| A growing number of studies have addressed the use of servant leadership practices in business applications, but there is a gap in the research on the relationship between servant leadership and job satisfaction in the military. The problem under examination in this study was that although servant leadership has been shown to be a highly effective leadership style which increased job satisfaction in several types of organizations, little to no research has been done to examine servant leadership's effectiveness in the U.S. Navy. The purpose of this quantitative case study was to evaluate the relationship between servant leadership and job satisfaction within a U.S. Navy organization. More specifically, the relationship between the principles of servant leadership and the level of job satisfaction among U.S. Navy personnel were tested. The research question included an analysis of the relationship between the principles of servant leadership and the level of job satisfaction among U.S. Navy Reserve personnel. This study was a non-experimental, quantitative study conducted in a U.S. Navy Reserve organization with 220 active duty and reserve members. The Organizational Leadership Assessment and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire surveys were administered to the participants and a Pearson product-moment correlation was used to examine the correlation between servant leadership and job satisfaction to determine if there was a significant relationship between the independent variable (servant leadership) and the dependent variables (intrinsic, extrinsic and overall job satisfaction). Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to isolate the effect of rank from the correlation. Based on previous studies which have found a strong, positive correlation between servant leadership and job satisfaction, the rationale for this study was to demonstrate a positive correlation between servant leadership and overall job satisfaction (r=.725, p<.005), intrinsic job satisfaction (r=.622, p<.005), and extrinsic job satisfaction (r=.700, p<.005) in a military organization. The results indicated that a strong positive correlation existed between servant leadership and job satisfaction in this organization. The initial research on servant leadership in the military has shown that servant leadership has positive effects on military organizations. Servant leadership should now be evaluated further in other Navy organizations for generalizability and for its effect on organizational performance. Ultimately, servant leadership could be a leadership technique U.S. Navy leaders would be provided via training to make the Navy more effective and efficient in both operations and retaining the right personnel. |
