Theoretical development of servant leadership in a military context: A mixed methods research

Abstract

Purpose:

The present study aimed to both develop and validate a model for servant leadership in a military context.

Design/methodology/approach:

The exploratory sequential mixed methods design with two phases was used. Firstly, in the qualitative phase, the process of servant leadership in a military context was developed using a systematic approach of grounded theory. Secondly, in the quantitative phase, the relationship between the components of servant leadership was explained and the developed model was validated.

Findings:

The result of the qualitative phase show certain personal, organizational and social antecedents form the ideology of sacrifice in leaders which include: spiritually, intelligent and developed personality (personal antecedents); organizational culture, models and incentives (organizational antecedents); and reference groups and social events (social antecedents). The ideology of sacrifice resulted in choosing special behaviors of servant leadership by leaders. These behaviors include: creating service climate; developing standards; building trust; empowering followers comprehensively; and effective persuasion which cause positive personal and organizational outcomes. According to the results of quantitative phase, the proposed model has an appropriate fitness.

Practical implications:

The results of this research can be used to develop certain criteria for selecting servant leaders. Accordingly, certain training programs can be developed to promote competencies in organizational leaders.

Originality/value:

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to develop a model for servant leadership in a military context using a mixed methods design.

Keywords

Servant leadership military context mixed methods research design

Ebrahim Bahmani, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

Hadi Teimouri, Associate Professor, Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. ORCID: org/0000-0003-3288-1319

Mohammad Hosein Moshref Javadi, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

Ali Rabbani Khorasegani, Professor, Department of Social Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

1 Introduction

The success of organizational activities depends on leadership style. For instance, Andrej et al. [1] believe the knowledge management activities are affected by leadership style. They point that ‘transformational and transactional leadership styles both positively influence and promote knowledge management initiatives in organizations. Likewise, the positive and significant relation between transformational leadership and friendship at the workplace and organizational climate was shown by Kohan et al. [2]. Dashuai and Bin [3] stated ‘at the team level, paradoxical leadership was significantly positively correlated with team coordination and innovation.’

Value-laden leadership styles have positive effects on leaders’ behavior and interpersonal dynamics, build trust among the followers and enhance the employees’ motivation to exceed job expectations. In addition, these styles can increase positive self-development and pro-social behaviors in the workplace [4]. Moreover, organizational crises and problems such as bullying leadership, abuse of power, and unethical behavior within organizations have led to an increased tendency to value-laden leadership styles in the organizations [5]. A value-laden leadership style that widely welcomed by researchers in the last two decades is servant leadership [6].

Servant leadership was introduced as a philosophy after publishing ‘The servant as a leader’ by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 [7]. Greenleaf believed servant leadership emphasizes that one who wants to be served must first serve [8]. Servant leaders abandon self-orientation and pay particular attention to each individual since they believe individuals are different from each other and each person has their own special interests, abilities, and limitations. Servant leaders try to fulfil the needs of individuals, organizations, and society [6].

The antecedents and outcomes of servant leadership were studied by many researchers [7 –20]. However, few studies have presented an overview and process perspective on servant leadership. Moreover, few studies have investigated servant leadership using a mixed methods design. For example, only 9 studies from among 285 published on servant leadership (1998–2018) have been conducted using a mixed methods design [6]. Sendjaya and Sarros [21] also emphasize that identifying servant leadership antecedents and outcomes and the organizational reinforcing factors as well as servant leaders’ behaviors require thorough quantitative and qualitative empirical studies (p. 63). Additionally, using a mixed methods design, rather than merely quantitative methods was recommended for studying servant leadership [6].

Military organizations are among the organizational environments that require the study of servant leadership style. The objectives and conditions in military organizations are fundamentally different from those in non-military organizations [22]. For example, military organizations differ from other organizations due to their ethical climate, multiple responsibilities, and ongoing, high-risk activities [23]. The studies conducted on servant leadership have mainly focused on business organizations [24]. Few studies have investigated servant leadership in a military organization. Moreover, most of the studies on military leadership have been conducted on non-military samples due to lack of access to a battlefield context [25].

Therefore, using an exploratory mixed methods design, this research tries to develop and validate a model for servant leadership in a military context by finding the antecedents, behaviors and outcomes of servant leadership through an empirical study.

Based on the objectives, these questions should be answered in the qualitative phase of the research:

What are the behavioral dimensions of servant leadership in a military context?

What are the antecedents for the incidence of servant leadership behavior in a military context?

What are the outcomes of using servant leadership behavior?

Moreover, in the quantitative phase the question is whether the developed model for servant leadership in a military context has an appropriate fitness.

In the following sections, a literature review is provided for clarifying the antecedents of servant leadership, behaviors and outcomes. Next, the methodology and the results of analyzing the data are presented. Finally, after discussion and conclusion, theoretical and practical implications, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future work are presented.

