Servant leadership and employee engagement: a systematic review and future research agenda

Aims: Leadership in health care centers is crucial and it has been facing challenges. Servant leadership is a type of leadership application in the health care sector. This study aims to determine the impact of servant leadership on job satisfaction and turnover intention using employee engagement as a mediating variable.
 Study Design: Explanatory research
 Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in April 2023 to May 2023 at community health care centers in Bengkayang. The authors began by identifying phenomena and problems, assessing object- related problems, developing a conceptual framework, conducting interviews, and distributing questionnaires.
 Methodology: This study was done using a quantitative method. The data was collected through a questionnaire involving a total of 155 respondents using a targeted purposive sampling technique. The data was analyzed usingSEM – PLS (Stuctural Equation Model - Partial Least Square).
 Result: The servant leadership has a negative and significant impact on turnover intention and a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction. Meanwhile, the servant leadership also has a significant relationship with job satisfaction and turnover intention when mediated by employee engagement.
 Conclusion: The servant leadership has a direct or indirect relationship with job satisfaction and turnover intention.

In Malaysia, there has been relatively little empirical study on servant leadership, particularly in relation to job engagement and job crafting. Research has found that leadership has a significant impact on employee engagement, which in turn influences organizational performance. In order to better understand how servant leadership affects employee engagement, this study looks at how job crafting, as mediating factor, influences the former two variables in the Malaysian service industry. An online survey was used in this study to purposively sample 154 employees of the service industry in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Servant Leadership Measures (SL-7), Work Crafting Questionnaire (JCQ), and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) are the respective instruments utilized in this study to assess servant leadership, job crafting, and employee engagement. The data was analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method, and the findings demonstrated that servant leadership and job crafting significantly increase employee engagement in the service industry. A partial mediation analysis of the link between servant leadership and employee engagement showed that job crafting mediates this association positively. The results indicate that servant leadership is a successful leadership style that raises employee job engagement and nurtures their enthusiasm for work through job crafting. The study's findings are significant in that they give practitioners and organizations insight into the need for the servant leadership idea in various circumstances. This is due to its capacity to promote organizational and employee growth. In addition to fostering great team dynamics, servant leadership has the power to completely reshape cultures and organization.

This quantitative correlational study examines the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement within the fire service industry in the United States. Declining employee engagement among firefighters adversely affects individual and organizational performance, compromising the department's ability to provide high-quality community services. While previous research has demonstrated a positive correlation between servant leadership and employee engagement in various public service sectors, a gap remains in extending this research to the fire service industry. Using purposive sampling, 609 career firefighters from a metropolitan fire department in Colorado were surveyed with a 16-question instrument combining the Servant Leadership Survey (SLS-7) and the shortened Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9). With a response rate of 30%, 183 participants provided data. Reliability analysis revealed high reliability for the servant leadership variable (α = .90) and the employee engagement variable (α = .986). Normality tests indicated non-normal distributions for both variables. Spearman's rank correlation rho revealed a moderate positive correlation, suggesting a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement. These findings support the beneficial impact of servant leadership on firefighter motivation, well-being, and commitment. The study highlights the importance of implementing servant leadership to cultivate a positive work environment that enhances employee engagement. Practice recommendations include developing formal servant leadership programs and integrating education and training with accountability and corporate social responsibility.

Background - Nowadays, employee engagement is a major concern for organizational leaders around the world. Human Resources (HR) is a key element of a company that will support effective and efficient organizational governance (Christian et al., 2021). However, not all employees have the same level of engagement, factors that can affect employee commitment such as motivation, job satisfaction, leadership, diversity of co-workers, organizational culture, and others (Vinsensius et al., 2019).
 Purpose - This study aims to analyze: (1) the magnitude of the influence of servant leadership on employee engagement, (2) the magnitude of the influence of employee compensation on employee engagement, (3) the magnitude of the influence of servant leadership on employee job satisfaction, (4) the magnitude of the effect of employee compensation on employee engagement. employee job satisfaction, and (5) the magnitude of the influence of employee job satisfaction on employee engagement at PT Indonesia Power Suralaya Power Generation Unit.
 Originality/value - The novelty (originality or value) of this research is that servant leadership has no effect on employee engagement and employee compensation has no effect on employee job satisfaction.
 Research Limitations - The limitations of this study are only to get an idea of ​​the perceptions of employees of PT Indonesia Power Suralaya Power Generation Unit regarding servant leadership, employee compensation, employee job satisfaction and employee engagement.
 Design/methodology/approach - The population in this study are employees of PT Indonesia Power Suralaya Power Generation Unit which is located at Jalan Raya PLTU Suralaya, Cilegon, Banten. The research method is quantitative using a questionnaire with a Likert scale and the sampling technique is done by simple random sampling. The number of samples used as many as 32 samples to test the hypothesis. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the statistical significance of the path coefficients, and processed using the PLS Smart 3.2.9 program.
 Findings - The results showed that servant leadership and employee compensation affected job satisfaction by 64.9%, while employee engagement was influenced by 86.8%. This direct effect shows that servant leadership has no effect on employee engagement, employee compensation has a positive and significant effect on employee engagement, servant leadership has a positive and significant effect on employee job satisfaction, employee compensation has no effect on employee job satisfaction, and employee job satisfaction has a positive effect. and significant to employee engagement.

