A Quantitative Examination of the Relationship between Servant Leadership and Age on Organizational Commitment in Faith-Based Organizations

Author(s)

Frank DenoFollow

Date

11-2017

Department

Graduate School of Business

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Chair

Eric Richardson

Keywords

age, commitment, faith-based organization, generational cohort, servant leadership, volunteers

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

Recommended Citation

Deno, Frank, "A Quantitative Examination of the Relationship between Servant Leadership and Age on Organizational Commitment in Faith-Based Organizations" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 1550.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1550

Abstract

Servant leadership has grown slowly over the past four decades as an organizational style of leadership. Servant leadership is an excellent style for developing followers into their full potential, as it focuses first on the individual, while simultaneously developing capacity to achieve organizational goals. The workforce is constantly circulating, with older workers retiring and younger workers coming into the workforce. There are many factors influencing workers’ commitment to their organization, age is one of these factors and perception of leadership is another. Younger workers have different needs and different motivations than older workers. Faith-based organizations are a smaller segment of organizations with unique characteristics that effect servant leadership and commitment; potentially differently in different age workers. The purpose of this quantitative research was to examine servant leadership with paid and volunteer workers of different ages in faith-based organizations for relationship with organizational commitment. Data was collected through an anonymous survey of faith-based organizations in the Northeast United States (U.S.) and analyzed through multiple regression (and ANOVA for generational cohorts). The analysis used age (birth year – current year) and servant leadership as independent variables and organizational commitment scores as the dependent variable. The findings indicated that age does not have a significant relationship with commitment in faith-based organizations, but servant leadership is predictive of commitment in faith-based organizations. These findings lead to several suggestions for practice and future research.