2 Literature review

2.1 Servant leadership

A servant leader considers himself a servant before calling himself a leader [26]. Moreover, instead of leading, the first and main motive of servant leaders is serving [27]. Greenleaf [26] believes that a merited leader should, first and foremost, be willing to serve. In other words, servant leaders must first ensure that their followers’ needs are being met [7]. The priority servant leaders is serving their followers, organizations, and societies [13]. Servant leaders try to help their followers gain maximum professional success [28]. Servant leadership is a comprehensive leadership approach that pursues the followers’ spiritual, communicative, emotional, and moral development [29, 30].

Shim and Park [31] according to Hale & Fields (2007) define servant leadership as ‘an understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those led over the self-interest of the leader, emphasizing leader behaviors that focus on follower development and de-emphasizing glorification of the leader’. Sendjaya and Sarros [21] state that in servant leadership, ‘leader-follower relation is that of a client-server, not supervisor-subordinate or master-slave relation’.

2.2 The antecedents of servant leadership

The antecedents of servant leadership behavior can be classified into organizational and personal antecedents [6 , 32]. For example, the antecedents of servant leaders’ behavior were considered to be the culture of the team and the organization, the superiors’ policies and influence, and the servant leaders’ personality and demographic characteristics [6].

Some of the personality traits of leaders are positively or negatively linked to servant leadership behavior. For instance, agreeableness [12], leader’s core self-evaluations [33], mindfulness [34] and emotional intelligence [10] are linked to servant leadership positively. On the contrary, narcissism [35] and extraversion [12] are linked to servant leadership negatively.

2.3 The attributes and behaviors of servant leaders

In recent years, researchers introduced numerous dimensions, behaviors, and personality traits for servant leadership. For instance, after reviewing the literature of servant leadership, Russell and Stone [36] categorized servant leadership attributes in functional and accompanying attributes. They state that functional attributes of servant leadership are: ‘Integrity, trust, vision, pioneering, honesty, empowerment, appreciation of others, service and modeling. Additionally, they point that servant leadership accompanying attributes include: ‘influence, stewardship, communication, credibility, visibility, persuasion, delegation, listening, encouragement, competence and teaching.’ Spears [37, 38] states that ‘Robert Greenleaf incorporated ten major attributes of servant leadership to be: ‘Healing, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, building community, conceptualization, awareness, listening, empathy, persuasion, and foresight.’

Latif and Marimon [24] developed a model of servant leadership that includes: ‘Wisdom, development, empowerment, emotional healing, relationship building, behaving ethically and pioneering.’ Barbuto and Wheeler [39] developed another model for servant leadership. Their model has five dimensions of ‘Organizational stewardship, wisdom, altruistic calling, persuasive mapping and emotional Healing.’ In addition, another model for servant leadership was developed which includes standing back, humility, courage empowerment and accountability [40, 41]. Liden et al. [28, 42] developed another model for servant leadership, the dimensions of which are behaving ethically, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first and emotional healing.

2.4 The outcomes of servant leadership

The outcomes of servant leadership can be categorized as behavioral, attitudinal, and functional outcomes [6]. One of the most important behavioral outcomes of servant leadership is the incidence of organizational citizenship behavior among the followers. Chiniara and Bentein [43] showed that servant leadership causes the incidence of organizational citizenship behavior among the employees. They believe that the more leaders exhibit servant leadership behaviors, the more their followers exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors. They argue that leaders propagate their own caring and serving behaviors among the followers thereby encouraging them to help others and become servant leaders. Bavik et al. [18] investigated the mediating role of employee job crafting in the relationship between servant leadership and employees’ interpersonal organizational citizenship behaviors. The results of their research showed that servant leadership leads to the incidence of organizational citizenship behavior directed towards leaders, colleagues and customers of the organization. Moreover, the positive effect of servant leadership behavior on employee’s organizational citizenship behavior is demonstrated by other researchers [9 , 45].

Servant leadership is associated with career attitudinal outcomes of some employees. For instance, Ling et al. [46] and Coetzer et al. [47] showed that servant leadership can boost employee engagement among employees. Moreover, the positive relation between servant leadership and employee’s job satisfaction in pointed by Amah [9], Chan and Mak [48] and Donia et al. [11]. Langhof and Güldenberg [7] also argue that the more the managers participate in servant leadership behaviors, the more the employees adopt serving behaviors and serving culture will be promoted.

Self-efficacy is another servant leadership attitudinal output. Bande et al. [17], using results from Bandura (1997), define self-efficacy as ‘an employee’s cognitive appraisal of whether he or she can complete a given task.’ Bande et al. [17] emphasize that leadership has a decisive influence on employees’ self-efficacy. In addition, Shim and Park [31] point that servant leadership has a positive effect on the public service motivation of government employees.

Rivkin et al. [14] point servant leadership decrease employee’s emotional exhaustion and ego-depletion. Moreover, servant leadership is negatively linked with job boredom [49] and the intention to turnover and disengaging from organization [12].