Servant Leadership is a holistic approach whereby leaders act with morality, showing great concern for the company’s stakeholders and engaging followers in multiple dimensions, such as emotional, relational and ethical, to bring out their full potential and empower them to grow into what they are capable of becoming. Servant leadership has been linked through various mediators to positive individual and collective outcomes, including behavioral, attitudinal, and performance. Among follower attitudinal outcomes, the present study aims at deepening the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement in a large Italian consulting firm; first, by assessing the implementation of a servant leadership approach through a survey based on SL-7; second, by qualitatively investigating the servant leadership experiences lived by junior employees and their influence on individual engagement though a semi-structured questionnaire. The findings of the study suggest that employee engagement is positively influenced by servant leadership through various mediators, either leader-centered, such as empowerment, team-centered, such as team cohesion, organization-centered, such as positive organizational climate, job-centered, such as challenging tasks, and employee-centered, such as proactive personality. Some factors also emerged to hinder the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement, particularly those related to the working environment: namely, high pressure, poor work-life balance and remote-working. The article also provides theoretical and practical implications and identifies potential areas for future research on servant leadership.

Introduction: Effective Leadership is the foundation of corporate success, influencing attitudes among employees, performance, and engagement. However, many corporate workplaces struggle with disengaged employees and low commitment levels due to ineffective leadership practices. The research investigates the impact of managerial approaches on commitment and involvement of employee in business settings, concentrating on transformative, transactional, and servant leadership, and their impact on affective commitment and behavioral engagement.Methodology: Data were acquired by using structured surveys from 400 individuals across business organizations in the information technology (IT), financial, and manufacturing sectors. The Hypothesis (H1-H8) was developed, and implemented in IBM SPSS statistic version 26. Data analysis included Pearson correlation, descriptive data, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and multiple regression analysis to explore both direct and indirect relationships among variables. Results: The findings showed transactional leadership (TL) had the most impact on employee commitment (EC) with a path coefficient (0.40) and employee engagement (EE) 0.43. The Servant leadership (SL) and transactional leadership (TSL) with moderate impact with path coefficients in SL (0.22, and 0.19) for EC and EE, in TSL (0.16) for EC, and (0.13) for EE. Conclusion: The research by SEM reveals that leadership Effectiveness is an important aspect in influencing how employees act, underlining the need to engage in leadership development efforts that enhance compassion, interaction, empowerment, and ethical behavior to increase motivation, commitment, and engagement.

This study investigates the enhancement of employee performance by utilizing an intervening model of organizational culture to examine the effects of servant leadership and employee engagement. Data were collected using a questionnaire from a sample of 41 respondents. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with the partial least squares (PLS) method was employed for data analysis. The analysis included testing both the measurement model (Outer Model) and the structural model (Inner Model). The aim was to assess whether employee performance can be improved through the impact of servant leadership and employee engagement, mediated by organizational culture. The results reveal that servant leadership and employee engagement have a positive and significant effect on organizational culture. Additionally, organizational culture positively and significantly affects employee performance. Servant leadership and employee engagement also directly influence employee performance. Furthermore, servant leadership and employee engagement exert an indirect effect on employee performance through organizational culture.

