The role of servant leadership in the non-governmental organizations: The case of Kütahya province

ABSTRACT THE ROLE OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN THE NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF KÜTAHYA PROVINCE KIRMIZI, İbrahim Master Thesis, Department of Business Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. M. Kemal DEMİRCİ July, 2014, 163 pages Non-governmental organizations are volunteer-based and non-profit organizations. They are active in many fields such as health, politics, education, culture and environment. Besides the convenience of modern life, NGOs help socially isolated individuals to come together for social interests in cases that they cannot be effective alone. Within this context, servitude understanding and servant leadership are important factors for non-governmental organizations. Since the servant leadership has features like serving, self-devotion, awareness raising and emotional intelligence, it has aspects that can adapt to non-governmental organizations. A detailed review of the literature has been made about civil society, non-governmental organizations and servant leadership. It has been laid emphasis on the importance of non-governmental organizations for both society and states. It has been obviously seen that instead of oppressive and constantly giving directives understanding of leadership, there is a great need for servant leaders of the individuals and non-governmental organizations that will serve people and humanity and give them the opportunity to express their thoughts freely. It is believed that societies would be better ruled and service would be made better by adopting the servant leadership through non-governmental organizations. Thus, servant leaders will serve mankind by raising awareness with serving and self-devotion in the non-governmental organizations. Consequently a survey and analysis was conducted towards designating the role of servant leadership in non-governmental organizations. Keywords: Civil Society, NGO, Leadership, Servant and Servant Leadership