The positive relation between servant leadership and employee, group and organizational performance was shown by researchers. For instance, Oliveira and Ferreira [50] point that servant leadership has a positive effect on innovative performance of employees. Parris and Peachey [51] state that servant leadership will increase the worker’s well-being and performance. Moreover, at the group level servant leadership is positively linked with group creativity [15 , 42]. With regards to organizational level, the positive relation between servant leadership and firm performance was pointed by Huang et al. [52].

As explained in the literature review, various servant leadership antecedents, behavioral dimensions, and outcomes have been introduced. However, further research is needed to identify the antecedents, behaviors, and outcomes of servant leadership in a military context. In the following sections, the methodology and results of the study are presented.

3 Methodology and procedure

Mixed methods designs allow a better understanding of the research question. Sreejesh and Mohapatra [53] according to Denzin and Lincoln (2000) believe that ‘some research questions can be answered more accurately and completely by mixed methods designs.’ Likewise, Hurmerinta-Peltomaki and Nummela [54] argue ‘deeper and broader understanding of the phenomenon can be provided by using mixed methods.’

In the same way, Beck [8] believe that more complete understanding of participants about leadership in a special context can be provided by mixing qualitative and quantitative data. Also, Creswell and Plano Clark [55] argue quantitative data are not sufficient to describe the phenomenon of leadership.

Accordingly, and the following main reasons, the exploratory sequential mixed methods designs was used in this study. Firstly, this study tries to develop a model of servant leadership by finding the antecedents, behaviors and outcomes of servant leadership in a military context. This aim can be obtained by conducting a qualitative study. Secondly, validation and fitness of developed model of servant leadership should be examined. This examination can be done through a quantitative study. Thirdly, a single research method is not sufficient to answer the research question. Therefore, this study try to provide a better understanding of the model of servant leadership in a military context and examine its predictive validity, by combination of qualitative and quantitative data by using a mixed method research design.

The present exploratory sequential mixed methods design has two phases:

The phenomenon servant leadership is explored and its dimensions are explained by collection and analysis of the qualitative data;

The relationships discovered between the dimensions of the phenomenon servant leadership are examined by collection and analysis of quantitative data.

The exploratory sequential design is used when the tools, variables and measures of a phenomenon in the study population are not known or available [56]. In the first phase of the study, a model for servant leadership was developed in a specific organizational context (military context) using a qualitative research method (grounded theory). In the next phase, validation of the developed model was assessed using the quantitative structural equation modeling (SEM).

3.1 Phase 1: Theoretical development of servant leadership: qualitative study

3.1.1 Participants and setting of the study

The study participants were Iranian veterans of a military unit located in the south of Iran (Shiraz, Fars province). The participants had directly participated in numerous operations during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988). With the intention of gathering rich data, the following experienced participants were selected:

Those who had learned leadership and management skills

Those who had been dispatched to war zones by the military unit under investigation

Those who had at least three years experience of working as a battalion commander in the front line during the war; and

Those who had guided and led military forces in the real battlefield situation

Convenience sampling and purposive sampling methods were used [57]. For gathering in-depth information 18 commanders were selected and interviewed.

3.1.2 Data collection procedures and interview guide

An interview is a guided conversation for finding out the opinions, means, and experiences of participants of the study [58]. Moreover, Seow & Brown [59], according to Rubin & Rubin (2012), believe that in-depth semi-structured interviews help the researcher find out the participants’ perspectives, experiences and opinions. Hence, in this study, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews to obtain the commanders’ experiences and comments on servant leadership style in a military unit. The participants were interviewed face-to-face and one-to-one.

The main feature of a servant leader is prioritizing the needs of followers, organization and community [7 , 26–30]. Therefore, the interview guide was designed so that the participants could freely express their views on the following questions:

What are the behavioral strategies of the commanders who have served the followers, organizations and societies well?

What are the underlying factors, central phenomena, and consequences of behaviors of the commanders who have served their followers, organizations, and societies well?

Then, the opinions of a panel of experts (4 leadership professors and 5 military commanders) were used for developing the interview guide. Next, based on the initial interview guide, four of the commanders were tentatively interviewed and the final interview guide was developed after modifying the questionnaire. The initial interview data were not used for final analysis. The interviews lasted 45–60 minutes and were audio recorded in concert with the participants. Immediately after each interview, the interview transcript was typed and a copy was sent to the participant to correct possible misinterpretations.

It is noteworthy that the interviewer (first author) was himself an infantry officer with 19 years of work experience in a military unit as a commander. His long history of working as a commander helped him to understand the terms used by the commanders as he built empathy and was involved more intimately with them. After18 interviews, the interviewer felt that theoretical saturation was reached; therefore, gathering new data was stopped.

3.1.3 Data analysis

Based on the grounded theory method, the data was collected and analyzed simultaneously. First, open coding was performed using constant comparative analysis to extract the concepts related to the main research questions. Constant comparative analysis revealed categories and their dimensions and properties by comparing the participants’ responses. Strauss and Corbin [60] state that ‘whereas properties are the general or specific characteristics or attributes of a category, dimensions represent the location of a property along a continuum or range’.

