The philosophy of servant leadership receives a growing interest in academia and among clinical health care leaders. FewEuropean
studies are available about the importance of this philosophy for patient and staf outcomes. Prior nursing studies in the US show that servant
leadership is related to job satisfaction and better performance. Forthe purpose of investigating this among Nordic health care workers a
questionnaire survey was conducted among health care staf in nursing care in four hospitalsin Iceland (n=138).A new Dutch instrument
(SLS)was used in an Icelandic version.The study showsthatservant leadership is practiced in departments of nursing in these Icelandic
hospitals and significant correlationwasfound between job satisfaction and servant leadership.The findingssupport priorfindings and
indicate thatservant leadership among hospital managersisimportant forstaf satisfaction. Organizational trust isfoundational to servant
leadership, an important element of Nordic organizational structure and among current challenges of sustainable Nordic health care services.
There are reasonsto continue to investigate the importance of this leadership style in Nordic health care settings and, in particular, to
investigate potential links to performance and patient outcomes.