relations practice if ethics is central to leadership and leaders are central to help establish and reinforce good values as role models for their employees. This review of the literature leads to the following research questions:
How do public relations leaders define and practice servant leadership?
To what degree do public relations leaders’ priorities reflect servant leadership?
What types of virtues are reflective of servant leaders in public relations?
In what ways, if any, do servant leaders demonstrate an ethics of care perspective when making decisions in the phases of caring about, taking care of and caregiving in respect to their employees?
Method
Based on the research questions, and the limited research related to servant leadership and ethics of care in public relations, qualitative research is appropriate. Personal interviews have previously been used to study servant leadership practices in a volunteer-led organization (Bowers, 2014), the use of discipline by servant leaders (Buford et al., 2014), and to study servant leadership in the public sector (Slack et al., 2020). Interviews are an appropriate research method when the subject matter requires confidentiality, when group pressure may impact responses, and when there is a need to explore attitudes, behaviors and motivations (Davis, 2012).
To answer the research questions, we conducted 32 interviews with public relations leaders working in the U.S. The participants were selected using purposive and snowball sampling (Wimmer and Dominick, 2006). We first reached out to members of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows and the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) for recommendations of colleagues they considered as servant leaders and then once we completed those initial interviews, we asked the participants for referrals. We did not define servant leadership in our recruitment messages since one of our study objectives was to learn how public relations leaders define and practice it.
The sample included 21 women and 11 men with an average 25 years of experience in public relations and communication. We made a concerted effort to recruit people of color for this study, and our sample included four African Americans, two Latinos, two Asian Americans, and one Hispanic/Native American, representing 28% of the total sample. In addition, the leaders represented a variety of religious traditions including Catholic, Protestant, Judaism, Unitarian, Nondenominational and Buddhism. The participants represented employers in 16 states including: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The public relations leaders represented a variety of sectors including higher education, government/military, nonprofit, energy, public relations firms, franchising, retail and tourism, religious organizations, consultancies, health and safety, and financial services.
The same qualitative researcher conducted all the interviews for consistency purposes and used the same interview protocol for all interviews. The interview protocol included questions regarding the characteristics they associate with servant leadership, their top priorities as a leader, what virtue they perceive as a personal strength and examples of times they have exhibited that virtue. The leaders also were asked to describe an example of a time that they did something to demonstrate to their employees that they care and to what degree they consider the impact of their decisions on their employees. Given the geographical distance between subjects and physical distancing required by the pandemic, interviews were conducted by phone between May of 2021 and January of 2022. The study followed IRB guidelines and was approved for the ethical treatment of human subjects. All participants were provided consent forms detailing actions to preserve confidentiality. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed by a qualitative researcher for analysis producing 376 pages of typed, singled-spaced text, representing almost 25 h of interviews with an average of 46 min per interview.
Data analyses
The data were analyzed by following three steps (Miles and Huberman, 1994): data reduction, data display, drawing conclusions and verification. One investigator who specializes in qualitative research coded each interview individually under broad categories based on the conceptual framework and key variables under study such as servant leadership, priorities, virtues, and demonstration of care. Composite code sheets were then created electronically using qualitative research software reflecting all interview respondents’ comments related to each variable. As recommended by Miles and Huberman (1994) to confirm reliability of the categories, a random sample of 20% of the transcripts was independently coded by a graduate assistant using a code book and QDA Miner software, which calculated inter-rater reliability as 93% agreement. After data reduction, each category was then qualitatively analyzed by both researchers who wrote memos and analyzed the data further to identify additional insights, which were discussed and confirmed prior to preparing the findings.
Trustworthiness and quality
Lincoln and Guba (1985) have recommended the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability as criteria for qualitative research (Schwandt et al., 2007). In the areas of credibility, dependability and confirmability, the data analysis process included negative or discrepant case analysis to identify any cases that disconfirmed or challenged the emerging findings (Merriam, 2002) as well as creating an audit trail of transcripts and memos used for data analysis (Lemon and Hayes, 2020). For transferability, we used verbatim transcripts and thick descriptive data (Schwandt et al., 2007). We also used a triangulation of data sources with diverse backgrounds (Lemon and Hayes, 2020).