Then, the concepts were grouped based on the similarities between more general categories and axial coding was performed. In the selective coding stage, the core category was selected and the relationship between the categories was plotted and presented as a conceptual research model.

3.1.4 Ethical considerations

Regarding research ethics, following considerations were followed in this study:

Permissions were obtained from the security and defense officials of the military unit under investigation

A written informed consent was obtained from the participants for recording their voices during the interview and using their quotes in the research results.

During the interview, the audio recorder was switched off as required by the participant.

To protect anonymity, the names of the participants were excluded from this report.

3.1.5 Validity

Grounded theory evaluation criteria include trustw°rthiness and member checking [61]. Hence, peer review and feedback strategies as well as member checking were used to assess trustw°rthiness of the findings in the qualitative phase of the research. These strategies provided confirmation of the model and results of research

3.2 Phase 2: Model validation: quantitative study

In this section, the proposed theoretical model of servant leadership is validated and tested using quantitative approach.

3.2.1 Development of the instrument

The 62-item researcher-made questionnaire was developed based on the categories of the theoretical model of servant leadership designed in the qualitative phase of the research and considering the military unit context under investigation. The 5-point Likert-type scale (ranged from1: Strongly Disagree to 5: Strongly Agree) was used for measuring all the items. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed after receiving and applying the opinions of the leadership professors and a number of commanders of the military unit. Moreover, using confirmatory factor analysis (with the statistical software AMOS 22), the construct validity of the questionnaires was investigated. The acceptability of the questionnaires was confirmed by the results of confirmatory factor analysis. Validity indicators for the 62 questions were tested by factor loadings. The construct validity of the questionnaire was acceptable since all the questions had factor loadings above 0.66. In addition, the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed since the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was above 0.7 for all measures.

3.2.2 Data collection

The statistical population of the quantitative phase of the study included all of the military personnel currently working in the military unit under investigation. The number of samples in studies where structural equation modeling (SEM) is used will be determined using the formula (5q≤n≤15q) in which (q) is the number of questions and (n) is the number of members included in the statistical sample [62]. Since the questionnaire consisted of 62 questions, 570 members were included in the statistical sample. Due to the researcher’s access to the list of all the personnel, members of the statistical sample were selected using a random sampling method and the questionnaires were distributed among them. A total of 570 questionnaires were distributed out ofwhich 534 questionnaires were collected and used in data analysis. Among the respondents, 97 (18%) had a high school diploma, 176 (33%) had an associate’s degree, 198 (37%) had a bachelor’s degree, 61 (11%) had a master’s degree and one (1%) person had a Ph.D. In terms of age, most of the participants aged 25–32. The military ranking of the study participants is shown in Table 1.

Table 1
Military ranks of the participants

Military ranks Individuals Military ranks Individuals

Staff Sergeant 76 First Lieutenant 34

Sergeant First Class 71 Captain 32

Master Sergeant 64 Major 31

Sergeant Major 59 Lieutenant Colonel 27

Third Lieutenant 61 Colonel 22

Second Lieutenant 56 Second Brigadier General 1

Total: 534

Military ranks	Individuals	Military ranks	Individuals
Staff Sergeant	76	First Lieutenant	34
Sergeant First Class	71	Captain	32
Master Sergeant	64	Major	31
Sergeant Major	59	Lieutenant Colonel	27
Third Lieutenant	61	Colonel	22
Second Lieutenant	56	Second Brigadier General	1
Total: 534

3.2.3 Data analysis

In this section of the study, a questionnaire-based survey was used to test the model validation and investigate the relationships between the variables based on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).

4 Findings

In this section, the findings of the qualitative and quantitative phases will be described.

4.1 Findings of qualitative phase

The process of servant leadership used by commanders of the military unit in this study consists of 7 main categories that include: personal antecedents, organizational antecedents, social antecedents, core category (the ideology of sacrifice), behavioral strategies, personal outcomes, and finally, organizational outcomes The relationship between these categories is depicted in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Theoretical development of servant leadership in military context.

Personal, organizational, and social antecedents have shaped the commanders’ ideology of sacrifice. This ideology has caused them to serve their followers, companions, superiors, as well as the organization and society. As a result, these commanders have caused positive organizational and personal outcomes by adopting specific servant leadership behavioral strategies. These categories will be discussed below in addition to their dimensions and properties as well as verbatim quotations from research participants.

4.1.1 Personal antecedents

Personal antecedents are the commanders’ personality dimensions that have been effective in the incidence of servant leadership behavior among them. This category included: spiritually personality, developed personality and intelligent personality.

Spiritually personality: one of the main characteristics of the commanders who have led their forces based on servant leadership behavior is their spiritually-oriented personalities. Their spiritual-orientation refers to their religious beliefs and practices. One of the participants said: ‘materialistic values alone can never justify their attendance at dangerous war zones. Their spiritually oriented personalities made them go beyond the call of duty and consider serving the followers and organizations as well as work accuracy and religious duties’.

