The effect of servant leadership on Greek public secondary schools acting as learning organizations

ABSTRACTThis study aims to explore the effect of servant leadership on Greek public secondary schools operating as learning organizations. Over 192 public school principals completed both the servant leadership questionnaire (SLQ) and the dimensions of learning organization questionnaire (DLOG). A quantitative survey was conducted all over the country. From a practical standpoint, servant leadership seems not to be impractical as it is exercised to a moderate degree. Schools act as learning organizations to a moderate to strong degree. The results of the multilevel analysis emphasize the importance of empowerment, emotional healing and creating value for the community as major predictors of establishing a school-based organizational learning culture. Furthermore, employment status, teacher qualifications and school size have a significant impact on the perceived learning organization culture. Findings are expected to encourage managers to embrace and adopt the doctrine of servant leadership as a whole to improve long-term performance. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsAthanasios TsarkosAthanasios Tsarkos is a classroom teacher in secondary education as a physicist at Zipari high school, Κos island, Dodekanisa, 85300, GREECE. Email: atsarkos@sch.gr. His current research interests include the development and application of servant leadership, pedagogies and organizational learning and wisdom in public secondary education.