Servant Leadership in Higher Education: Students’ Perceptions of Professors’ Roles in Fostering Hope

Servant Leadership in Higher Education: Students’ Perceptions of Professors’ Roles in Fostering Hope

Jonah Neil Duchac | 2025

Abstract

Greenleaf (2002) presented the question of whether professors who utilize servant leadership would help inspire hope within their students. The concept of the connection between professors utilizing servant leadership and fostering hope within students is an area that has not been previously studied. This study was conducted to help fill this gap in the literature. Through a qualitative study, I collected data from students at a state school in the southern United States, where I recruited participants using flyers posted on bulletin boards. Servant leadership was assessed through the lens of the Spears’ (2010) model, which provided clear definitions and attributes for what constitutes a professor who practices servant leadership. The participants used these attributes to self-screen. I examined hope in the context of the concept presented by Snyder (2002), who broke it down into three areas: goals (the target), pathways (the means to reach the target), and agency (the drive to achieve the target). Interviews were conducted with the students to examine how they were impacted by their professor’s use of servant leadership, specifically through the creation of goals, pathways, and agency. The data, which I coded using constant comparative analysis, involved extracting base codes from the data and forming them into themes, which I then grouped into core themes. These core themes suggest that professors help foster all three areas of hope demonstrated by Snyder, indicating that professors, using servant leadership, can help their students cultivate hope within themselves.

Keywords: Education, Greenleaf, Hope, Leadership, Servant, Snyder