Health-related Quality of Life/Well-being Influences on Servant Leaders in a Higher Education Context

This study investigates how higher education faculty and staff’s mental and physical health-related quality of life/well-being (HRQoL) experiences influence their perceptions of servant leadership principles, defined as humility, altruism, vision, trust, empowerment, and service. Previously research has not explored the interaction between servant leader perceptions of mental and physical well-being/quality of life experiences and higher education faculty and staff perceptions of servant leadership principles. The research framework connected the previous theoretical foundations of servant leadership and health-related quality of life/well-being. A qualitative, phenomenological design was used to explore how HRQoL factors influence participant perceptions of principles of servant leadership. Thematic analysis was conducted to determine the well-being themes of influence on perceptions of servant leadership principles. Three primary results of the study were found: First, participant perceptions of servant leadership principles are changed or defined by struggle/trauma/hardship related to participants’ HRQoL factors. Second, the development of interpersonal relationships through HRQoL experiences: access to healthcare, educational achievement, and material well-being, provided the modeling for participants’ definitions of servant leadership. Finally, when people feel healthy, fulfilled and satisfied with their lives, they can become active participants in their environments, which for this study means participation in the principles of servant leadership