Serving for thriving: a moderated mediation analysis of the relationship between servant leadership and thriving at work

Drawing on social information processing theory (SIPT), this study examines the mediating role of creative self-efficacy and follower dependency on the relationship between servant leadership and employee creativity, focusing on task uncertainty moderation. Data was collected from 338 employees in Chinese manufacturing companies (females = 62.1%, 21–40 years old = 91.1%, bachelor’s degree or above = 86.1%). The employees completed two waves of surveys two weeks apart. Findings from a structural equation model indicate that higher servant leadership was associated with higher employee creativity through creative self-efficacy. However, high servant leadership was associated with low employee creativity through follower dependency. Creative self-efficacy mediation between servant leadership and employee creativity was stronger than follower dependency. Task uncertainty strengthened the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee creativity via creative self-efficacy and follower dependency. From these findings, it appears that servant leadership has a double-edged sword effect on employee creativity.

Cyberloafing is a form of counterproductive work behaviour (CWB), that is increasingly prominent yet easily concealed. This organizational phenomenon poses numerous detrimental effects on organizations, underscoring the importance of understanding the factors that can mitigate employee cyberloafing. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET) and social information processing theory (SIP), this study proposes an integrated model that explores the double-edged sword effect of servant leadership on cyberloafing. We hypothesize that servant leadership may increase meaningful work or citizenship pressure, thereby discouraging or facilitating cyberloafing. Meanwhile, we investigate the moderating effect of regulatory focus (promotion focus and prevention focus). Data were collected from 375 Chinese employees in three waves, with a two-week interval between each wave. The results showed that servant leadership enhanced meaningful work, resulting in a disincentive to cyberloafing. Conversely, servant leadership intensified citizenship pressure, leading to an increase in cyberloafing. The negative indirect effect of servant leadership on cyberloafing via meaningful work was moderated by promotion focus. Specifically, this indirect effect was more pronounced when the promotion focus was higher. Our research offers crucial insights for preventing employee cyberloafing in organizations.

PurposeThe importance of innovation has attracted growing attention due to the complex and rapidly changing business environment. This study aimed, first, to examine the joint effect of servant and authentic leadership (AUL) styles on employee creativity (EC), second, to examine the direct and mediated effect of servant leadership (SL) on employees' innovative work behaviour (IWB), third, to examine the effect of EC on IWB and finally, to investigate the moderating effect of creative self-efficacy (CSE) on the relationship between AUL and EC.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach was used, and the data were collected from 446 employees in the Qatari public sector. The data were then analysed by employing partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS software to validate the measures before testing the proposed model.FindingsThe results of this study emphasized the strong hypothesized link between EC and IWB. It also endorsed the mediating role of EC between SL and IWB and the moderating role of CSE in the AUL-EC relationship.Originality/valueThe originality of this study comes from various aspects. First, it is unique in separately examining EC and innovation and the link between them. Second, it investigates the joint impact of servant and AUL styles on EC. Third, it explores the mediating role of EC between SL and IWB. Fourth, the moderating effect of CSE on the AUL-EC link also was examined to gain a full understanding of the relation effect. Finally, the value of the current study also comes from the integration of the triangular theory of creativity, SL and AUL theories and self-efficacy theory to explain the proposed model of the study. Moreover, this study serves as a guideline for decision-makers on how to enhance IWB among employees by focusing on leadership programmes and the creative and innovative culture.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of servant leadership on employees' promotive voice behavior and prohibitive voice behavior by focusing on the mediating role of job engagement and the moderating role of proactive personality.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged data were collected using a field survey research design. The participants included 216 employees and 23 supervisors in two commercial banks in China.FindingsPerceived servant leadership was positively related to employees' promotive and prohibitive voice behavior, and these relationships were mediated by enhanced job engagement. In addition, employees' proactive personality amplified the relationship between perceived servant leadership and job engagement, and the mediating effect of job engagement on the relationship between perceived servant leadership and voice behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThis study enhances understanding of the mechanisms underlying the servant leadership – voice model by identifying the mediating role of job engagement. The results also demonstrate the moderating role of proactive personality in enhancing the effects of servant leadership. However, the survey design was not longitudinal, which limits the study's ability to confirm causality.Practical implicationsThe findings reveal that servant leadership, employees' job engagement, and proactive personality can facilitate employees' promotive and prohibitive voice behavior.Originality/valueThis study addresses the unexplored mediating mechanism of the relationship between servant leadership and voice behavior, and offers new directions for servant leadership and voice research.

