In this month’s newsletter, we would like to introduce PhD graduate, Pablo Rengifo Guerra from College of Business, Government and Law

Pablo’s recently submitted thesis, “Leading with purpose: A study of servant leadership in Australian mission driven organisations”  received outstanding results from the examiners.

We asked Pablo to share what his research was about and why it was important, along with what his experience was like and advice for current students.

What was your research about?

My research explored leadership styles among mission driven organisations, in particular values-based styles such as servant leadership. For my research I interviewed senior leaders among large and medium not-for- profit organisations in Australia

My research used a qualitative methodology, and I conducted in-depth interviews with senior leaders within the not-for-profit in Australia, including Board members, CEOs and Executives and Senior Managers. I also completed a decent literature review on servant leadership, highlighting the current gaps in the knowledge. I completed thematic analysis of the data, and finally a discussion on the key topics which arose.

What led you to undertake a PhD? What inspired or motivated you?

I have admired leaders within my professional life who modelled values-based leadership and who inspired me to be like them. This was complemented by interest in servant leadership and what this meant for me as a leader myself in mission driven organisations. I wanted to contribute to the knowledge on the topic of leadership within the not-for-profit sector considering current gaps in the literature either at a contextual or methodological level.

Tell us about yourself

I am a senior manager who has been working within the not-for-profit sector for the last 13 years, and previously worked in market and social research. I am originally from Peru and migrated to Australia 20 years ago. I am married and have two high school aged children.

I have a particular interest in the disability sector and have worked in management within the quality, risk and client experience functions.

What have you been doing since you completed?

I have remained within the not-for-profit all the time as I completed my PhD as a part time student. I was fortunate to spare some months to focus solely on completing my thesis.

I currently work as a Senior Manager, Quality & Risk at a large not-for-profit organisation which provides services to people with disability.

What was the topic of your PhD and why was it important to you?

The topic of my thesis was leadership styles, particularly servant leadership, within mission driven organisations. I have admiration for leaders within the not-for-profit because they lead within a very though environment considering that they don’t seek profit, but at the same time they have to keep organisations viable within a very volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. But they do it with passion and driven by strong values and personal faith.

As I aspire to be a leader within this sector, I thought very important to talk to current leaders and learn from their experience and wisdom.

What was been one of the most enjoyable parts of the journey?

I really enjoyed my fieldwork. Setting up (making phone calls, writing emails) and conducting the in-depth interviews was something I really liked. Asking questions to very experienced leaders was great, but even better was to listen to their responses, in particular their examples/ stories of how servant leadership was developed and tested in their own experience. All of these was like returning to my market research days!

What was highlight of your student life at Flinders?

As a part-time student, it was a bit of a treat to come to Campus for some hours (once every one or two months!) to catch up in person with my supervisor and enjoy a coffee while doing some research at the library. I really enjoyed the feeling to being a “proper” student again! But jokes aside, considering how isolated my work was, it always was a highlight to catch up with other CSI students or professors at campus having a bite for lunch or having a coffee. It didn’t happen very often, but these encounters were great.

How did your supervisors support you during your candidature?

I was fortunate to have two extraordinary supervisors. Professor Ian Goodwin-Smith is fantastic in providing holistic views on research matters and is always accurate in his high-level advice on how to develop ideas and arguments for the research. Professor Ruth Rentschler, on the other hand is quite skilled in focussing the detail with accuracy and precision, in particular when related to methodology. So I had wisdom from the two angles and that couldn’t have been better!

What advice would you give to those who are about to undertake a PhD?  

I would say to them “stay focussed and enjoy the journey.” After the hard work and probably too many late nights/ early mornings, there is no better feeling than to receive an email from Inspire saying that your thesis has been approved, and if this is even with a double A rating, even better! I would add “make the most of your supervision meetings.” Your supervising team can always surprise you with wisdom gems that can be used until the final product.