Serving a Death-Denying Culture: Funeral Directors as Servant-Leaders

Authors

Shelby Chism, Bellarmine UniversityFollow
Michael G. Strawser, Bellarmine University

Abstract

Funeral directors have labeled the typical American society a death-denying culture. For example, parents may try to shield children from the death event because of previous occurrences with death and the funeral home (Mahon, 2009). Unfortunately, by protecting others, the death-denying culture is perpetuated (Mahon, 2009). Therefore, it is no surprise that research on funeral directors, and funeral homes, may be underdeveloped. To address the scarcity of research literature on the impact of funeral directors, this article discusses the importance of the death care industry and provides an overview of servant-leadership theory as a framework for understanding the role of the 21st century funeral director.

Recommended Citation

Chism, Shelby and Strawser, Michael G. (2017) "Serving a Death-Denying Culture: Funeral Directors as Servant-Leaders," International Journal of Servant-Leadership: Vol. 11, Article 12.
DOI: 10.33972/ijsl.94
Available at: https://repository.gonzaga.edu/ijsl/vol11/iss1/12

Copyright Information

Copyright 2017 The Author(s). All rights reserved