Researcher positionality
Both of the researchers have professional experience working in public relations and have conducted extensive research in the area of public relations leadership. They also are serving in leadership roles at their universities, so those experiences shaped their interest in the topic. However, they were open to learning about the experiences of the participants and quote them liberally so that participants’ lived experiences are reflected in the findings.
Findings
How public relations leaders define and practice servant leadership
The first research question addressed how public relations leaders define and practice servant leadership (See Table 1). All of the participants (n = 26) said they either consider themselves as servant leaders or aspire to lead others in that manner (n = 6). A global chief communications officer (CCO) who identifies as Latina said she has noticed some confusion among her colleagues regarding what servant leadership is all about: What’s been really interesting is that it hasn’t meant the same thing to people. They use the same language…what they described was servant leadership to them, really wasn’t what my original boss described to me. So, you know, so when I hear people talking about servant leadership, I have a big question mark over my head. What does that mean? …because generationally, it has a very different meaning. Culturally, it has a very different meaning. How PR leaders understand servant leadership.
She added that how one of her bosses early in her career described servant leadership involved a different twist to the Golden Rule: “It was really [to] understand what others want and how others want to be treated, and then come through with that.”
Some of the characteristics that public relations leaders associate with servant leadership include “service before self”, empathy, caring, a commitment to growing and motivating others, a focus on what leaders can do for their employees, and listening. We were able to find similar perspectives about servant leadership among men and women as well as people of color and different religious backgrounds. In addition, we found servant leadership being practiced in a variety of settings including higher education, military/government, energy, retail, tourism, and public relations firms of various sizes. A female senior vice president at a public relations firm described the different mindset: When you make sure that it’s not about what they can do for you, but when you’re really thinking about, “How can I set this person up for success? What can I do to make their experience richer? What can I do to give them opportunities for professional development?” Making sure that you understand where people’s passions and interests lie and actually taking the time to get to know that… you’re actually able to pair what needs to be done from a business or client perspective…and figuring out, okay, where are their strengths, where are their interests, where do they want to grow in their passions? And being able to put that puzzle together to where it’s as much of a win-win for everyone as possible.
Listening was an essential component for effective servant leadership. The public relations leaders discussed how they actively seek feedback from their employees before making major decisions and seek feedback regarding their own performance. As a Global CCO who identifies as Latina explained: I ask for it outright. Well, I ask for feedback in everything that I do. I ask for my own like performance feedback, “How am I doing, what do you need from me? How can I help support you? How can - what can I take away? What barriers can I remove? How can I make this a better working environment?” Those are all the kinds of questions I ask all the time…And, and then in addition to that, when I’m with our internal clients, or, you know, other leaders, we may be having a really fun and lively conversation. And at the end of it, I always say … “Do you have any feedback for me, that can help me… with my team? Is there something that you’d like to share with me that can make us better or something we should be doing differently?” So, I seek it, and ask for it, just outright.
While these leaders do care about their employees’ passions and interests, they also have high expectations and do care about meeting business objectives. A female senior vice president at a public relations firm described the balance: Someone that recognizes talent and is able to nurture and pull the best out of people, that really pushes people to the next level and has high expectations, but also has a lot of grace. And where there’s room to make mistakes… and to make sure people know, that as long as they’re working hard and trying, it’s okay to fail, but the idea is to just,… make it right where you can and to learn from it and apply it and just keep moving forward and growing.