Interestingly, Commanders with higher levels of commitment to religious values, treated their colleagues and followers more humanely and ethically, while showing better service and performance in highly dangerous war zones.

Developed personality: refers to a set of personality traits of the commanders who have used servant leadership reflecting the development and evolution of their personalities. These personality traits include: strong patriotism, courage, patience, honesty, interactivity, self-esteem, self-control, self-confidence, self-awareness, decisiveness, altruism, positivity, conscientiousness, being self-made and ethics-oriented, etc. For example, one of the participants commented on patriotism:

“When we arrived in Khorramshahr, we saw some writings on the walls by the invading forces, saying: “We have come here to stay!” As we were moving through the city and observed the bodies of innocent people, it wasn’t possible for us to remain silent and let the enemy forces do whatever they wished.”

Another participant commented on his commander’s personality, who was a servant leader: “He was self-controlled and self-reliant. It was not necessary for him to be supervised and controlled by a superior. He used to do his job without job control commands”.

Intelligent personality: The commanders who used servant leadership styles had an intelligent personality; that is, they had both experience and knowledge at the same time. The three dimensions of their intelligent personality included: military intelligence, political intelligence, and emotional intelligence. Military intelligence refers to the commanders’ great technical knowledge and experience in military affairs and equipment. The participants noted that the commanders who were serving well had great knowledge and experience in using military equipment and interacting well with their subordinate forces. A participant said: “When we needed to repair weapons, we would ask the commander to train us due to his vast experience”. Political intelligence refers to the commanders’ understanding of the political conditions of society and the reason for participating in the war. The participants noted that “good commanders understood the politics and the need to defend the country. Hence, they would serve better”. Emotional intelligence refers to the commanders’ high emotional intelligence. One of the participants pointed out: “when we were in a bad mood and were mentally drained, the commander would boost our morale and would himself be emotionally strong and treat us appropriately understanding our mental and emotional statuses.”

4.1.2 Organizational antecedents

Data analysis showed that organizational culture, organizational models and organizational incentives were the organizational factors affecting the commanders’ servant leadership behavior. Serving and trying to perform the duties were introduced as values in the organizational culture of the unit under investigation. The participants had repeatedly noted the effect of organizational culture on commanders’ adoption of servant leadership behavior. For instance, one participant said:

“When I entered the operational area as a commander, I found a very different culture there. Everyone was trying to serve better. This impressed me. In this culture, every thought and perspective would be replaced by thinking about serving better. One would wonder “why can’t I serve better if other people can?”

Organizational models refer to the commanders or personnel of the military unit who, as models of servant leadership, have had a great influence on the incidence of servant leadership behavior among other commanders. One of the commanders of the unit stated:

“When I reached the designated place for my mission, I saw that the commander of the ground forces was there. I told myself the commander of the ground forces has come to the front line earlier than me, I am a commander and I should be more careful about serving better”.

The commander has been willing to demonstrate servant leadership behavior imitating his superior commander who was a servant leader.

Organizational incentives refer to the organizational reinforcing factors for the incidence of servant leadership behavior. One of the participants who had destroyed more than 200 enemy tanks and armored personnel carriers during the war (for which he was called “Tank Hunter”) in addition to serving the organization well, said: “The organization valued working well. Someone who was serving well was appreciated. For instance, I was granted 5 honorary higher ranks as an encouragement for destroying enemy tanks during the war. “Therefore, organizational incentives had motivated the military commanders in this study to practice servant leadership.

4.1.3 Social antecedents

Social antecedentsrefer to the external and social factors affecting the commanders’ leadership style and include reference groups and social events. Reference groups refer to individuals or institutions that have influenced the commanders ‘decision-making as well as the type and extent of their services and behaviors in the battlefield. The participants have repeatedly referred to the roles of the two main reference groups, family (spouse and children, parents) and political leaders in shaping their servant leadership behaviors. For example, one of the participants said: “My wife has written to me: “since I can’t do anything for my country at this critical time, I will waive my dowry to appreciate your attendance at the front line so that you can defend our homeland free from anxiety”. Another participant said: “When I was supposed to be dispatched to war zones, my mother encouraged me and said she had the honor to send her son to the front line to fight against the enemy.”

The acceptability of political leaders was another factor affecting the commanders’ behavior and their way of serving. One of the participants said:

“During the war, some of the military forces were invited to take part in a ceremony to visit the Supreme Leader of Iran, although it was held in Tehran far from the regions where operations were underway. One of military personnel refused to participate in the ceremony. When asked why he was reluctant to visit the Supreme Leader, he replied: “My duty is to follow the commands of the Leader in the battlefield, not to visit him; I will stay in the combat zone and only obey his directives to defend my homeland.”

Social events have also had a major effect on the commanders’ leadership style. The most important event that influenced the commanders’ motivation for serving was the imposed war and the military threats. One of the participants stated:

“We would observe the measures taken by the enemy and its atrocities. They had occupied our borderline cities and villages. The enemy had violated our territorial integrity and attacked our national honor. Numerous innocent people were killed. They bombed the cities; to oust the enemy out of the soil of our homeland, we were prepared for any kind of cooperation.”

