Job Satisfaction and the Priority of Valuing People: A Case Study of Servant Leadership Practice in a Network of Family-Owned Companies

摘要

The servant leadership literature has a growing body of evidence pointing to the positive relationship between servant leadership and job satisfaction. Because many of these studies have focused on quantitative analyses of the subject, the present study brings a complementary qualitative perspective. This article presents the findings of a case study focused on the servant leadership practices of the McNeff family in their network of family-owned companies in Anoka, Minnesota. Using the six servant leadership themes developed by Laub, the study focused on interviews with the owners and survey results from employees. The researchers found that the servant leadership practices of the owners are contributing to the job satisfaction of the employees. In addition, the researchers found evidence to suggest that the theme of valuing people may have a disproportionately strong effect on the culture of a business or organization, and serve as the foundation on which other servant leadership behaviors may occur.