BUS603: Managing People

In previous decades, the notion and presence of well-being in organisations was completely disregarded: emotions were perceived as irrational factors to be excluded from the work environment. The present research study forms part of a novel movement in organisational research that attempts to shift the focus from problems and deficiencies to a proactive model focusing on how to make organisations and individuals thrive.

The findings in this study demonstrate that servant leadership can be measured in a workplace setting and correlates positively with two other organisational constructs, namely emotional intelligence and trust. This provides useful information for practicable leadership development interventions in organisations.

With regard to servant leadership, Barbuto and Wheeler argue that further antecedents of servant leadership could include variables such as sources of motivation, flexibility and openness to experience or situational variables such as education, basis of social power, early childhood experiences, organisational culture and exposure to and mentorship of other servant leaders. Future research could include more of these antecedents in order to assist in scientifically creating the servant leadership construct and measure.