Roll Up Your Sleeves: Servant Leadership as a Paradigm for the Challenging South African School Context?

The South African educational system has challenges regarding learner outcomes of previously disadvantaged schools. New thinking is mandatory, and school leadership needs to play an significant role to improve the status quo. The servant leadership paradigm may be a substantial factor to counter the challenges. A quantitative approach measured the covariation between the servant leadership paradigm and its influence on the organizational climate of private schools to learn implementable lessons. The construct of servant leadership was explored via the Servant Leadership Survey (SLS) of Van Dierendonck and Nuijten. According to Castro and Martins’s Climate Survey Questionnaire (CSQ), the organizational climate was analyzed. A total of 249 respondents, all permanently employed as educators from primary and secondary private schools, completed the survey questionnaires. It was found that private schools’ leadership exhibits the characteristics of the servant leadership practices of empowerment, stewardship, accountability, and humility. It was confirmed that private school leadership displays the organizational climate groupings of organizational image, teamwork, work environment, and leadership as priorities that increase constructive organizational climate in the school setting. Recommendation about the implication of these results to improve the disadvantaged school environment is discussed.