This year at SAMIBC2020 we are pleased to announce another of our presenters, Shannon Jackson from St. Leo University. Dr. Jackson will be presenting the paper Developing Servant Leaders: A Case Study of Chiefs of Police in Southeastern Virginia.

Presentation Abstract: Law enforcement agencies across the country are struggling to recruit and retain police officers while attempting to counter negative public community perceptions of law enforcement. To investigate the influence of servant leadership behaviors in response to these crises and how that leadership filtered down to direct reports and the community, we surveyed the Chiefs of the three largest police departments in Virginia, and asked whether servant leadership had a direct impact on the development of their officers and on perceptions of their communities. Spears (2010) ten characteristics of servant leadership were used to analyze the Chiefs’ five question survey responses: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. Nine of the ten characteristics were strongly supported; only conceptualization was not revealed in the Chiefs’ responses. This study augments the empirical research investigating the influence of servant leadership behaviors in the workforce. Results show how servant leadership theory in action can encourage listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, personal development and community in times of crisis by both community and employees.

Join us in Nashville, Tennessee to see this great paper and many more March 19 – 21, 2020. For registration information visit www.samnational.org/conference.