Servant Leadership Practice and its Relation with Employee Job Satisfaction: The Case of Compassion International in Ethiopia

Abstract

Though the modern study of servant leadership may be traced to the
revolutionary work of Greenleaf in late 20th, the concept of servant leadership
can be traced back to the 4th century. The servant leadership model as
proposed by Robert Greenleaf is suitable to providing employees with the
empowerment and participatory job features that are related to both employee
and customer satisfaction. This study assessed the level of practice of servant
leadership and its relation with employee job satisfaction. The study involved
all professional employees of Compassion International in Ethiopia including
senior and middle level leadership of the organization. Descriptive as well as
inferential statistics were employed to analyze the quantitative data collected.
The findings from both quantitative and qualitative data analysis indicated
that servant leadership style is practiced well at the organization and the
organization is categorized as servant-oriented organization based on the
Organizational Leadership Assessment tool. Moreover, it was noted that the
level of employee job satisfaction of the organization is very high (94%) and
it is exemplary for other likeminded organizations. A positive relationship of
job satisfaction with the overall practice of servant leadership style and that of
the five dimensions of servant leadership was observed. In addition,
respondents’ organizational position, department, sex, service of year and age
had significant associations with employee job satisfaction and the level of
practice of servant leadership dimensions. Finally, it was concluded that the
leadership of this organization has proven and set the example of practice of
servant leadership in Ethiopia.