How Servant Leadership Motivates Innovative Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Jianji Zeng,Guangyi Xu

doi:10.3390/ijerph17134753

Abstract

Drawing on social identity theory, this study examines the effect of servant leadership on university teachers’ innovative behavior through the self-concept constructs of perceived insider status and organization-based self-esteem, and the moderating effect of leader–member exchange (LMX). This moderated mediation model was tested with two waves of data from 269 university teachers in China. Results reveal that the self-concept constructs mediate the relationship between servant leadership and university teachers’ innovative behavior. Moreover, LMX strengthens the relationship between servant leadership and the self-concept constructs, as well as the indirect effect of servant leadership on university teachers’ innovative behavior through the self-concept constructs. Findings suggest that servant leadership is related to increased innovative behavior due to its positive influence on the self-concept of university teachers and it highlights the importance of developing a favorable supervisor–subordinate relationship.

Highlights

Workplace innovation has been a hot topic among organizational scientists over the last few decades [1]
Based on the hypothesis above, we further propose a moderated mediation model; that is, the quality of the leader–member exchange (LMX) moderates the indirect effect of servant leadership on innovative behavior via the self-concept constructs of perceived insider status (PIS) and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE)
Drawing on social identity theory, this study examines how servant leadership affects university teachers’ innovative behavior

Summary

Introduction

Workplace innovation has been a hot topic among organizational scientists over the last few decades [1]. Organizational innovation stems from employee innovative behavior [4], which is described as self-initiated behavior to generate and implement new ideas to benefit the individual or organization [5]. Given the importance of innovative behavior, an increasing number of studies explore how to motivate employee innovative behavior [6]. Numerous leadership constructs have been shown as antecedents of workplace innovation [8]. Given the conceptual issues associated with established leadership constructs [10,11], the examination of contemporary leadership styles (e.g., servant leadership) has increased recently [8]. The altruism in servant leadership has been proven to have positive influences on employee innovation or creativity [12,13]

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Conclusion