Development of Service Leadership Behavior Scale : background and conceptual model

Abstract

The growth of the service economy in the contemporary world calls for a shift in the requirement of leadership qualities as compared to the manufacturing economy. However, contemporary leadership approaches and associated leadership behavior scales fail to fully encompass the required leadership qualities in the service economy. To satisfy the emerging needs of service economy which is predominant in Hong Kong, the Service Leadership Model has been proposed by the Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership and Management Limited. To objectively assess service leadership behavior, the Service Leadership Behavior Scale (SLB) was developed. This paper presents the background of the development of the Service Leadership Model, outlines its unique features as the theoretical foundation of the SLB, documents the content of the initial SLB (i.e., SLB-LF-97) regarding its four key domains, and summarizes the findings surrounding the validation studies on the SLB.