‎‎ The review on employee engagement shows the importance of leadership and trust. ‎Literature on leadership researchers suggest the influential ‎role of Servant leadership in ‎employee engagement. According to emerging literature, there is a scarcity of studies ‎with empirical relationships to servant leadership and employee engagement in general, ‎and in developing countries in particular. Grounded in social ‎exchange theory, the ‎purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of servant leadership on ‎employee ‎engagement. Moreover, this paper highlights the role of trust as mediating mechanism ‎among the selected variables. To test the relationship between the examined variables, ‎four hypotheses were ‎developed and validated through quantitative methodology by ‎employing structure ‎equation modelling through SPSS software. For this purpose, data ‎was collected from ‎employees working in different public sectors of Afghanistan. Data ‎collection was made ‎possible through an online data collection method with assistance of ‎google forms. Links were shared among employees. A total of 237 responses were ‎received ‎and analyzed for the proposed relationships among constructs. The results of ‎this study ‎revealed that servant leadership significantly influences employee engagement. ‎Findings ‎also show that trust positively mediates between servant leadership and ‎employee engagement. ‎

The banking industry is currently one of the most competitive industries. For this reason, a leadership style is needed that can increase employee engagement to achieve better company performance. The aim of this research is to ascertain the impact of servant leadership workers' job satisfaction and trust in their leaders as mediating variables. It is conducted at government-owned banks, namely, Bank BNI, Bank BRI, Bank BTN, and Bank Mandiri. Purposive sampling was the technique employed in this study, and the sample consisted of 273 individuals who worked for government-owned banks. This study employed structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS software as a data analysis technique. The study's findings demonstrate that: servant leadership influences job satisfaction significantly; job satisfaction influences work engagement significantly; Trust in Leader significantly influences work engagement; job satisfaction mediates the relationship between servant leadership and work engagement; and Trust in Leader mediates the relationship between servant leadership and work engagement. There is one rejected hypothesis, namely, that employee engagement at work is not significantly impacted by servant leadership.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT THROUGH STRENGTHENING SERVICE AND PERSONALITY LEADERSHIPThis study aimed to find strategic method to improve employee engagement by examining the relationship between Servant Leadership and Personality with Employee Engagement. The population of this study were 404 private elementary school teachers in West Bogor District, Bogor City, with the sample chosen were 201 teachers who were determined using proportional random sampling. The data were collected using questionnaires, and the analysis technique used simple regression and multiple regression. The results showed a positive relationship between Servant Leadership and Employee Engagement (ry.1 = 0,631, ρ0,01), and there was positive relationship between Personality and Employee Engagement (ry.2 = 0,799, ρ0,01), as well as positive and very significant relationship between Servant Leadership and Personality altogether with Employee Engagement (correlation coefficient ry.12 = 0,839, ρ0,01). Thus, it could be concluded that Employee Engagement could be increased through Servant Leadership and Personality, either partially or altogether.

This study aims to examine the impact of service leadership style, work-life balance and employee involvement on employee job satisfaction in construction companies in Serang City. In addition, this research also analyzes whether employee engagement can be a mediating variable in the relationship between service leadership and work-life balance and job satisfaction. This study utilized a survey approach, and data was obtained through questionnaires distributed to 100 respondents who were employees of construction companies in Serang City. The data analysis process was carried out by applying descriptive statistical techniques and using SEM PLS analysis to test the relationship between research variables. Smartpls version 3.2.9 is software used for statistical data processing. The results of this research show that: 1) Service Leadership has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction at Construction Companies in Serang City, with a Path Coefficients value of 0.246, T Statistics 2.137>1.96, P Value 0.033<0.05 which is significant. 2) work-life balance has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction at Construction Companies in Serang City, with a Path Coefficients value of 0.265, T Statistics 2.618>1.96, P Value 0.009<0.05 which is significant. 3) Service Leadership has a significant positive effect on employee engagement in Construction Companies in Serang City, with a Path Coefficients value of 0.468, T Statistics 3.794>1.96, P Value 0.000<0.05 which is significant. 4) work-life balance has a significant positive effect on employee engagement at Construction Companies in Serang City, with a Path Coefficients value of 0.420, T Statistics 3.570>1.96, P Value 0.009<0.05 which is significant. 5) employee involvement has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction at Construction Companies in Serang City, with a Path Coefficients value of 0.351, T Statistics 3.136>1.96, P Value 0.002<0.05 which is significant. 6) employee involvement has a significant positive effect on mediating Service Leadership on job satisfaction at Construction Companies in Serang City, the type of mediation that is formed is complementary (partial mediation). 7) employee involvement has a significant positive effect on mediating work-life balance on job satisfaction at Construction Companies in Serang City, the type of mediation that is formed is complementary (partial mediation).

