An Exploration of the Servant Leadership Literature in Connection with the US Fire Department Leadership Practices and Behaviors

Introduction

When one exercises servant leadership, organizational goals, objectives, and tasks can assist with the productivity of individuals and teams which is applicable to professional fire and emergency service organizations (Carter, 2007; Russell, 2013). In addition, servant leadership is seen as an effective style for public safety agencies (Carter, 2007; Weinstein, 2013). However, despite the importance of leadership to the paramilitary structure of the fire service, career fire department leaders do not generally receive mandated leadership training or knowledge of existing leadership theories that might assist them in their roles as leaders (See, for example, National Fire Protection Association Manual [2022], Sections 1021 and 1521.) Instead, in the fire services, leadership reflects the amount of time that career fire department officers have spent within the system.

Servant leadership emphasizes the development of individuals so that the organization can become better and more productive. Robert K. Greenleaf (1977/2002) introduced the servant leadership model that focuses on serving others instead of serving one’s self which is in line with Christian values. Greenleaf and Spears (2002) stated that the leader of the organization should see him or herself as the servant instead of the boss. Servant leadership, in principle, is practiced by someone with authorization to make decisions on behalf of the organization (Russell, 2013). True servant leaders will always prioritize others before themselves (Hassan & McCann, 2018). Further, practicing servant leadership in a service-based profession such as the fire service has the possibility of yielding desirable results (Weinstein, 2013). Thus, adequately researching the impacts of servant leadership and how professional fire and emergency services supervisors improve performance possibly will contribute to a better understanding of the needs of career fire department officers to enhance servant leadership traits.

Methodology

This article uses a content analysis exploration of the literature. The value and benefit of this method is to gather broadly dispersed theories, contexts, and approaches into one concise discussion that can be built on by other researchers in future research projects. This is approach is beneficial in blazing new areas of research because Servant Leadership has been applied broadly to leadership roles in business, healthcare, education but rarely to the fire service and the fire department.

The literature for this review was drawn from multiple sources to explore an examine 167 articles. Multiple databases were searched, including Baidu Scholar, J-Gate, Microsoft Academic, Publons, Semantic Scholar, WorldCat (OCLC), EBSCO, ProQuest, Researchgate.net, Academia.edu, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The following primary keyword searches were used; Emergency Management Services; Fire Service; Fire Department; Servant Leadership; Servant Leadership Constructs; and Fire Department Officers. The systematic literature examination resulted in empirical and conceptual articles from major journals pertaining to fire and emergency services, public safety, and servant leadership. Academic research from peer-reviewed journals that were applicable to servant leadership and the fire service were also investigated.