This document summarizes a literature review on classroom leadership styles as they apply to distance education. It examines transformational leadership, servant leadership, and their application in online classrooms. The review found limited research directly applying these leadership models online. It concludes faculty can be more successful developing future leaders by incorporating elements of transformational and servant leadership styles in online classrooms. More research is needed on servant leadership specifically in higher education online settings.

1. A Review of Current Literature
on Transformational and
Servant Leadership
as Applies to Distance
Education
Bill Davis, MA, CM
Lora Reed, PhD
Andree Swanson, EdD
Forbes School of Business, Ashford University

2. INTRODUCTION

3. Introduction
 Presenting an overview of the
literature that our team found on:
◦ classroom leadership,
◦ transformational leadership, and
◦ servant leadership in the online
classroom.

4. PURPOSE AND
BACKGROUND

5. Purpose
 The purpose was to conduct a literature
review on the areas of:
◦ Classroom leadership +online classroom
◦ Transformational leadership + online
classroom
◦ Servant leadership + online classroom

6. Results of Research
 Limited to no results when the
researchers incorporated the online
element
◦ Classroom leadership +online classroom
◦ Transformational leadership +online
classroom
◦ Servant leadership +online classroom

7. Background
 Our research involved the classroom
leadership perspectives
◦ Faculty roles
 [e.g., King’s (1993) “sage on the stage” and “guide
on the side”],
◦ Burns’ (1978) model of transformational
leadership.
◦ Greenleaf’s ([1970] 1991) model of Servant
Leadership,
(Burns, 1978; Greenleaf, [1970] 1991; King, 1993)

8. CLASSROOM
LEADERSHIP STYLE

9. Classroom Leadership
 Facilitating learning through creating
and sustaining a climate wherein
students engage in distinct
collaborative learning communities.

10. Classroom Leadership (cont)
 The function of these
leadership styles
◦ creation of trust,
◦ meaningful
relationships, and
◦ reciprocal learning
experiences
◦ reaching students at
their appropriate
developmental level
Trust
Recipro
cal
learning
experien
ce
Reaching
students
Relatio
n-ships

11. Classroom Leadership (cont)
 The role of classroom leaders as
developers of future leaders is
considered.
Classroom
leaders
develop
Future
leaders

12. TRANSFORMATIONAL
LEADERSHIP STYLE

13. TRANSFORMATIONAL
LEADERSHIP
Vision
Motivation
Organization

14. Transformational Leadership
• Model the way
• Inspire a shared
vision
• Challenge the
process
• Enable others to act
• Encourage the heart
• Provide idealized
influence
• Inspirational motivation
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualized
consideration
Weiss, 2011

15. Transformational Leadership &
the Online Classroom
• Pounder (2008) conducted a study on
transformational leadership in the classroom.
• Positive relationship between this style of leadership
and desirable outcomes in the classroom.
• A sample of instructors at a Lingan University in Hong
Kong classrooms.
• Used a multifactor leadership questionnaire.
• Survey Results
• Scores on each of the transformational classroom
leadership dimensions were significantly and positively
correlated with scores on each of the classroom
leadership outcomes.

16. Transformational Leaders
• Provide consideration.
• Mentor followers by teaching and sharing
knowledge and skills.
• Show emotional concern and support.
• Provide a vision and mission.
• Instill pride, gain respect, trust,
communicate high expectations and
express purposes in simple ways.
• Provide intellectual stimulation.
• Give personal attention.

17. SERVANT LEADERSHIP
STYLE

18. SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Vision
Service
Encouragement
All Stakeholders

19. According to Robert
Greenleaf
 “…the focus of leadership should be
on serving rather than leading.
 In contemporary definitions of servant
leadership, the emphasis in “serving”
expands beyond employees to include
customers, investors and all
stakeholders in an organization”
(http://www.concordiaonline.net/what-is-servant-leadership/)

20. Servant Leadership Style
 Term coined by Robert K. Greenleaf
(1970)
 Differentiated from all other leadership
theories by the motivation – to serve,
rather than to lead
 Ultimate objective to create next
generation of servant leaders.

21. Leo as a Leader and Model
 Greenleaf (1970) used Leo, the
mountain guide from Herman Hesse’s
([1956] 2011) novel, Journey to the East,
as his model for the servant leader.
◦ Notably, it was not until Leo left the troupe,
and it fell apart, that the group began to
realize he had been leading them all along.
◦ Leo had sustained the group, empowering
them, unleashing them to do that which they
had envisioned possible.

22. Servant Leadership: A Form of
Ethical Leadership
 Merton (1969, p. 2616) asserted,
“Leaders lead as they have been led. But to
perhaps a greater extent, styles of leadership
are a function of the situation and the character
of the organization; it is through the incessant
process of self-reflection and organizational
selection that particular personality types find
themselves cast in leadership roles.”

23. Servant Leadership = Ethical
Leadership
 Chosen to lead because of the ethical
leadership they model in organizations.
 Other styles of ethical leadership include,
but are not limited to…
◦ transformational,
◦ authentic, and
◦ spiritual

24. CONCLUSION

25. Conclusion
 Through elements of transformational
leadership and servant leadership
applied in the online classroom,
faculty will be more successful in
developing future leaders

26. FUTURE RESEARCH

27. A Gap Exists in the Literature
 Our interest is servant leadership in
the online classroom
 A gap exists for this topic when
considering
◦ Higher education
◦ Online classroom

28. References
 Are in the note section of this
PowerPoint presentation.
 Google URL to this presentation:
◦ http://goo.gl/rDMQnN

29. Authors
 Bill Davis, MA, CM, is an instructor for the Forbes School of Business at
Ashford University. He teaches a variety of business courses focusing
on leadership and management. He has presented at several
conferences on transformational leadership and student engagement.
Recently, Bill presented on video in the online classroom for the VII
International Guide Conference at Universidad Panamericana,
Guatemala City, Guatamala.
 Lora Reed, PhD, is an assistant professor for the Forbes School of
Business at Ashford University. She was named one of the first three
Greenleaf Scholars in Servant Leadership (2009) for her ongoing
research with 911 emergency dispatchers. Lora is the Program Chair for
Human Resources Management in the Forbes School of Business. She
has authored numerous books, articles and presentations on Servant
Leadership. She serves as Director of Research for the 911 Wellness
Foundation.
 Andree Swanson, EdD, is an assistant professor for the Forbes School
of Business at Ashford University. She teaches graduate-level business
courses and is the Program Chair for the Bachelors of Arts in Business
Leadership. Her areas of interest are in emotional intelligence and
servant leadership.