Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

The Role of Servant Leadership in Supporting the Health Workforce during COVID 19

Abdul-Malik Abdulai

Asian Journal of Medicine and Health · pp. 128–135 · Published 12 Aug 2023

10.9734/ajmah/2023/v21i10886

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on healthcare workers worldwide. These individuals have been on the front lines, risking their health and safety to care for patients. However, the emotional toll of the pandemic cannot be overlooked. Healthcare workers are not only dealing with the physical demands of their jobs but also the psychological stress and anxiety that comes with caring for patients during a global crisis. Effective leadership is crucial in every organization, however, some organizations such as healthcare need leaders who are capable of inspiration and psychological safety. This is because health workers endure so much stress and anxiety resulting from the concerns and empathic connection with their clients. Servant leadership, an emerging leadership style, is particularly suitable during crises, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Servant leadership is a style that focuses on serving the needs of others and prioritizing their well-being. This leadership approach is particularly suited to the healthcare industry, where the well-being of patients and staff is of utmost importance. Servant leaders create a culture of psychological safety, where healthcare workers feel supported and valued. This includes ensuring that healthcare workers have access to personal protective equipment, providing emotional support and counselling services, and recognizing and appreciating their efforts. To put the effect of servant leadership into perspective, this article highlights some effects of COVID-19 on health workers and follows up to present a view on how servant leaders would mitigate the effects on the workers. Current and future managers of the healthcare system should undertake training on servant leadership to serve the workers well for the ultimate benefit of the organization.

Servant leadership COVID-19 pandemic health workers

References (51)

  1. 1 Mental health care for medical staff in China during the COVID-19 outbreak [DOI]
  2. 2 Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future research [DOI]
  3. 3 Reasons for healthcare workers becoming infected with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China [DOI]
  4. 4 Covid‐19: Supporting nurses' psychological and mental health [DOI]
  5. 5 Servant leadership: Validation of a short form of the SL-28 [DOI]
  6. 6 The Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Worker Wellness: A Scoping Review [DOI]
  7. 7 SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody detection in healthcare workers in Germany with direct contact to COVID-19 patients [DOI]
  8. 8 Burnout Among Healthcare Workers in the COVID 19 Era: A Review of the Existing Literature [DOI]
  9. 9 ‘Healthcare Heroes’: problems with media focus on heroism from healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic [DOI]
  10. 10 Anxiety, sleep disorders and self‐efficacy among nurses during COVID‐19 pandemic: A large cross‐sectional study [DOI]
  11. 11 Service Worker Burnout and Turnover Intentions: Roles of Person-Job Fit, Servant Leadership, and Customer Orientation [DOI]
  12. 12 A servant leader and their stakeholders: When does organizational structure enhance a leader's influence? [DOI]
  13. 13 Emotional Exhaustion Among US Health Care Workers Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2019-2021 [DOI]
  14. 14 Leadership Models in Health Care—A Case for Servant Leadership [DOI]
  15. 15 Exploring the Relationships Among Trust, Employee Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment [DOI]
  16. 16 Improved strategies to counter the COVID-19 pandemic: Lockdowns vs. primary and community healthcare [DOI]
  17. 17 Servant Teaching: An Exploration of Teacher Servant Leadership on Student Outcomes [DOI]
  18. 18 Balancing health worker well-being and duty to care: an ethical approach to staff safety in COVID-19 and beyond [DOI]
  19. 19 Sleep Quality Among Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Medical Errors: Kuwait Experience [DOI]
  20. 20 Servant leadership: a new perspective to explore project leadership and team effectiveness [DOI]
  21. 21 Impacts of COVID-19 on the Life and Work of Healthcare Workers During the Nationwide Partial Lockdown in Vietnam [DOI]
  22. 22 Frontline healthcare workers’ perspectives on interprofessional teamwork during COVID-19 [DOI]
  23. 23 Attitudes towards collaboration and servant leadership among nurses, physicians and residents [DOI]
  24. 24 The Power of Servant Leadership to Transform Health Care Organizations for the 21st-Century Economy [DOI]
  25. 25 The impact of servant leadership dimensions on leader-member exchange among health care professionals [DOI]
  26. 26 Perceptions of School Principals’ Servant Leadership and Their Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in Oman [DOI]
  27. 27 Servant leadership and conflict resolution: a qualitative study [DOI]
  28. 28 Challenging Servant Leadership In The Nonprofit Sector: The Side Effects Of Servant Leadership [DOI]
  29. 29 Effects of Servant Leadership on Gratitude, Empowerment, Innovativeness and Performance: Turkey Example [DOI]
  30. 30 The interplay between servant leadership and organizational politics [DOI]
  31. 31 COVID-19 and Its Impact on Healthcare Workers: Understanding Stigma, Stress, and Quality of Life [DOI]
  32. 32 Servant or Leader? Who will stand up please?
  33. 33 The Effect of Servant Leadership on Job Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Trust in Coworkers [DOI]
  34. 34 The Relationship between Servant Leadership Characteristics of School Teachers and Students’ Academic Achievement [DOI]
  35. 35 Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among healthcare professionals in the Kintampo North Municipality, Bono East Region, Ghana [DOI]
  36. 36 Servant Leadership as a Predictive Factor of Teachers Job Satisfaction [DOI]
  37. 37 Servant Leadership, Followers Job Satisfaction, Empowerment and Performance: The Moderating Effect of Gender [DOI]
  38. 38 Factors Influencing the Outcomes of Artificial Hip Replacements [DOI]
  39. 39 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers [DOI]
  40. 40 Sleep Difficulties Among COVID-19 Frontline Healthcare Workers [DOI]
  41. 41 Sleep patterns of US healthcare workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic [DOI]
  42. 42 Predictors of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Uptake among Health Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Study in Ghana [DOI]
  43. 43 Effect of COVID‐19 on healthcare workers' morbidity and mortality compared to the general population in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer‐Ahmad Province, Iran [DOI]
  44. 44 The Relationship between Servant Leadership and Student Achievement in Southwest Virginia Schools.
  45. 45 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers’ families [DOI]
  46. 46 A critical component for nurse leaders [DOI]
  47. 47 Adverse events reported after first dose of SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccine in the Northern Region of Ghana [DOI]
  48. 48 The Relationship Between Servant Leadership and Teacher Retention and Student Achievement
  49. 49 Covid-19 exposes weaknesses in European response to outbreaks [DOI]
  50. 50 The Application of Servant Leadership by Selected New Jersey Public School Principals
  51. 51 Nurses’ experiences of the social stigma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study [DOI]

Cited by 2

Showing 1 of 2 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

2

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.