The public relations leaders varied in their motivation for practicing servant leadership. For some, it was motivated by experiences with bad leaders. A chief communications officer described a traumatic moment earlier in her career: And I had made a pretty big reporting error in one of the insight reports for the business. And I was pressed for time, I turned it over to the business, and they came back and found the error. And I immediately went to my boss and said, “I’ve made a big mistake, like this is on me. I didn’t allow the ceiling time for quality control, QC. I see it now. I own this.” And rather than supporting me in that moment…Instead, what I got was more of a tongue lashing and he actually threw the report back over the desk at me, the written report, and said, “It’s great that you know what you did wrong, but I don’t care. I need you to go fix it.” So, he was more worried about the outcome of fixing it than the coaching opportunity.
For others, servant leadership is connected to their religious or personal values. A female executive vice president for a public relations firm said: For me, the notion of servant leadership or how I think of it, has been a part of what’s made leadership feel meaningful and purposeful for me, because to me, I’ve always been motivated to lead, not because of the power or authority that comes with it, but because of the ability to serve, and move and grow, and motivate other human beings from various backgrounds.
The CEO of a public relations agency, who described herself as Buddhist explained her motivation: I view work as a spiritual practice. So, I view it as a place where we get to help people find their path in life and sometimes that means they’re staying with us for a long time. And sometimes that means gracefully letting them go and helping them find where they really belong. But that is a spiritual calling.
A public affairs officer who identifies as African American and Christian, described the origin of his inspiration: Well, the big thing for me is ‘service above self.’ You want to see others as more important than you, and you know that isn’t verbatim from the Bible, but I do remember reading that. That’s something that’s always kind of stuck to me. If you see others as more important than yourself, then you’re gonna have a servant’s heart and a service drive and motivation in order to make things better, you know, in every situation.
These personal accounts give a clear picture of how public relations leaders define and practice servant leadership as well as their personal motivations for leading in this manner. They clearly understood that servant leaders help their employees grow and fulfill their full potential, they regularly seek feedback from their employees regarding their needs and how they can personally improve as leaders.
Leader priorities
The second research question addressed the degree to which public relations leaders’ priorities reflect servant leadership. When the public relations leaders discussed their priorities, there was definitely a focus on caring for their employees. Their priorities included the health and morale of the team (n = 4), personal growth of the team (n = 5), having a safe and trusted relationship with their employees (n = 5), making employees feel cared for (n = 5), and supporting, encouraging and motivating their employees (n = 5). Business objectives (n = 3) and fulfilling the organization’s mission (n = 4) were also high priorities. It varied whether business goals or employees were listed first in priority, but several leaders perceived the two priorities as intertwined. A male CEO of a public relations firm articulated this perspective: We’ve been pounding the drum around, really, we talk about our pillars of our business are happy employee, happy client, happy business, and we’ve been hanging on that happy employee pillar for about a year, year and a half…it’s always been really forefront in our mind.
Several of the leaders discussed relationship building among their top priorities. A female senior vice president at public relations firm elaborated on why this is important: Probably the most important is to make sure that everyone feels like they have a safe and trusted relationship with a senior leader, because you can encourage them all day long, but if there’s not someone at a high level that they can, that they really feel is in their corner and that they can really trust, there can be things that are going on that are causing problems that you’ll never be privy to, and you can’t fix. And then they’ll decide to leave, or they’ve been unhappy, and you just never know it.
She then discussed the importance of trust and care toward her employees: And I think that that includes having to really demonstrate that you care about them to build that level of trust. And then the next level, I would say is making sure that your words to them are always encouraging and motivating and even if you’re correcting them… So, words of encouragement, whether you’re praising great work, or whether you’re coaching for improvement, making sure that they feel really supported and encouraged.
Based on a discussion of their priorities, these public relations leaders are concerned about the personal growth and development of their employees, building and maintaining trusting relationships with their employees, encouraging and motivating their employees, as well as achieving business goals and objectives. All of these priorities are consistent with the principles associated with servant leadership.
