364 International Journal of Scientific Management and Development Correspondent Author : Hossein Jenaabadi (hjenaabadi@ped.usb.ac.ir) Manuscript No: IJSMD-KINA-2014-301 International Journal of Scientific Management and Development ISSN:2345-3974 Vol.2 (8), 364-372, August (2014) Research Paper Investigating the Relationship between Servant Leadership and Organizational Trust among Employees of Technical and Vocational Institutes in Zahedan City Hossein Jenaabadi 1* , Hasan Jahantigh 2 1Associate Professor Psychology in Department of Educational Science, University of Sistan and Baluchestan 2 Master of management education, University of Sistan and Baluchestan Available online at: www.IJSMD.Com Received 23th April 2014, revised 15th May 2014, accepted 20th May 2014 Abstract The present study is aimed at investigating the relationship between servant leadership and organizational trust among employees of technical and vocational institutes in Zahedan city. The method of the present study is descriptive, of the survey and correlational type. The population of this research includes all the employees of technical and vocational institutes in Zahedan city with a size of 110 individuals and by means of the simple random sampling method, a sample was selected with a size of 86 individuals. The data collection was conducted by means of two questionnaires. Organizational trust standard questionnaire by Shafi'e (2011) and servant leadership standard questionnaire by Hazrati et al. (2009) were used. In order to answer the research questions, the statistical tests of Pearson correlation coefficient, stepwise regression, independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) test were used. The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between servant leadership and organizational trust of employees of technical and vocational institutes in Zahedan city, there is a direct and significant relationship between dimensions of servicing and humility and modesty, and organizational trust there is a direct and significant relationship between dimensions of honesty and integrity, reliability, competence and organizational commitment, and servant leadership. Key words: leadership, organizational commitment, reliability, Employees. Introduction Traditional theories of leadership have been usually based on a kind of hierarchical model. Although leadership in the past has sounded as authoritative, "Denhart" believes that in the future leadership will be conducted by a group and all can and must be involved in it. The leaders of the modern era will be those that help a group or organization to realize their needs and potential capabilities, gather and integrate the group insights and act as a trigger or stimulus for the group (Gholipour et al, 2009: 105- 106). The theory of servant leadership is one of the leadership styles that were proposed by Robert GreenLeaf (1977) in the paper "the service-provider as leader", and he developed it during his service and activity in different universities of 1970s. GreenLeaf maintained that the servant leadership has an intrinsic inclination for serving. The feature of serving others doesn't mean that the servant leader carries out the actions and duties of his/her followers; rather, the leadership is focused on improving the competences of the followers through this in order to achieve their objectives and serve the organization and the society and enhancing the sense of independence of the followers. Servant leadership is rooted in offering service to others and this service arises from the natural feeling or inclination for service. Many organizations today are seeking for ways to improve their effectiveness and organizational operations so as to attain and maintain a competitive advantage for living in the dynamic environment of the third millennium. One of the key factors that can help educational institutions in the twenty-first century as a competitive advantage in this path is organizational trust. Trust contains important concepts for investigation and is considered ad the main key to the development of interpersonal relations. Low level of trust causes employees to deviate the flow of information in the organization, and mistrust and suspicion to be propagated among employees and open and honest communications in the organization to be obliterated and the decisions of organization not to have adequate quality (Baired,A., and Amand,Real, 1995). The studies show that organizations which high levels of trust have more innovation, better adapt themselves to change and are more successful compared with organizations with low levels of trust (Shockley –zalabak et al. 2000). On the other hand, Huff,L,andKelley,L.(2003) have shown that trust has an important and vital role in supporting a large number of external and internal processes and activities that create competitive advantage for organizations. Organizations that have a strong atmosphere of trust within the organization easily develop the relations based on trust with external partners and act more successfully and better compared with organizations with lower trust. Based on the definition of trust that is "expectations or beliefs that individuals like to show others in a predictable way and not merely for their personal benefits". One of the problems and issues of organizations today is lack of trust between employees and managers. In our organizations, specifically governmental organizations, there is a considerable gap between employees and management, and the demands of these two" (Khanifar et al. 2009: 4). Therefore, according to what has been mentioned, investigation and identification of factors and features that affect organizational trust in the higher education environment seem necessary. After searching in the available texts, it is revealed