Servant leadership and organizational deviant behaviour: interpreting some contradictory results from public sector of Pakistan

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims at ascertaining the relationship between servant leadership and employees’ organizational deviant behaviour in public sector organizations of Pakistan. Drawing on social cognitive and social exchange theories, this research also proposes to determine the mediating role of self-efficacy and trust in leader in this relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing convenience sampling method, three-wave time-lagged data were collected from 204 employees working in secretariats of two federal ministries in Pakistan.FindingsThe results derived from partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis using SmartPLS 3.2.9 software revealed that servant leadership is not negatively related to employee organizational deviant behaviour. Although the findings indicate that servant leadership is positively related to employee self-efficacy and trust in leader, these factors do not mediate the relationship between servant leadership and organizational deviant behaviour.Practical implicationsEmpirical evidence of this research emphasizes the role of servant leadership in fostering employees’ trust and self-efficacy. Additionally, this research suggests that alongside servant leadership, a moral climate and fairness in organizational policies and decisions are also inevitable to prompt employees to feel obligated to reduce undesirable workplace behaviours, particularly in public sector organizations.Originality/valueThis is amongst the earlier studies that investigates the association between servant leadership and organizational deviant behaviour of public sector employees in a developing context and examines the mediating role of trust in leader and self-efficacy simultaneously. Being contradictory to the underlying theories, findings of this research open the debate on effectiveness of servant leadership in public sector organizations of developing countries and expose avenues for future research.