| Evaluation of leadership discovered that not many studies which investigate the servant leadership model in sport settings exist (Rieke, Hammermeister, & Chase, 2008), that servant leadership should be viewed as a viable form of leadership, and should be supported and studied within the domain of athletics (Burton & Peachey, 2013). While Robert K. Greenleaf (2002) is often referenced as the original identifier of servant leadership theory, the researcher of this study believes the ultimate practitioner of servant leadership was Jesus Christ. Thus, a Christian school was selected as the location for this research. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the role of servant leadership in a Christian sports setting. The researcher set out to answer the following two questions: How does the head football coach implement servant leadership as a coaching leadership strategy? How has the development of the football program been influenced by servant leadership? The two primary methods used to conduct this research were participant observation of the head football coach, and ethnographic interviews of the head football coach, athletic director, and school president. Previous, extensive work provided by Dirk van Dierendonck (2011), provided six servant leadership characteristics which guided the direction of the observations and interviews of participants. Findings revealed numerous instances of utilization and implementation of each of the six servant leadership characteristics of authenticity, empowering and developing people. humility, interpersonal acceptance, providing direction, and stewardship. as defined by van Dierendonck (2011). Results revealed that the head coach applies servant leadership as a coaching leadership strategy, and that servant leadership has indeed influenced the development of the football team and program. In addition, recorded observations and interview responses from the head coach, athletic director, and president provided a clear interrelation of the key servant leader characteristics, Jesus Christ, observations, and interviews. |