Virtues of servant leaders
The third research questions addressed the types of virtues that are reflective of servant leaders in public relations. It is important to note that these are virtues that they actually model and impact the way they lead. When asked to select a personal strength or virtue that best described them, the leaders named a variety of characteristics such as high emotional intelligence, caring, courage, kindness, forgiveness, empathy, resilience and grit. Interestingly, no more than two named the same virtue. The public relations leaders were then asked to describe a specific example of a time that they had exhibited that virtue. In the accounts they described of specific times when they demonstrated a virtue, there was evidence of care for their employees. In response, the owner of a public relations firm described how she demonstrated kindness to one of her employees during a difficult personal circumstance: We have an employee who has an adult disabled brother and his mother died suddenly, a couple weeks ago. He became the guardian…of his brother, just out of nowhere and, you know, he’s just reeling from everything that goes along with that. We found out about this… he actually didn’t ask us for anything like time off or any extra stuff, he was just saying he was going to be off… We just said like, take the time you need… We actually paid to help him rent a moving truck so he can move his brother’s and his mom’s … stuff…you have to empathize with people, and you have to help them.
This example illustrates caring about by recognizing the employee’s needs during this difficult time, and taking care of by assuming responsibility for meeting that need, and actual caregiving by assisting him with moving expenses (i.e., material resources/physical landscape).
Kindness was one virtue that was foundational to how several of the participants lead. A female public relations director said: I think part of being kind is giving tough feedback when it needs to be given, because I think it is kind to develop people. It may seem like, oh, giving constructive feedback is an odd…but I very much believe feedback is a gift.
A female owner of a public relations firm elaborated on this same virtue, “I always strive for that sort of empathetic, kindness and just trying to understand people rather than you know rush to judgment.”
While an executive vice president named her personal virtue as caring, it was surprising that the example she chose to illustrate this virtue dealt with encouraging some employees to leave her agency: I recognized that there were certain individuals for which this wasn’t going to be the right fit long term. And I felt like for them as individuals and with their values and strengths, I didn’t want to lead them down a path that I didn’t think they would ultimately feel successful and fulfilled in. So I would say in my first year, there were several people, and I don’t like to use the word “canceled out” but that I had just really honest, personal conversations where we jointly together came to the conclusion that it was the right decision for us to appropriately and respectfully part ways with enough time so that they could go find what was really going to be right for them, versus trying to sort of retrofit or force them into something that wasn’t going to be aligned with them on a deep personal level.
This example is consistent with the limitations (e.g., time, resources, knowledge and skills) associated with caring as leaders may not always be able to meet employees’ individual needs for fulfillment. Indeed, this action resulted from her core beliefs and approach to leadership. She explained: I think the way I approach people is really wanting to understand them as full human beings because what drives them and motivates them in the workspace is so inextricably bound to what drives them and motivates them outside of work. And therefore, that sort of belief and care in each person as a human being is a really big driver for me.
Similarly, a chief communications officer listed her personal virtue as empathy or caring. Her specific example of modeling this virtue was related to dealing with a new employee assigned to her from another division who wasn’t meeting expectations. As she explained: She was doing my CEO communications and she just fell flat on her face. Like, she seemed like she knew what she was doing. But then when she got into meetings with the CEO, it was like, she completely fell apart. Like she couldn’t put together a sentence. She was all like, she had papers all over the place. She was disorganized. I was like, what is this?
She then reached out to the employee and listened to her concerns and learned that she was unhappy and wanted to leave the company, but did not have the financial means to do so. This attentiveness to the wellbeing of an employee is a demonstration of caring about the employee. So, the CCO sought out a mutually beneficial solution, an example of taking care of an employee by accepting responsibility for addressing the issue. As she described: And so, I went and found HR and I’m like, “Listen, you know, this woman doesn’t want to work here. And she’s not doing a great job for me. So, can we please like all she wants is to make sure that…her payment for the move is covered. Can we just do that for her?.. Had I not had the courage to sit her down and say to her, “Look, I can tell that you’re unhappy. So why don’t we you know, work through this together so that we can get you to a place that you’re happy.“…Then she would have you know, potentially still been at this company that she hated, just crying in her office every day and you know, not really doing her best work because she didn’t want to be there.
