How Followers’ Perception of Insider Status Influences the Relationship Between Servant Leadership and Work Attitude?

Abstract

Servant leadership starts with an individual whose main interests are to serve, inspire and lead followers. Thus, the servant leader is an individual who is always pursuing and looking for better ways to achieve shared goals with fellow workers. The current study investigates the influencing mechanism of servant leadership on job satisfaction based on the social identity theory. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to develop a model of perceived insider status that mediates the relationships between servant leadership and employee job satisfaction. Data were collected from matched 90 leaders and 285 followers from the service industry in Taiwan. To avoid common method variance issue, we collected data across three-time points from two different sources. The statistical analyses included descriptive analysis, correlational approach, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-level analyses. Using the bootstrapping method, the indirect effects of servant leadership on job satisfaction via perceived insider status were found to be significant. This study underscores the importance of encouraging leaders to engage in servant leader behaviors, thereby enhancing followers’ perception as insiders and improving followers' job satisfaction. Since servant leaders focus on employee-oriented tactics, it is essential to train leaders to enhance followers’ intrinsic motivation and shape their perceptions of belongingness and effectiveness.