Abstract
Orientation: Organisations are continuously diversifying their workforces and require information on how to benefit from positive diversity-related outputs. Servant leadership might provide a solution to improve diversity-related outputs. Literature proposes that servant leadership, diversity climate and employee outputs are related; yet, literature is silent on how these observations would operate in a transitional environment where organisations are intentionally attempting to correct inherited workforce imbalances.Research purpose: The study examined indirect effects of diversity climate on the relationship between servant leadership and employee attitudes.Motivation for the study: Examinations of the indirect effects of diversity climate are limited.Method: A quantitative approach with cross-sectional design collected 230 responses from a convenience sample. Respondents completed assessments for servant leadership, diversity climate, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to quit. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, correlational analysis and three independent mediation models.Main findings: Servant leadership and diversity climate are positively associated with organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and non-intention to quit. Servant leadership demonstrated a direct effect on diversity climate, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and non-intention to quit. Diversity climate had a positive impact on organisational commitment. Servant leadership demonstrated an indirect effect on organisational commitment via diversity climate.Practical implications: The improvement of organisational commitment cannot only rely on servant leadership; a conducive diversity climate is also required.Contribution and value-added: The examination contributes towards limited diversity climate research with evidence of the indirect capacity of diversity climate.
Highlights
Introduction and backgroundOur societies are becoming more diverse
Taking into consideration the independent associations between servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes, and the fact that leadership is regarded as an important aspect to enhance the benefits of diversity (Wieland, 2004), the present study aims to answer the question regarding whether or not diversity climate has an indirect effect on the relationship between servant leadership and the selected employee attitudes
The egalitarianism factor has 75.56% of the variance clarified by the first factor extracted, with an eigenvalue of 3.02 (KMO = 0.81); and the moral integrity factor has 71.63% of the variance explained by the first factor, with an eigenvalue of 4.30 (KMO = 0.92)
Summary
An increasing number of organisations are moving away from merely managing diversity because of legal obligations. In the current context of organisations, diversity is an integral part of co-operative management and planning, which is actively supported (Anand & Winters, 2008). Positive consequences for organisations embracing and strategically managing diversity can include several organisational and employee benefits (Joubert, 2017). Employees who indicated that they are receptive towards diversity and especially the effective management of diversity are more inclined to consider their organisation’s overall performance as positive. The associated advantages of a more diverse workforce include increased sales performance (Richard, Stewart, McKay, & Sacket, 2017), organisational commitment and job satisfaction (Hicks-Clarke & Iles, 2000). Diversified organisations have access to a larger and improved quality pool of human talent because of an increase in supply from future employees (Foster & Harris, 2005)
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