Are the effects of servant leadership only spurious? The state of research on the causal effects of servant leadership, recommendations, and an illustrative experiment

The continued erosion of employee job satisfaction at work has become the Achilles’ heel of otherwise highly performing organisations. The Gallup organisation estimates the total cost of low job satisfaction in America alone at between US $450 and $550 billion annually, most of which is associated with absenteeism, turnover, and lower productivity. An anomaly to this trend, however, are organisations who adopt servant leadership behaviours as represented by some of the Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in America which tend to foster higher levels of employee satisfaction. Corroborating prior studies on leadership and job satisfaction, the current study therefore focuses on the underlying process by which leadership affects job satisfaction. Since leadership does not operate in a vacuum but is constrained by the organisational environment it operates under, the effects of servant leadership are largely determined by the context in which it operates. This study specifically investigates the boundary conditions created by the leader’s decision making process (involvement and dominance) and organisational structure (formalisation and centralisation) and their impacts on the servant leadership job satisfaction relationship. Two independent studies were undertaken to test the hypotheses: A vignette experiment with 1,569 business and economics students from a leading Australian university and a cross-sectional survey among 336 middle managers of small to medium enterprises in Australia. Findings from the studies showed that leader involvement moderated the servant leadership job satisfaction relationship independently. Similarly, the interaction effect of formalisation and centralisation, leader involvement and formalisation and leader dominance and centralisation moderate the servant leadership job satisfaction relationship. These findings point to the role of the leader’s decision making process and organisational structure as boundary conditions for servant leadership to impact employee job satisfaction. The study suggests that when servant leadership behaviours are employed by a leader who is highly involved in the decision making process and operates under a formalised structure, its effects on job satisfaction are augmented. On the contrary, when the leader is dominant and operates under a centralised structure, the servant leadership effects are considerably minimized. Addressing the recommendation to take into account the leadership context, the current study extends previous research on servant leadership and job satisfaction by explaining how organisational structure affects this relationship. In more practical terms, the study findings highlight the importance of selecting and developing organisational leaders who practice servant leadership behaviours and are highly involved in the decision making process to engender a high level of employee job satisfaction.

The Impact of Middle and Senior Leadership Styles on Employee Performance -- Evidence From Chinese Enterprises

Recent years have witnessed a surge of scholarly interest in servant leadership, resulting in substantial evidence of its beneficial effects for employees, group and organizational outcomes. Despite the impressive progress researchers made over these years, the implications of servant leadership for leaders still remains largely unknown. This study attempts to address this issue by looking into the questions related to what consequences servant leadership brings to leaders, how the process unfolds, and when the influence is more likely to occur. Adopting conservation of resources theory as overarching framework and using multilevel, multisource, multistage data collected from a sample of 89 supervisors and 536 employees, we found that servant leadership was beneficial for leaders'workplace (i.e., task performance, job satisfaction) and work-family interface (i.e., work-to-family conflict, work-to-family enrichment) outcomes through leaders reducing their resource loss (operationalized by emotional exhaustion) and generating psychological resources in terms of positive affect, work meaningfulness, and need satisfaction. Moreover, our results revealed boundary conditions for the resource generating mechanisms. Specifically, the positive effects of servant leadership on positive affect, work meaningfulness, and need satisfaction were less salient when leaders' perceived organizational support was high. Key words: Servant leadership, COR theory, resource loss, resource generation, workplace and work-family interface outcomes

SITUATIONAL AND INTERACTIONIST LEADERSHIP THEORIES

This study investigated the impact of supervisors’ servant leadership (i.e., leadership that starts with a leader who wants to serve) on supervisees’ moral identity and subsequent in-role performance. Data from 226 supervisor–supervisee dyads were collected from several domestic and multinational companies operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to confirm the factorial validity of the measures that were employed in this study. The hypothesized moderated mediation model was tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Based on social learning theory, the results showed that supervisees’ moral identity served as the psychological mediating mechanism through which supervisors’ servant leadership led to supervisees’ increased in-role performance. Furthermore, the results also supported supervisees’ avoidance orientation as the dispositional boundary condition of this mediating effect. This study contributes to both the servant leadership and moral identity literatures by addressing questions with useful theoretical and managerial implications.

