Effects of servant leadership on service quality: Mediating roles of employees’ relational energy perceptions with managers and emotional energy perceptions toward work roles

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines how managers’ servant leadership style affects employee service quality, focusing on employees’ impression of relational energy with managers and emotional energy toward work roles. It also examines the moderating effect of emotional energy on the relationship between relational energy and service quality and the moderating effect of relational energy on the relationship between emotional energy and service quality. The sample consisted of 377 hotel employees from Bangladesh. Partial least squares were used to analyze the data by applying structural equation modeling. The results show that relational and emotional energies mediate the positive and significant correlation between servant leadership and service quality. Emotional energy positively moderates the relationship between relational energy and service quality. Similarly, relational energy positively moderates the relationship between emotional energy and service quality. These findings contribute to the conservation of resources and servant leadership theories anld add value to the hospitality literature in the Asian context by linking servant leadership, relational energy, emotional energy, and service quality. The findings suggest that hoteliers practice servant leadership and increase employees’ relational and emotional energies to provide service quality.