An empirical test of servant leadership theory in an Eastern European ethnic academic context

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to explore the seven constructs of Patterson's (2003) servant leadership model in a Romanian, Hungarian, and German ethnic academic context of higher education. The current study explored students' perceptions of servant leadership practices agapao love, altruism, vision, humility, trust, empowerment, and service as evaluated by Dennis and Bocarnea's (2005) Servant Leadership Assessment Instrument questionnaire. Specifically, the current study sought to examine Romanian, Hungarian, and German university students' perceptions of servant leadership practices as exemplified through their teachers. Additionally, the current study tested the influence of gender on Patterson's (2003) seven servant leadership constructs. Data was collected via the manual distribution of the Servant Leadership Assessment Instrument from 210 Romanian, Hungarian, and German students from Babes Bolyai University. The current study found through Pearson r correlations, multiple regression analyses that the relationships between the seven constructs of Patterson's servant leadership model were supported in this unique context. The independent samples t-tests revealed the following: Romanian students demonstrated different perceptions in regard to servant leadership constructs humility and service based on gender, Hungarian students demonstrated different perceptions of the servant leadership construct vision based on gender, and German male and female students demonstrated different perceptions of servant leadership construct altruism based on gender. The results of the current study point towards two practical implications. The current study further validates Patterson's servant leadership model. Since Patterson's (2003) seven constructs were found to be significant predictors of servant leadership, the adoption of these constructs in an Eastern European ethnic academic context could provide the leaders of higher education from this region with the tools needed to create a positive learning academic environment.