The purpose of this study is expected to make a significant contribution to the development of freight forwarder companies in Jakarta as well as human resource management literature. This study uses a quantitative approach to examine the relationship between the variables studied, namely service leadership, training, employee performance, and employee engagement in freight forwarder companies in Jakarta. The population in this study is all freight forwarder companies operating in DKI Jakarta, which number 337 companies. From this population, 6 freight forwarder companies were selected that were considered representative and able to represent the characteristics of the population as a whole. Sample selection is carried out by purposive sampling, namely selecting companies that meet certain criteria such as company size, operational volume, and geographical location. Of the 6 companies, a sample of 105 respondents consisting of EMKL (Sea Cargo Expedition) operational staff was taken. The selection of respondents was carried out by stratified Random sampling to ensure that each sub-group in the population was proportionally represented. Servant Leadership has a significant positive influence on the Employee Performance variable, Training has a positive but not significant influence on the employee performance variable, Servant Leadership shows a significant positive influence on the Employee Engagement variable, Training also has a significant and positive influence on Employee Engagement, as well as Employee Engagement has a significant positive influence on Employee Engagement Employee Performance variable. No Effect of Servant Leadership through Employee Engagement on Employee Performance, and No Effect of Training through Employee Engagement on Employee Performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine how servant leadership (SL) and high-performance work systems (HPWS) practices enable organizational performance, as shown by employee retention and employee satisfaction. Data was obtained from 300 full time employees in a private airline company in Jordan. The data was collected in three rounds, each separated by one-week time-lag. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed relationships and revealed that both servant leadership and HPWS practices were positively linked with employee satisfaction and retention, which were used as indicators of organizational sustainability. In order to understand how servant leadership and HPWS influence employee satisfaction and retention, we investigated the mediating role of employee engagement and discovered that it serves as a critical mechanism. The study affirmed that, in line with studies carried out in the west, servant leadership is also an effective leadership characteristic in the context of Jordan. Furthermore, the study helps to clarify the reason that servant leadership and HPWS lead to positive outcomes, due to the fact that these improve the engagement of employees. Thus, we understand that the increases in employee retention and satisfaction are due to the enhanced engagement of employees, and we show that engagement can be improved both by servant leadership and the application of HPWS in organizations. Consequently, the effectiveness and sustainability of the airline companies in Jordan will need to focus on primarily improving employee engagement.

PurposeThis paper aims to report the findings of a study examining the relationship between different leadership styles and engagement through the mediating role of proactive personality.Design/methodology/approachServant leadership, paradoxical leadership, authentic leadership, employee engagement and proactive personality were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of 348 military personnel in Spain. The questionnaire data were analyzed through SEM using EQS and bootstrapping analysis using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.FindingsThe results reveal that servant leadership style in officers partially impacts their cadets' engagement through proactive personality but that authentic and paradoxical leadership styles do not mediate the relationship. The authors also verify a direct relationship between proactive personality and engagement.Practical implicationsThe study implications advance the literature on leadership in emphasizing new leadership styles to increase proactive personality and engagement in the military context. This study verifies the importance of military leaders fostering servant leadership as an antecedent of proactive personality. Finally, the authors show that servant leadership partially impacts engagement through proactive personality.Originality/valueThis study explores the relationship among servant, paradoxical and authentic leadership styles, proactive personality, and engagement – relationships that have not been explored theoretically and tested empirically in the military context.

The purpose of this research is to test the influence of work and personal balance, servant leadership, the reward of employee engagement with job satisfaction variables as mediators. The type of research used is explanatory research with a quantitative approach. The research hypothesis is a theoretical model consisting of the influence of work-life balance, servant leadership, and reward with mediator job satisfaction that can be used to predict and explain the emee engagement (FIT) with empirical data. The research respondent is the employee of Bank X in Bandung as much as 205 employees while the method of measuring data using a work-life balance scale, servant leadership and reward as an exogenous with a mediator job satisfaction to the employee engagement as endogenous with RMSEA 0.049. Data analysis using structural equation model (SEM) by using linear structural model (LISREL) version 8.72. Hypothesis testing structural relations included 5 variables fit, has the meaning the model matched (FIT) with field data. Hypothesis testing the structural relationship variables of the work-life balance, servant leadership, and reward simultaneously were able to describe the KK variable by 0.80 or 80%, while the relationship of job satisfaction against employee engagement 0.42 or 42%. The model accepted and the statement about the relationship of a variety of variables used is valid as a construct and can be inferred as the structural relationship.