Leadership Behaviors of School Foodservice Directors at Financially Successful Operations: A Qualitative Study

摘要

Although the majority of leadership research has focused on self-reported leadership behaviors, this qualitative research study assessed observable leadership behaviors of school foodservice directors. Participant observation of seven directors occurred individually over a total of 55 hours. Data triangulation and analysis revealed six key leadership dimensions: serving, mentoring, humanizing, innovating, leveraging, and challenging. These leadership dimensions are described and suggestions are given on how they might be used for educational purposes and human resources management of foodservice directors.