Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment ☆ Robert C. Liden a, ⁎ , Sandy J. Wayne b , Hao Zhao c , David Henderson b a University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Managerial Studies (MC 243), 601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607-7123, United States b University of Illinois at Chicago, United States c Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States Abstract Servant leadership stresses personal integrity and serving others, including employees, customers, and communities. This article focuses on a servant leadership measure that was created by identifying 9 dimensions. Relevant items were then developed and subjected to factor analysis with a sample of 298 students, resulting in a 7-factor solution. Using an organizational sample of 182 individuals, we verified this 7-factor model with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We further validated our 28-item servant leadership scale by regressing outcomes on the servant leadership dimensions, controlling for transformational leadership and leader–member exchange (LMX) in a multi-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis. The results suggest that servant leadership is a multidimensional construct and at the individual level makes a unique contribution beyond transformational leadership and LMX in explaining community citizenship behaviors, in-role performance, and organizational commitment. No between-leader (group-level) differences were found in the outcomes variables. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Servant leadership; Community citizenship; Scale development; Multi-level analysis; Leader–member exchange; Transformational leadership 1. Introduction With confidence shaken in business leadership, interest has been increasing in the development of leaders who set aside self-interest for the betterment of their followers and organizations (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005; George, 2003). Paralleling this trend in business organizations has been the academic transition toward the scientific study of positive human qualities. Although dysfunctional behaviors of individuals are still of research interest, much remains to be learned about humans' capacity to engage in positive behaviors (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003). In the current investigation we explored leader behaviors that are based on serving the needs of followers and larger communities both within and outside of organizations. For an organization to achieve effectiveness, it is imperative that the unique talents of its employees be recognized, utilized, and developed. Leaders can play a critical role in helping employees to realize their potential (Liden, Wayne, & Available online at www.sciencedirect.com The Leadership Quarterly 19 (2008) 161 – 177 www.elsevier.com/locate/leaqua ☆ An earlier version of this article was presented at the meeting of the Southern Management Association in November 2005. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 312 966 0529; fax: +1 312 996 3559. E-mail address: bobliden@uic.edu (R.C. Liden). 1048-9843/$ - see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006