Another example of a specific virtue involved exhibiting the characteristic of grit. An African American military public affairs officer had been dealing with a domestic violence situation prior to being deployed overseas. While there, the global pandemic posed challenges for the troops and morale was low. Noticing a lack of leadership, she stepped up with a plan. As the public affairs officer described: I had to step over my supervisor and just kind of, in some ways push him out of the way and go directly to the person in charge and say, hey this is what we need to do. It’s urgent. We need to implement a crisis communications plan like now…So having that grit to like walk up to the to the highest level and overstep the person who was supposed to be doing this stuff… I had to have grit to go up there and constantly go head to head with like people three to four ranks above me to make sure that there was some type of plan in place, and to basically help impact the morale across the area of operations that we had there.
While the public affairs officer considered this an example of grit, this is also a demonstration of moral courage as she was willing to speak truth to power. During the interview, she repeated this mantra, “if not me, then who?” She then expressed her other-oriented perspective in times of crises: Pointing to a better future is and pointing to, hey we’re continuing mission, hey we’re moving on, this is what it is, is essential right now as servant leaders… So, I think now more than ever, it’s important to put aside your personal feelings on it, and just embrace it and help people work through it, figure out what people need, start reaching out for resources.
An emerging Latina leader working as a communication specialist in a local government agency provided another example of courage when she spoke up about a situation that involved multiple leaders providing conflicting directions for employees that was impacting morale. As she explained: We didn’t know if we [were] reporting to one person, or we were reporting to another. There were like three people...And so, I let them know…these are my concerns. These are the issues that it’s causing. And then in turn we’re also effecting the way that we serve the community, because…this person scheduled a meeting for us to meet during a meeting that we had for like this community, but then they like overlap. And I was like, who is in charge?
Through these personal accounts, the virtues that are associated with servant leaders (e.g., kindness, empathy and courage) are identified as well as how these characteristics impact the way they lead. The specific examples shared are evidence of the specific actions they had taken to demonstrate they care by helping an employee with moving expenses when he assumed the care of a family member with a disability, providing leadership for troops deployed overseas during the pandemic, and assisting employees with leaving the organization when it was not the right fit.
Evidence of ethics of care in decision making
The fourth research question focused on in what ways, if any, servant leaders demonstrate an ethics of care perspective when making decisions in the areas of caring about, taking care of and caregiving in respect to their employees. The leaders discussed how they approach leadership in general and provided specific examples of times that they demonstrated that they care about their employees. Examples of caring they shared included sending employees a card, note or gift card to express appreciation (n = 6), attending funerals of employee family members (n = 3), celebrating employee achievements (n = 3), and even personal touches like sending a custom-made quilt to an employee who had lost a loved one and sending dinner to an employee whose son was in the hospital. Others expressed concern regarding the workload placed on their staff. A senior vice president at a public relations firm described her mindset and approach: If I know that something is going to put somebody in a hard situation, I try to make sure that it’s short-term pain… But if that’s the case, I would get on the phone with that person, since I can’t be in person right now and say, “Listen, I know this is not ideal. I so appreciate you making this sacrifice. This is going to be the exception to the rule. This is not long term. I want you to keep me posted if this is ever too overwhelming or … if there’s anything I can do.”
A public relations director for a college provided a specific example of a time when she protected her team from additional responsibilities: I don’t want to overload them. I know how it feels to be overextended and I don’t want to take on something new that’s gonna cause them excessive stress...And I was asked yesterday, “Do you think the college is going to do a distinguished lecture speaker this fall?” And I said, “Not if our office is involved because we have more than we can say grace over right now.” And they kind of laughed at how direct I was about that answer, but our office has traditionally been extremely involved in those events. And quite frankly, I think the college says if we’re not involved with it, then it’s not happening. And so, I just said, “We can’t take on one more thing over here, because it will crush my people.”