4.1.4 Core category: The ideology of sacrifice

The ‘ideology of sacrifice’, was introduced as the core category of this study. The core category, or the core phenomenon, reflected the main theme addressed in this study. This category, as a nexus, could help to join other categories to explain the whole topic under investigation since other categories are associated with it [61].

An ideology is composed of a system of ideas that characterizes the commonalities of a community of people, and it organizes their identity, actions, goals, norms, and values [63]. Ideologies, which heavily depend on and are influenced by values, give a specific ordination to the social actions of people in a community or society. Ideologies, then, delineate behavioral norms for members in a community or society, which leave a profound impact on the way people think and act.

The notion of sacrifice also emphasizes giving priority to others’ interests over one’s expediency, while giving up one’s valuable assets for the sake of other people. In this social act, the individual, who has altruistic intentions, prefers others’ interests over his/her own. Sacrifice may appear in different ways, as in giving up one’s material possessions or spending time on others; but the highest mode of sacrifice involves a person who gives his/her blood in the pursuit of a sacred goal or ideal.

The ideology of sacrifice referred to the fact that the military unit commanders under investigation adopted a system of norms that was influenced by personal, organizational and social antecedents. The commanders, in their leadership process, believed in the necessity of sacrifice, and relied on their means wilfully and autonomously to make any sacrifice for their sacred ideal (defending their homeland against an invading enemy). The ideology of sacrifice encouraged commanders to make sacrifice in order to preserve their subordinates, fellows, superiors, organization and community. For instance, one of the participants pointed to sacrifice for followers and said:

“We were ordered to retreat; but no matter how much we insisted on turning back, the commander refused to do that. He said he would stay in the region as long as his soldiers were there; and he only retreated after all of his soldiers left the region.”

Regarding the notion of sacrifice and serving the society, another participant said, “We, as military personnel, felt we had duties toward the organization and society. We were obliged to secure the country by driving out the enemy. “The commanders’ belief in the need for sacrifice as well as their ideology of sacrifice has shaped specific behavioral strategies as described below.

4.1.5 Behavioral strategies

Behavioral strategies addressed the behaviors of the actors (commanders) in managing battlefield situations. The commanders adopted specific behavioral strategies in response to personal, organizational and social antecedents, and as a result of their belief in the ideology of sacrifice. The category of behavioral strategies included: creating service climate, developing standards, building trust, empowering followers comprehensively and effective persuasion.

Creating service climate: The Commanders have encouraged their followers to serve better by creating a service climate in the organization. One of the participants said:

“One of the commanders had come to visit our military unit; when he saw the dangling boot lace of a soldier, he sat down and tied it. Moreover the commanders would serve their subordinate forces, even right from the time they were appointed commander. When a new commander was introduced, they would usually say: “He will be at your service from today onward.” In fact, to motivate their forces to serve well, the commanders would serve them first.”

The commanders tried to stay with their followers and fellows all the time, avoiding any gap between themselves and their followers. They used to eat with soldiers in trench and participate in clean-up routines. They would also take action first in dangerous situations, and would endanger their lives to protect the lives of their followers.

Developing standards refers to the collection of criteria and indicators of interaction and performance by commanders. Commanders also would determine other people’s path by acting in line with ethical, communicative, interactive and military standards. For example, one of the participants stated: “The commander observed ethics. His good-temperedness and adherence to military regulations made him acceptable to us and made us adhere to the standards of conduct”.

Building trust refers to building, maintaining, and sustaining trust among commanders and their followers. From the participants’ point of view, commanders can foster trust among the unit staff by being pragmatic and pioneering, establishing mutual emotional interactions between their followers, and letting their actions match their words.

For instance, one of the participants pointed out:

“It was in a place for actual practice; our commander strongly believed in whatever he said. He would do it in practice. During reconnaissance operations, he acted first himself. We knew his voice on the walkie-talkie, when he progressed and guided us on how to walk forward.”

Empowering followers comprehensively: One of the most important requirements of a military unit is the comprehensive empowerment of all the personnel for successful operations. One of the participants pointed out:

“When the armed forces were dispatched to the front line for a military operation, their weakness would have caused the operation’s failure or increased military losses. Hence, the commander would pay attention to each individual among the personnel.”

The commanders would have empowered their followers comprehensively via mental (strengthening the high morale), physical (sport), spiritual (holding a spiritual ceremony), technical (practical and theoretical training), and emotional (improving mental and emotional abilities) empowerment.

Effective persuasion means that the commanders who have used a servant leadership style have effectively convinced their followers that they have been fully engaged in military unit affairs although sometimes they have faced many dangers. The commanders have used rational, value, and job justification to persuade their fellowmen and have encouraged their followers to serve by exerting a functional influence on them. One of the participants said: “When the commander convinced us reasonably and wisely that we were defending our country, the war and its hardships could be bearable”. The Commanders’ behavioral strategies have shaped the outcomes described by the concepts of personal and organizational outcomes.

