Cited by 1,096Leadership and Management in OrganizationsJob Satisfaction and Organizational BehaviorWorkplace Spirituality and Leadership

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 95 of the 102 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 41 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

The Servant Leadership Survey: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measure

Open access
van Dierendonck, Dirk, Nuijten, Inge·2011·Journal of Business and Psychology

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and validation of a multi-dimensional instrument to measure servant leadership. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Based on an extensive literature review and expert judgment, 99 items were formulated. In three steps, using eight samples totaling 1571 persons from The Netherlands and the UK with a diverse occupational background, a combined exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis approach was used. This was followed by an analysis of the criterion-related validity. FINDINGS: The final result is an eight-dimensional measure of 30 items: the eight dimensions being: standing back, forgiveness, courage, empowerment, accountability, authenticity, humility, and stewardship. The internal consistency of the subscales is good. The results show that the Servant Leadership Survey (SLS) has convergent validity with other leadership measures, and also adds unique elements to the leadership field. Evidence for criterion-related validity came from studies relating the eight dimensions to well-being and performance. IMPLICATIONS: With this survey, a valid and reliable instrument to measure the essential elements of servant leadership has been introduced. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The SLS is the first measure where the underlying factor structure was developed and confirmed across several field studies in two countries. It can be used in future studies to test the underlying premises of servant leadership theory. The SLS provides a clear picture of the key servant leadership qualities and shows where improvements can be made on the individual and organizational level; as such, it may also offer a valuable starting point for training and leadership development.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

The paper develops and validates the Servant Leadership Survey (SLS), an eight-dimensional, 30-item measure of servant leadership. Across eight samples totaling 1,571 respondents in the Netherlands and the UK, the eight-factor structure was supported and the subscales showed good internal consistency and criterion-related validity with well-being and performance outcomes.

Key findings

  • The final SLS consists of 30 items measuring eight dimensions: standing back, forgiveness, courage, empowerment, accountability, authenticity, humility, and stewardship.
  • Confirmatory factor analyses supported the eight-factor model in Dutch samples (Study 3: χ² = 562.5, df = 377, CFI = .94, TLI = .93, SRMR = .05, RMSEA = .05) and a UK sample (Study 4: χ² = 1197.7, df = 377, CFI = .93, TLI = .92, SRMR = .07, RMSEA = .05).
  • Internal consistency was good across the combined samples: Cronbach’s alphas were .89 for empowerment (7 items), .81 for accountability (3 items), .76 for standing back (3 items), .91 for humility (5 items), .82 for authenticity (4 items), .69 for courage (2 items), .72 for forgiveness (3 items), and .74 for stewardship (3 items).
  • Criterion-related validity was shown through positive relations with well-being and performance; for example, correlations with organizational commitment ranged from .14 to .60, and self-assessed performance was related to five of the eight dimensions with significant correlations between .14 and .32.

Methods

  • The instrument was developed in three phases using eight samples totaling 1,571 persons from the Netherlands and the UK with diverse occupational backgrounds.
  • Item generation began with 99 items based on literature review and expert judgment; exploratory factor analysis reduced items, followed by confirmatory factor analysis and further refinement to the final 30-item, eight-factor measure.
  • Validity analyses included second-order exploratory factor analysis comparing the SLS with other leadership measures, and criterion-related analyses relating the eight dimensions to vitality, engagement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, extra-role behavior, self-assessed performance, and leadership clarity.

Limitations

  • The paper states that the number of SLS items, especially in early studies, prevented inclusion of other leadership scales together with outcome measures; most studies relied on convenience sampling and web-based online surveys; sufficient multilevel data could not be obtained; and the data are cross-sectional, so firm causal conclusions about predictive validity cannot be drawn.
  • The paper also states that future users should avoid changing item wording or response scales, or deleting items, because this may affect validity.
  • Evident from the text: the extra-role behavior analysis used only 48 employees and 38 leaders, giving low power and preventing regression or multilevel analyses; several constructs were not measured in all samples, such as stewardship not being included in the engagement and job satisfaction studies.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s10869-010-9194-1

Cites

95 of 95 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

57 Own result · 33 Own interpretation · 27 No full text of the sources · 14 No basis given · 9 Own method · 5 Sources not found · 2 Not checked yet · 1 Supported

Show all 72 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 26
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 59
76 of 76
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The samples used in the studies are sufficiently representative of the populations to which the SLS is intended to apply.

    “The composite sample of this study consisted of four samples, including 668 persons from the Netherlands.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Servant leadership can be validly measured from the follower’s perspective.

    “The SLS primarily focuses on the leader–follower relationship measured from the perspective of the follower.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Accountability is an essential element of the ‘leader’ aspect of servant leadership.

    “accountability has been positioned as an essential element of the ‘leader’ aspect of servant leadership and is therefore kept within the instrument.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The Dutch and UK samples are representative of their respective cultural contexts for the purpose of cross-cultural validation.

    “The data of studies 1, 2, and 3 were collected within the Netherlands.”
    “Respondents were recruited via a panel firm located in the United Kingdom.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Servant leadership as measured by the SLS can influence follower well-being and performance.

    “Our focus was on transparent leader behavior that can influence follower well-being and performance.”
5 of 5

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

4 of 4

Citations

Cites

Show all 102 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Autry, J. A. (2004). The servant leader: How to build a creative team, develop great morale, and improve bottom-line performance. New York: Three Rivers Press.
  2. Froiland, P., Gordon, J., & Picard, M. (1993). In search of accountability. Training, 30, 59.
  3. Laub, J. A. (1999). Assessing the servant organization: Development of the organizational leadership assessment (OLA) instrument. Doctoral dissertation, Boca Raton, Florida.
  4. Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2007). MPlus user’s guide (5th ed.). Los Angeles: Muthén & Muthén.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 601–700 of 908

Metadata

Authors
van Dierendonck, D., & Nuijten, I.
Affiliations
Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
Corresponding author
van Dierendonck, Dirk
Venue
Journal of Business and Psychology
Published
2010-09-03
Volume
26
Issue
3
Pages
249-267
ISSN
  • 0889-3268 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-353X
OpenAlex
W2034502123
Cited by
1,096
References
102
Citations by year
2026: 81 · 2025: 94 · 2024: 102 · 2023: 113 · 2022: 91 · 2021: 95 · 2020: 93 · 2019: 89 · 2018: 76 · 2017: 78 · 2016: 55 · 2015: 45 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 14
FWCI
32.53
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
  • Journal of Business and Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Leadership and Management in Organizations
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
Keywords
servant leadership, leadership assessment, scale development, factor structure, forgiveness, courage, empowerment, accountability, authenticity, humility, stewardship, criterion validity, leadership development

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-07, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-07 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review