A servant leader can be defined as "one who is committed to the growth of both the individual and the organization, and who works to build community within organizations" (Reinke, 2004, p 33). Because a servant leader in the public sector would define him/herself as a steward of the organization, responsive to the public (Greenleaf, 1977), and provider of public service based on the strong sense of value (Hursthouse, 1999), servant leadership is expected to enhance the public sector organization's productivity. In addition, since a servant leader is more likely to listen to employees’ opinions, be aware of their emotional distress and persuade employees with a vision of higher calling (Spencer, 1998), servant leadership is also expected to motivate employees by providing a meaning of work. Since a servant leader is more aware of organizational situations, they might try to build fair organizational procedures to develop a more ethical organizational atmosphere.

Although the concept and importance of servant leadership was introduced in the study of public sector leadership (Wart, 2003), relatively few studies have been conducted to examine the role of servant leadership in the context of government organizations. Based on this notion, the current study will examine whether servant leadership can contribute to (1) developing a better leader-subordinate relationship (leader-member exchange), (2) enhancing employees’ perception of fair work procedure (procedural justice), and (3) inducing benevolent work behaviors (organizational citizenship behaviors: OCB).

The present study is conducted using survey responses from 471 Korean local government organizations who participated in programs conducted by one of the Korean local government employee training institutes. Our preliminary data analysis using Structural Equation Modeling reveals that servant leadership has positive associations with LMX and procedural justice. Servant leadership was also found to have an indirect association with OCB through LMX and procedural justice.

The paper will be divided into several sections.  A literature review will present a theoretical framework focused on the relationships among servant leadership, LMX, procedural justice and OCB.  This will be followed by a discussion of the methods and procedures used and an analysis of the findings. This paper concludes with a discussion of the role of servant leadership in the public sector.