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When Servant Leaders Appear Laissez-Faire: The Effect Of Social Identity Prototypes On Christian Leaders, Jeff Singfiel

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

Servant leadership is the most recognizable approach to leadership in Christian organizations. Understanding that their organization endorses servant leadership, or believing Christian leaders should be servants, Some Christian leaders choose to believe that they lead in this tradition, regardless of the perspective of their followers. These Christian leaders may earnestly believe themselves to be servant leaders but appear laissez-faire to their followers. In this study, the author reviews servant and laissez-faire leadership theories. He then proposes that social identity theory explains how leaders can be hijacked by social identity, which unconsciously influences them to self-identify as servants without manifesting the …