2010 - Public Relations Society of America
2010 - Public Relations Society of America
2010 - Public Relations Society of America
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2002), all <strong>of</strong> which encourage employees to develop organizational loyalty/pride<br />
(Ashforth & Mael, 1989).<br />
Employing individualized consideration (IC) strategies, transformational leaders<br />
exhibit friendly/close behavior, treat followers as equals, and <strong>of</strong>fer<br />
support/encouragement according to followers’ individual needs (Bass, 1985). Leaders<br />
using IC draw from compassionate, ethical value systems that include other-oriented end<br />
goals and high need sensitivity (Musser & Orke, 1992) to empower followers (Musser,<br />
1997). Further research linked transformational leadership’s with a wide range <strong>of</strong> IC<br />
outcomes (Berson & Avolio, 2004; Kark, Shamir, & Chen, 2003; Piccolo & Colquitt,<br />
2006; Pillai & Williams, 2004; Rafferty & Griffin, 2006; Seltzer & Bass, 1990;<br />
Walumbwa & Lawler, 2003, Walumbwa et al., 2004).<br />
The tenets <strong>of</strong> another leadership style, principle-centered (Covey, 1992), align<br />
closely with this study’s purpose, despite limited scholarship in this area. Heightening<br />
attention to the importance <strong>of</strong> ethics, character, and principles in organizational<br />
leadership, Covey identified characteristics <strong>of</strong> principle-centered leaders, among them<br />
being service-oriented (seeing life as a “mission”), radiating positive energy, believing in<br />
the potential/good in other people, being adventuresome, and exercising physical, mental,<br />
emotional, and spiritual self-renewal (pp. 33-39). Covey saw employee empowerment<br />
and trust as critical for creating principle-centered workplaces, suggesting that these keys<br />
enable employees to meet expectations “without being reminded” because leaders have<br />
“built an emotional bank account with them” (p. 155).<br />
Relatedly, servant leadership style involves leaders “serving” their followers, not<br />
“because <strong>of</strong> the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material<br />
possessions. . . . [but to] make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being<br />
served” (Greenleaf, 1998, pp. 18-19). In corporations, the primary purpose <strong>of</strong> a business<br />
should be to create a positive impact on its employees and the greater community;<br />
servant-leadership brings together service and meaning in the workplace (Greenleaf,<br />
1977, 1978). DePree (1989) noted that servant-leaders employ participative management,<br />
creating “covenantal relationships” with employees and elevating workplace<br />
“redemption” above pr<strong>of</strong>it (DePree in Lee & Zemke, 1995, pp. 101-102). DePree (1992)<br />
also promoted 12 keys to successful servant-leadership: integrity, vulnerability,<br />
discernment, awareness <strong>of</strong> the human spirit, relational courage, sense <strong>of</strong> humor,<br />
intellectual energy/curiosity, respect for future/regard for present/understanding <strong>of</strong> past,<br />
predictability, breadth, comfort with ambiguity, and presence. In addition, Spears (1998)<br />
summarized servant leadership traits including listening; empathy; healing; persuasion<br />
through convincing/consensus rather than coercion; awareness <strong>of</strong> self, others, and<br />
environment; conceptualization (dreaming dreams); foresight (understanding<br />
past/present/future); stewardship (commitment to serving needs <strong>of</strong> others first);<br />
commitment to the growth <strong>of</strong> people; and building community among employees (pp. 4-<br />
7). Recently, Fry’s (2003) spiritual leadership model (similar to servant-leadership)<br />
incorporated vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love; theories <strong>of</strong> workplace spirituality; and<br />
spiritual survival. Spiritual leadership creates vision and value congruence across the<br />
strategic, empowered team, and individual levels, and, ultimately, fosters higher levels <strong>of</strong><br />
organizational commitment and productivity.<br />
Finally, focusing on the shared root construct <strong>of</strong> transformational, charismatic,<br />
principled, and servant leadership styles (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), Luthans and Avolio<br />
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