Exploring how organisational culture influences the practice of servant leadership behaviours in banking in South Africa

Abstract

Despite modern leadership frameworks available to today’s leaders, traditional leadership models that produce adverse outcomes in organisations continue to be practiced. Servant leadership is a leadership style with its foundations in service and prioritising the follower. Organisational culture has an important role to play in the performance of an organisation and in facilitating servant leadership behaviours within an organisation. This study aims to explore how organisational culture influences the enablement or inhibition of servant leadership behaviours in an organisation. A qualitative case study research design with an interpretive paradigm was used in search of rich exploration and explanation of how organisational culture impacts the practice of servant leadership behaviours in an organisation. A single case study methodology was used in understanding the in-depth real-life phenomenon of this study in the context of the natural environment of the case organisation explored. In-depth interviews using semi-structured questions with a sample of participants from a banking organisation in South Africa provided deep insights on the dynamics of organisational culture that influence the display of servant leadership behaviours in the organisation. A purposive sampling strategy was used in the selection of executives, senior managers, senior followers and junior followers for this study. Thematic analysis was used as the main interpretive framework to analyse the data, together with observational data, to arrive at the themes of this study. The findings suggest that servant leadership behaviours are an outcome of organisational culture conditions that enhance or constrain servant leadership behaviours. The extent of employee empowerment, organisational collaboration and organisational communication in the organisation’s artefacts; the practiced values and organisational structure in the organisation’s values and the organisation’s inclination regarding performance and people within the organisation’s core beliefs impact the practice of servant leadership behaviours of ethical behaviour, empowerment, putting follower’s first, helping followers grow and succeed, creating value for the community and emotional healing associated with the organisation’s culture.