These examples are tied to caring about employees’ stress levels, health and wellbeing (i.e., human landscape). Similarly, an African American public affairs officer in the National Guard discussed how she advocated out of wellness concerns for her unit: But they see me dedicating a lot of time to talking as a captain, walking up to these Full Bird Colonels and asked, which is basically a level below a general and then telling them like “Hey, can you give us a break? Can you do this?” Like so them visibly seeing that, gains respect, and then also more recent, or that sense of care like hey, she’s actually trying to make sure you don’t get ran into the ground.
For the president on a nonprofit organization, caring meant making a difficult business decision regarding maternity leave. As she explained: We have terrible short-term disability, terrible maternity leave, because that’s what not-for-profits do, for the most part. We don’t have that money - that wasn’t part of the planning in setting a lot of things up. But you know, sitting with her and understanding what she really needed. You know what she cannot get childcare before January, so I have an employee who is about to take a six-month leave. That’s really hard for an organization our size, but, you know, I really wanted to listen to what she needed, and figure out how we could make it work and go to the board and fight for what I thought we should do for her, you know, being a steward of the organization’s money. But also, you know, really trying to treat an employee well.
This example illustrates all the key components of caring: caring about by being attentive to the employee’s needs, taking care of by assuming personal responsibility for advocating for maternity leave, and caregiving by granting the employee a 6-month leave. This leader was motivated in part by the example of her own prior leaders, an example of social learning through role modeling.
A Native American/Latina communication manager demonstrated servant leadership and care through her passionate and deliberate efforts to assist her employees in creating personal development plans, demonstrating her commitment to their individual growth. She described the process: I sit down individually with each person. I have everyone write out 50 to 100 dreams that they have. So, whether that is personal dreams, professional dreams, just writing down what they hope to accomplish, or what they would like to experience or, you know what they want out of life. I ask for at least 50… First column is within one to three years, write down what dreams you want to accomplish in that box and the second is three to five years and then five to 10 plus years….we do annually, like I mentioned, is a mix of both personal and professional.
She further demonstrates her care by following up with the employees regarding their progress toward meeting those goals: And we meet monthly on that, but I think that that really opens the door to them thinking bigger and understanding that I view them holistically as a person, not only in the realm of work. I want them to understand that I care about their personal achievements as much as I care about their professional achievements.
She added that she prefers for her employees to set their sights high: “I would rather see my team set super lofty goals and not meet them but do more than they ever thought that they could, you know, rather than setting goals they know they can meet.”
Through these examples (e.g., protecting their workloads, advocating for employee benefits, and developing professional development plans), it is clear exactly how servant leaders are demonstrating care by caring about, taking care of and following through with caregiving.
Discussion
This study provided empirical evidence that some public relations leaders are practicing servant leadership, an area that has received limited attention in public relations scholarship.
Through in-depth interviews, we were able to explore public relations leaders’ conceptions of servant leadership and share examples of how that mindset impacts their decision making. We found evidence of an “other oriented approach” to leadership that involved prioritizing the needs and concerns of their employees and a genuine concern for the wellbeing of others (Eva et al., 2019). This resulted in leadership that prioritized setting employees up for success, offering professional development opportunities for employees, listening and seeking feedback from their employees before making decisions.
Through the specific examples the leaders shared, there also was evidence of an ethics of care moral perspective. While ethics of care was traditionally associated with feminist scholarship, we found evidence of its practice among both men and women including people of color. While business objectives and the organization’s mission were high priorities, leaders were genuinely concerned about their employees’ health, wellbeing, satisfaction, personal growth and indeed considered and weighed the impact of their decisions on their employees. These insights are significant, because prior survey research revealed that public relations leaders report that care (e.g., empathy and compassion) is a significant consideration when making decisions (Plaisance et al., 2021), but this study provided specific examples of how that care is demonstrated in actual practice by caring about, taking care of and caregiving (Fisher and Tronto, 1990). It all begins with identifying employees’ needs by being attentive to their needs through active listening, accepting responsibility for meeting those needs and then actually following up by providing the resources whether in the form of employee benefits (e.g., maternity leave, training/professional development), emotional support or monetary needs (e.g., moving allowance).
