Servant Leadership in Nursing: A Multifactor Analysis

Servant leadership, an ethics-based leadership approach, focuses onprioritizing the needs and development of employees rather than personalinterests, making it highly compatible with the values of the nursingprofession such as empathy, ethical responsibility, and service. However,studies on servant leadership in nursing remain limited. This study aimsto systematically examine the relationship between servant leadershipand nursing by analyzing studies from multiple methodological andthematic perspectives. This systematic review, conducted in accordancewith the PRISMA 2020 protocol and employing descriptive contentanalysis as the analytical method, analyzed 28 studies identified throughScienceDirect, Scopus, Springer, and Web of Science databases based onmethodological and content-related criteria. The findings show thatresearch on this topic is largely concentrated in the United States, withlimited evidence from other countries. Most studies used quantitative andcross-sectional designs, some applied SEM, and fewer adopted mixed,qualitative, or conceptual approaches. Across the reviewed studies,servant leadership was primarily associated with higher organizationalcommitment, greater job satisfaction, stronger leader-member exchange,reduced burnout, and improved teamwork. Additional positive effectswere reported on patient care quality, leadership development,organizational citizenship behavior, trust, value alignment, spirituality,and psychological safety, with several studies indicating that theseoutcomes may occur directly or through mediators. The findings suggestthat servant leadership is a promising leadership approach for nursingpractice, and that further culturally diverse and longitudinal research isneeded to strengthen the evidence base.