Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

6060

Date

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Leadership and Policy Studies

Concentration

Leadership

Committee Chair

Reginald Green

Committee Member

Mary Boudreaux

Committee Member

Donald Hopper

Committee Member

Gulosino Charisse

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the servant leadership practices of a sample of women associated with the ministry and to determine whether the frequency with which these practices were engaged in differed according to these women’s ministerial role, their ethnic backgrounds, their level of formal education, and their years of experience in the ministry.One hundred and eighty women responded in full to a modified version of Barbuto and Wheeler’s (2006) Servant Leadership Questionnaire that measures servant leadership in terms of five underlying dimensions: altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping, and organizational stewardship. Results of a Repeated Measures Analysis of Variances (R-ANOVA) indicated that the participants did not engage in servant leadership practices with equal frequency. Systematically higher scores were observed on the “Organizational Stewardship” dimension of the questionnaire, while systematically lower scores were observed on its “Perceptual Mapping” dimension. The participants’ scores were found to be linked to their ethnic background, as well as their years in the ministry. However, no relationship was observed between participants’ years of formal education or their ministerial role as a senior pastor’s wife, as a minister’s wife, or as a woman in the ministry.Open-ended questions that were added to the questionnaire suggested that senior pastor’s wives, minister’s wives and women in ministry have six essential needs to be more effective servant leaders: mentorship, training, a community of clergy wives and women in ministry, support, resources, rest and respite. The open-ended questions also suggest that the survey participants believe that all leaders must possess six essential components: vision, servanthood, integrity, passion, compassion and humility. It stands to reason that if senior pastor’s wives, minister’s wives, and women in ministry who desire to exhibit servant leadership in the daily administration of their roles, they would need to research, learn and apply the five servant leadership factors as prescribed by (Barbuto and Wheeler, 2006). As a result of this study, many clergy spouses and women in ministry know what servant leadership is, but lack clarity about how to effectively apply servant leadership and what the outcomes would be if successfully implemented.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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