Servant leadership and ethics of care are complementary, but distinct concepts. Servant leadership more broadly describes how leaders view themselves in relation to their followers, while ethics of care captures how compassion and concerns for preserving and maintaining relationships impact their decision making (Wildermuth et al., 2017). Since servant leaders prioritize listening to their employees, that puts them in a position to become aware of employee needs and concerns. This step requires active listening as Brownell (2004) stressed, “effective listeners concentrate on the speaker, hear messages accurately, consider the emotional as well as the content aspects of a message, remember what was said to them, and remain non-judgmental, while listening to the speaker’s ideas” (p. 23). Because of their genuine care and concern for their employees, the leaders then were able to share specific examples of times that they assumed responsibility for addressing those needs and then acted on that care. However, it is important to remember that caring requires time, resources, knowledge and skills, which are limited so tough choices must be made (Fisher and Tronto, 1990). Nicholson and Kurucz (2019) pointed to this as a limitation associated with ethics of care as it does not provide adequate guidance on how to resolve competing demands (Koehn, 1998). Indeed, there are going to be times when servant leaders will not be able to meet their employees’ needs, which can result in anxiety and guilt (Noddings, 2013). Perhaps the best examples of this type of conflict were the leaders who encouraged and assisted employees who were not happy and successful in their organization with the process of exiting their organization. This leads to Figure 1, which acknowledges that caring includes both an assessment of available resources and the possibility that an organization may not be able to fully meet an employee’s needs. If that is indeed the case, a servant leader may choose to help the employee find personal fulfillment elsewhere. Ethics of care process.
We also identified evidence of virtue ethics’ influence on decision making as the public relations leaders sought to lead in ways that were consistent with their moral character. Hursthouse (1999) wrote that “not only does each virtue generate a prescription – do what is honest, charitable, generous – but each vice a prohibition – do not do what is dishonest, uncharitable, mean” (p. 36). This finding was significant because prior scholars suggested that servant leadership was associated with consequentialism (i.e., examining the consequences of actions to determine whether they were ethical) and authentic leadership with virtue ethics (i.e., moral character) (Lemoine et al., 2019; Mill, 1863). Instead, we found influences of virtue ethics among servant leaders and characteristics that previous scholars have emphasized are essential in public relations practice (Baker, 2008; Neill, 2021). Indeed, the servant leaders were focused on how their actions were consistent with their moral character, the kind of person and leaders they wanted to be. When discussing their personal strengths and virtues, several of the characteristics and specific examples shared were consistent with those associated with servant leadership and ethics of care such as kindness, caring, and empathy. Even the example provided for the characteristic of grit was motivated by care toward others, both the soldiers she was stationed with overseas and their families back home in the U.S. At the same time, she also exhibited moral courage by speaking truth to power, those in positions three to four ranks above her in the U.S. military. May et al. (2014) pointed out that moral courage requires “confidence in one’s abilities” in order to” justify a courageous moral action” and willingness to deal with potential opposition (May et al., 2003: 71). Indeed, there was evidence that these leaders not only esteem these virtues but were following through by their actions. Moral courage previously has been associated with authentic leadership (Hannah et al., 2011) and clearly was a defining characteristic of servant leaders in this study.
Because these leaders were living out these virtues, they were serving as ethical role models for their employees. Indeed, they had developed into servant leaders based on observing both good and bad leaders earlier in their careers, a form of social learning (Bandura, 1977). For example, the public relations leader who advocated for a more generous maternity leave for her employee was inspired by the actions of her previous leaders who showed kindness and generosity to her as a new mother. This example demonstrates that she paid attention to the virtuous actions of her previous leaders, was motivated to follow their example, retained the experience in her memory and reenacted the same behavior (Moberg, 2000). Consistent with virtue ethics, Bandura (1999) wrote that “individuals invest their sense of self-worth so strongly in humane convictions and social obligations that they act against what they regard as unjust or immoral even though their actions may incur heavy personal costs” (p. 33). In this situation, she believed that the right action was offering an extended maternity leave, even if it was more costly and less convenient for the organization. Through these public relations leaders’ actions, their employees learned about how to demonstrate kindness, empathy and moral courage. While this study was focused on the leaders’ perspective, some of the employees they are mentoring and developing will likely choose to adopt some of these same characteristics when they assume formal leadership roles. Consistent with this perspective, Lumpkin and Achen (2018) wrote that “servant-leaders, through dedication to caring about, showing empathy to, and trusting others, nurture the development of leadership abilities in others” (p. 8), a form of social learning.
