Servant leadership and conflict resolution: a qualitative study

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to examine the choice of conflict management strategies made by servant leaders. Design/methodology/approach The present qualitative study uses the method of narrative enquiry within the framework of interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith et al., 2009) to capture the life experiences as lived. Findings The study suggests that the servant leaders manifest conflict management styles which are more persuasive, humane and participative. Their chief strategies for resolving subordinate-subordinate conflict are initial diagnosis of the situation; leader’s intervention in facilitating an amicable solution; and impartiality of the leader while effecting resolution of conflict. Diagnosis of the conflict situation, self-restraint, patience, composure and humility of the servant leader have emerged as major leadership characteristics, as well as strategies for dealing with any provocative employee behavior. Practical implications Insight provided by this study into alternate strategies for conflict resolution will guide the academicians, working managers and trainers to understand and practice the process of managing conflict in a more humane way. Originality/value Despite the presence of a few studies linking leadership style with the choice of conflict resolution strategies, an important gap till now has been the absence of leaders’ personal account of their experiences, reflections and analysis in their choice of conflict resolution strategies. This study seeks to investigate the approach of servant leaders when they handle subordinate-subordinate and superior-subordinate conflict.

Healing a Broken Spirit: Role of Servant Leadership

“…At group/team level, positive behaviours such as collective self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997), team psychological capital (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007), and collective hope, (Snyder, 2000) were reported. Positive macro-level behaviour in such organizations can be discerned in terms of organizational forgiveness, organizational gratitude, organizational citizenship behaviour, organizational virtuousness, organizational resilience, and organizational compassion (Cameron, Bright, & Caza, 2004;Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003;Caza, Barker, & Cameron, 2004;Jit, Sharma, & Kawatra, 2016). These positive micro-and macro-level behaviours, in turn, create a positive organizational culture and mediate the relationship between servant leadership and higher performance (Ehrhart, 2004;Jaramilla et al, 2009a;Neubert et al, 2008).…”

Conflict Resolution Towards a Sustainable Peace: A Lesson from The Indonesian Military Ordinariate

“…This study was a qualitative research that used narrative inquiry method (Daiute and Lightfood, 2004) that has been used to learn and understand the perspective of servant leadership to manage conflict (Earnhardt, 2008;Jit et al, 2016). The narrative inquiry method was used to gather data from conservations, interviews, life experiences as sources of data (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000).…”

How Servant Leadership Principles Affect Employee Turnover at a Solid Waste Management Firm

“…Servant leadership is one of the more popular leadership theories being undertaken by companies today. Contrary to other leadership theories, servant leaders are characterized by their willingness to follow first, adhere to organizational requirements next, and satisfy their own demands last (Jit et al, 2016). Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) posited servant leadership is closely aligned with transformational leadership, including service, trust, and vision, but differs when considering the alignment between the motives of the leader and follower.…”