PurposeWhile servant leadership is widely recognised as a key factor in driving employee performance and various psychological outcomes, there remains a notable gap in understanding how it influences employee embeddedness through fostering harmonious relationships, particularly within energy-centric social enterprises. This study seeks to address this gap by investigating how servant leaders’ behaviours can effectively cultivate harmonious relationships, ultimately leading to increased employee embeddedness within organisations. Additionally, this study introduces a novel aspect by examining how an individual psychological trait, specifically a propensity for risk-taking, may influence the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee embeddedness.Design/methodology/approachTo test this model, data from 309 respondents was collected through a three-wave survey design. The simple mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro-Model 4, and the moderated mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro-Model 8.FindingsThe findings indicate that harmonious passion serves as a significant mediator between servant leadership and employee embeddedness. Notably, this relationship is amplified among individuals with higher levels of the risk-taking trait.Originality/valueThe study addresses the research gaps in the interplay between individual traits and the psychological effectiveness of servant leadership in inducing harmonious passion, leading to socio-emotional outcomes such as employee embeddedness. Further, by addressing the issues related to employee retention in social enterprises, this research helps social entrepreneurs create a desirable societal impact without experiencing human resource hurdles. By doing so, this investigation significantly contributes to the research community, practitioners and society at large.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the cross-level effect of servant leadership on employee innovative behavior by studying the mediating role of thriving at work and the moderating role of team reflexivity.Design/methodology/approachThis research collected data from 199 dyads of employees and their direct supervisors in 55 work units, and tested a cross-level moderated mediation model using multilevel path analysis.FindingsThe findings suggest that thriving at work mediates the relationship between servant leadership and innovative behavior. The results also show that team reflexivity positively moderates the relationship between servant leadership and thriving at work and the mediating effect of thriving at work.Practical implicationsThe empirical findings suggest that organizations should make efforts to promote servant leadership and encourage team reflexivity. Moreover, managers should make efforts to stimulate employees’ thriving at work, thereby facilitating employee and organizational development.Originality/valueThis research identifies thriving at work as a key mediator that links servant leadership to innovative behavior and reveals the role of team reflexivity in strengthening the effect of servant leadership on employee innovative behavior.

This research investigates the synergistic effects of servant and teacher leadership on team mindfulness and self-directed learning readiness among secondary school teachers, utilizing a multilevel analysis approach. Drawing on a sample of 929 teachers from 76 Greek public schools, the study employs Multilevel Modeling and Pathway Analysis to examine these relationships. The results indicate that servant leadership’s dimensions of Emotional Healing (β = 0.06, p < .01) and Empowering (β = 0.05, p < .01) have a small but significant impact on self-directed learning readiness. Teacher leadership serves as a moderating factor, strengthening the relationship between servant leadership and team mindfulness (β = 0.12, p < .01). Team mindfulness emerges as a significant mediator (β = 0.33, 95% CI: [0.21, 0.45]), reinforcing the connection between leadership and autonomous learning. These findings highlight the interactive role of servant and teacher leadership in fostering mindfulness and enhancing self-directed learning among educators. The study advocates for the integration of these leadership styles as a strategic approach to promote educational innovation, professional development, and improved student outcomes.

While servant leadership and innovation have been examined extensively in Western contexts, there are three important gaps in this literature: firstly, boundary conditions under which servant leadership is most effective in fostering innovation have been minimally explored; secondly, team-level moderators are rarely considered in resource-constrained contexts; and thirdly, there is a paucity of empirical research in higher education settings in developing countries, where culturally and structurally contingent collective learning orientations could play out differently. This study investigates the moderating influence of team learning orientation on the link between servant leadership and innovative work behavior within the context of Egyptian public universities among academic Staff members. Data were collected using a three-wave survey design involving 412 faculty members at five public universities in Egypt. Servant leadership was assessed using the SL-7 scale, team learning orientation was measured using the 28-item Team Learning Behaviors Scale, and innovative work behavior was assessed using the Innovative Behavior Inventory. Moderation analyses were carried out using the PROCESS macro and hierarchical regression. Servant leadership is a significant positive predictor of innovative work behavior (β = 0.324, p &lt; .001) and team learning orientation (β = 0.612, p &lt; .001). There is a positive path to innovative work behavior from a team learning orientation (β = 0.417, p &lt;.001). Notably, the interaction effect of team learning orientation on the relationship between servant leadership and innovative work behavior is significant (β = 0.128, p &lt; .01), wherein the interaction is stronger at the high than low level of team learning orientation. Team learning orientation is an important boundary condition of servant leadership that facilitates innovation. The findings emphasize the necessity of integrating servant leadership programs with the promotion of a team learning climate in higher education settings.

Servant leadership, ideology-based culture and job outcomes: A multi-level investigation among hospitality workers