Although this study did not assess the specific outcomes of servant leadership, there was some evidence that leaders perceived that the way they treat their employees would result in desirable relationship outcomes such as trust, respect, employee satisfaction and retention. At the same time, their motivation for practicing servant leadership was based on their own personal faith, values and motivation to help others grow and meet their full potential.
Implications for practice
Consistent with previous research on servant leadership, which has discovered a set of widely applied characteristics, actions, and normative principles, the conversations we had with the 32 interviewed public relations leaders provide strong heuristic and practical values. While there is not one leadership style that is ideal for every situation, there are some desirable elements of servant leadership that public relations leaders should consider adopting. First of all, a willingness to listen. Servant leaders welcome and encourage feedback from their employees prior to making major decisions and regarding their own performance as a leader. In addition, they actively listen to discern employees’ needs and concerns. But being aware of those needs is not enough. Servant leaders also assume responsibility for meeting those needs (i.e., taking care of), which results in caregiving. Secondly, servant leaders focus on building trusting relationships with their employees, which can result in loyalty, commitment and better job performance. Third, servant leaders invest in the professional development of their team members, which keeps their skills current and also results in employee engagement and commitment. Especially notable was the leader who helped her employees develop personal development plans that helped them thrive in both their personal and professional lives and routinely followed up to check on their progress.
The model of the servant leader and transactional leader: A virtue ethics construct of opposing archetypes of public relations leaders.
• The model is a continuum meaning as a practitioner moves from one end of the scale, he/she moves toward the other extreme (Gert, 1998).
Just as shared by interviewed public relations leaders, when servant leaders care and make followers’ professional development a priority, a natural mentorship process occurs. Previous research in public relations has confirmed the importance of building sustainable mentor-mentee relationships in leadership development (Meng and Neill, 2021). In this specific research context, it is important to find that servant leaders help followers grow, become self-actualized and reach their potential. At a practical level, the nurturing process helps an organization establish a healthier environment, which can further empower individuals to be more confident in their own capacities to think and act ethically on their own based on the leadership support.
Limitations and future research
This study has provided new insights regarding the practice of servant leadership in public relations. However, our study was limited to 32 public relations leaders in the United States with an average of 25 years of experience, so the results cannot be generalized. Due to the lengthy experience and the fact the participants were all based in the U.S., they may offer a different view culturally of leadership than those in other nations or those with less experience such as emerging leaders. While our sample focused on U.S. leaders, it varied on factors such as organizational size, type, and geography, which is consistent with the goals of qualitative research to portray the range of depth of the phenomena to develop theory (Bonoma, 1985; Drumwright and Murphy, 2004). Additional research should be conducted with communication leaders globally, at all levels, and use surveys to allow for generalization. Issues that merit additional study include relationship outcomes associated with servant leadership such as trust, commitment and engagement; how servant leadership impacts ethical decision making in public relations; and employee perceptions of servant leaders.
In conclusion, public relations leaders who are practicing servant leadership have made positive contributions to leader-follower relationships and the workplace environment. As practiced, servant leadership involves placing a high priority on the growth and development of employees, building trusting relationships, active listening and caring. Activities associated with servant leadership and ethics of care can result in improved employee loyalty, engagement, retention and performance.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was supported by a Page Legacy Scholar Grant from The Arthur W. Page Center at The Pennsylvania State University’s College of Communications. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pennsylvania State University. (Grant No. 2021EOC001)
