Servant leadership and proactive customer service performance

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of servant leadership on hospitality employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP) by focusing on the sequential mediating roles of harmonious passion and customer orientation and the moderating role of others’ approval of contingent self-esteem.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses structural equation modeling with the four-wave data collected from eight Chinese hotels.FindingsThis study finds that servant leadership can promote hospitality employees’ PCSP by sequentially boosting their harmonious passion for work and customer orientation. Moreover, others’ approval of contingent self-esteem strengthens servant leadership’s effect on harmonious passion for work.Originality/valueFirst, this study extends the servant leadership research by extending its outcome to hospitality employees’ PCSP. Second, this study enriches the understanding of the mediating mechanism between servant leadership and PCSP. Third, this study advances the research on servant leadership by identifying the moderating effect of employees’ others’ approval of contingent self-esteem between servant leadership and harmonious passion.