4.1.6 Personal outcomes

The participants have repeatedly pointed out that the commanders’ servant leadership style has led to specific personal outcomes including: enhanced job commitment, job satisfaction, job engagement and meaningful work among their followers. One of the participants stated:

“During the war, when I returned home on vacation from the war zone and I was offered a delicious meal I used to eat less to maintain my readiness to endure the shortcomings in the war zone.”

He was so committed to his organization that he would try to maintain his readiness to endure harsh conditions, even when he was not there. Another participant said:

“Our commander’s leg was severely injured; we were in a vital stage; we had to protect a strategic bridge, preventing the enemy from damaging it. But no matter how much we insisted, he didn’t retreat to receive medical care. He said the forces wouldn’t be able to protect the bridged if he turned back. He went down under the bridge, directing the forces from there; when we finally managed to repulse the enemy, I also went down the bridge but we found him dead.”

Regarding job engagement, another participant stated: “We have always been thinking about how we could perform our organizational duties and serve better. Since serving us seemed to be our commanders’ priority, we also were always mentally and practically engaged at work.”

4.1.7 Organizational outcomes

According to our data, the organizational outputs of servant leadership behaviors of commanders can be introduced by the concepts of organizational stewardship, organizational sacrifice, organizational citizenship behavior and organizational performance.

Organizational stewardship implies that serving well in the military unit was considered as a pervasive value, as a result of the commanders’ behavior, and the personnel were trying to serve better. Organizational sacrifice refers to sacrifice and devotion among the military personnel. Organizational citizenship behavior refers to voluntary participation in activities and going above and beyond the call of duty. Another outcome of servant leadership behavior in the unit under investigation was the organizational performance fulfillment i.e. well-carried out well missions here.

4.2 Findings of quantitative phase

The normality of the data was investigated using Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test. The result of KS test (Table 2) shows that the distribution of data is normal at the significance level of 0.05.

Table 2
Kolmogorov–Smirnov test results

Variables Data number Significance level Test result

Personal antecedents 534 0.167 Distribution is normal

Organizational antecedents 0.182

Social antecedents 0.154

Core category (the ideology of sacrifice) 0.146

Behavioral strategies 0.151

Personal outcomes 0.171

Organizational outcomes 0.148

Variables	Data number	Significance level	Test result
Personal antecedents	534	0.167	Distribution is normal
Organizational antecedents		0.182
Social antecedents		0.154
Core category (the ideology of sacrifice)		0.146
Behavioral strategies		0.151
Personal outcomes		0.171
Organizational outcomes		0.148

The distribution of data was normal. As a result, it was possible to use parametric tests, and the fitness of measurement models was tested using AMOS 22 software (Table 3).

Table 3

Total fit indices of measurement models

Variables	CMIN/DF	GFI	AGFI	CFI	RMSEA
Personal antecedents	2.11	0.91	0.92	0.93	0.042
Organizational antecedents	2.03	0.94	0.93	0.91	0.040
Social antecedents	2.04	0.91	0.93	0.91	0.047
Core category (the ideology of sacrifice)	2.33	0.93	0.91	0.92	0.042
Behavioral strategies	2.54	0.93	0.92	0.93	0.043
Personal outcomes	2.42	0.92	0.93	0.92	0.038
Organizational outcomes	2.39	0.91	0.92	0.91	0.047
Acceptable Amount	1 < X < 3	X > 0.90	X > 0.90	X > 0.90	X < 0.1

A comparison of the acceptable value and values of indices shows that these indices have appropriate values. Next, the researcher tested the fitness indices for the structural model. The results show that structural model has appropriate fitness (Table 4).

Table 4

Fit indices of the structural model

Indices’ Name	CMIN/DF	GFI	AGFI	CFI	RMSEA
Variable Structural Model	1.93	0.91	0.92	0.93	0.011
Acceptable Amount	1 < X < 3	X > 0.90	X > 0.90	X > 0.90	X < 0.1

The relationship between the categories (hypotheses) was tested according to the results of structural equations model.

The standardized estimates of structural coefficients for the model obtained through structural equation modeling are shown in Fig. 2. For testing the significance of the hypotheses, critical ratio (CR) and P values were used. At a significance level of0.05, if critical values were higher than 1.96, it can be concluded that the related hypothesis is significant [64]. The regression coefficients (β), critical ratio (CR) values, and P values for each research hypothesis, is shown in Table 5.

Fig. 2

The results of the structural model analysis.

