RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT OF A SIX-TRAIT TQ SERVANT-LEADERSHIP MODEL

The current study reviews the trait approach to leadership and servant-leadership theories. It proposes six traits of servant leaders (quoted under an acronym CHRIST): Commitment, Humility, Resilience, Integrity, Service & Teamwork as the essential identifiers of servant- leaders. These form a broad framework of traits of such leaders. A measurement scale was developed and validated to contribute to future research studies of servant-leadership models, including traits as antecedents. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the measurement scale had reliability, discriminant validity, and metric and scalar invariance. The measurement scale was found to be psychometrically sound in measuring the six essential traits of servant leaders, which have not been subject to previous studies. The scale may be used in future studies to examine the relationships among traits, vision, behaviors, and outcomes of servant leaders. It may also be used to identify emergent servant leaders. A simplified scale of six items with good psychometric properties has also been developed to measure the broad traits of servant leaders.