Table 5

Regression coefficients and results of the hypotheses test

Hypotheses	Path	β	C.R	p-value	Result
1	Personal antecedents⟶ Core category (the ideology of sacrifice)	0.66	8.34	**	Supported
2	Organizational antecedents⟶ Core category (the ideology of sacrifice)	0.53	5.21	**	Supported
3	Social antecedents⟶ Core category (the ideology of sacrifice)	0.73	6.12	***	Supported
4	Core category (the ideology of sacrifice) ⟶ Behavioral strategies	0.69	4.25	***	Supported
5	Behavioral strategies⟶ Personal outcomes	0.50	7.67	***	Supported
6	Behavioral strategies⟶ Organizational outcomes	0.69	5.30	***	Supported

** 0.01 Significance Level, *** 0.001 Significance Level.

5 Discussion

In this study, the model of servant leadership was developed in a military context using the systematic design of grounded theory. Next, the validation of developed model was tested in a quantitative study.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to theoretically develop the model of servant leadership based on the commanders’ experiences in real battlefield environments using a mixed methods design. Our results are in general agreement with previous studies. For instance, our data analysis showed that spirituality and ethics are the most important personality dimensions of servant leaders. Consistent with the findings of this study, Sendjaya et al. [30] argue that ‘Spirituality is one of the most important dimensions of servant leadership and without spirituality servant leadership would not become a truly holistic leadership approach’. Moreover, Ahmad and O.K [65] according to Beekun (2006) and Khaliq (2009) believe that ‘servant leadership approach is a moral leadership approach that leans toward values, ethics, principles, virtues, morality, spirituality, and authenticity’. According to Greenleaf [27], the servant leader’s followers, more likely work as a servant. This study also showed that one of the outcomes of the commanders’ servant leadership behaviors was the followers’ willingness to exhibit servant behavior. Sendjaya and Sarros [21] in describing the concept of servant leadership, maintain that servant leader’s central intent is firstly serving others, not leading others.

The results of data analysis also showed that in the military unit context and in perilous situations of war, the effective leaders’ intent has firstly been serving their followers, organization, and community rather than leading and commanding them. They were even ready to sacrifice and devote themselves.

The core category of the servant leadership model of this study is the ideology of sacrifice. It means, in the perilous situation of battlefield and war, due to the dangerous situation, effective leaders and commanders were ready to sacrifice. This result is in agreement with Shim and Park [31] findings which state that ‘the core value of servant leadership is prosocial behavior based on self-sacrifice’.

The results of this study show that followers’ job satisfaction and job engagement are personal outcomes of servant leadership behavior. Like this finding, Chiniara & Bentein [66] believe that servant leaders by concentrating on employees’ growth and well-being can maximize employees’ voluntary engagement at work and satisfy their needs.

5.1 Theoretical implications

In this study, we primarily focused on the conceptual development of servant leadership. Then, an instrument was designed to measure servant leadership. However, in the third stage, a model of servant leadership was developed rather than investigating the relationships between the antecedents, mediating and moderating variables and outcomes of servant leadership. The contribution of this research to theoretical foundations of servant leadership was identifying theantecedents, behaviors and outcomes of servant leadership, and developing a model for servant leadership in a military context based on the experiences of battlefield attendants. Our current findings expand prior models of servant leadership since this study was an attempt to identify the personal, organizational, and social dimensions affecting the incidence of servant leadership behavior.

Helping to answer the question of how we can develop a model for servant leadership in a military context is the significant contribution of this study in servant leadership literature. Moreover, using the results of Parry’s study, Shim and Park [31] stated ‘social environment and contextual factors can contribute to forming employee motivation and providing behavioral guidelines for them’ (p. 205). Similarly, this study presumes that social and environmental factors are likely to be the antecedents of servant leadership behaviors.

5.2 Practical implications

The results of this study can be applied by numerous organizations. For example, Peterson et al. [35] point out that realizing the antecedents of servant leadership can help us to choose appropriate managers for a leadership position. Moreover, Langhof and Güldenberg [7] state that we should try to recruit servant leaders. Therefore, organizations that want to find and maintain servant leaders, can identify and attract more qualified leaders based on the personality dimensions of the servant leaders introduced in this study. The organizations that are willing to promote their current proficiencies of the managers by holding training programs for empowering leaders can build training materials based on the model developed in this study and help the current leaders of the organization to lead their followers more efficiently and effectively by considering servant leadership antecedents and behaviors. In addition, the results of the study showed that organizational factors influence the incidence of servant leadership behavior in organizations. Hence, organizational managers can develop the structures, processes, patterns of communication and interaction, and the culture of the organization in such a way to sustain servant leadership behavior in the organization.

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research

Since the participants had long experiences in leading military forces in a real battlefield, the researcher could design a better servant leadership model and identify antecedents, behaviors and outcomes of servant leadership based on real-world situations. However, developing a holistic model of servant leadership in military organizations requires studying various military units. Therefore, future studies might investigate the servant leadership style from the viewpoint of commanders of other military units and evaluate the generalizability of introduced leadership models in military and non-military organizations. In addition, considering that all of the personnel of the military unit under investigation were male, it is recommended that future studies investigate servant leadership dimensions in military units that are open equally to men and women. Finally, our study provides the framework for future studies to develop the model of servant leadership in different organizational contexts.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the participants of this research and the military unit officials who collaborated with the researcher.

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