Servant Leadership Behavior Research Articles

Servant Leadership and Innovative Work Behavior: The Mediation Role of Flow at Work and Trust

Competitiveness in the context of digital business encourages companies to continuesly innovate in their daily operations to achieve market dominance and adapt to changes in environmental forces and competitor strategies. Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) of employees is considered to be an important element for companies to carry out sustainable innovation. This research aims to determine the influence of Servant Leadership (SEL) on IWB as well as the mediating role of Flow at Work (FAW) and Trust (TR) between the relationship between SEL and IWB. This research used the survey of 247 employees from digital business companies using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as a data analysis method. The research results show that the majority of employees working in digital business companies feel that their desire to engage in innovative behavior is influenced by the role of their supervisor who demonstrate servant leadership characteristics as well as a feeling of flow that makes employees feel total involvement in completing their work. SEL plays a significant role in increasing employee IWB and FAW is proven to partially mediated the relationship between SEL and IWB. Meanwhile, in the indirect effect of TR, it was identified that TR did not mediate the relationship between SEL and IWB. This research is expected to provide insights for company HR management in increasing the active role of employees' innovative behavior in the workplace.

How Does Servant Leadership Enhance Worker Innovative Behavior in Pharmaceutical Industries: Mediating Role of Worker Creativity

The complex rapidly expanding business environment has given more focus to the value of innovation. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between servant leadership (SL) and employee innovative work behaviour (IEWB) and) explore the mediating role of worker creativity (WC) on the relationship between SL and EIWB. Data collected from 310 employees in pharmaceutical industries suggested that servant leadership has a significant and positive effect on employees' innovative work behaviour. Based on the findings, servant leadership positively influences employees' innovative work behaviour. Furthermore, worker creativity mediates the relationship between servant leadership and employees' innovative work behaviour. The impact of servant leadership on employees' innovative work behaviour is expanded, and the mediating processes by which servant leadership promotes employees' innovative work behaviour are explained. It concludes by exploring the essential responsibilities that leaders play in modern organizations.

It’s Unexpected but Good: Leader Traditionality Fuels Greater Follower Reciprocation to Servant Leadership

Integrating expectancy violation theory and social exchange theory, we investigate the role of leader traditionality in augmenting the positive effect of servant leadership in promoting follower reciprocation in three studies. In Study 1, we substantiate in an experiment that individuals indeed expect leaders possessing traditional values to be less likely to engage in servant leadership behaviors compared with leaders who are low in traditionality. Further, we test our full model in an experiment (Study 2) and find support for our hypothesis that the relationship between servant leadership, follower trust in the leader, and subsequent follower organizational citizenship behavior is stronger for leaders higher (vs. lower) in traditional values. Replicating the findings from Study 2, we conduct a field investigation (Study 3) with multiwave and multisource data from a Fortune 500 company and obtain full support for our model. The consistent findings across our studies provide strong support for the role of leader traditionality in altering the social exchange relationship between servant leaders and their followers.

Research on mechanism of servant leadership on employees' customer-oriented deviance: the mediating role of psychological security and the moderating role of error management climate

PurposeIn the era of the service economy, the personalized needs of customers are increasing rapidly. It often occurs that front-line employees bend organizational rules to help customers. The study sought to explore the influence mechanism of servant leadership on specific dimensions of customer-oriented deviance from the manager’s perspective, examine the mediating role of psychological security, and the moderating role of error management climate in the process.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted an online survey study in China from April 10 to 29, 2023. We use online survey questionnaire technique and random sampling method for data collection. The authors collected 385 questionnaires from China and tested the model by SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0.FindingsThe results show that servant leadership significantly promotes employees' deviant customer-oriented behaviors, psychological security plays a mediating role between servant leadership and deviant customer-oriented behaviors, and error management climate has a positive moderating effect between servant leadership and deviant customer-oriented behaviors.Originality/valueThis study explores the influence mechanism of servant leadership on deviant customer-oriented behaviors. The results of this study not only enrich the theoretical research on the formation mechanism of deviant customer-oriented behaviors but also provide a reference for leaders to correctly view and effectively manage employees' deviant customer-oriented behaviors.

Servant leadership, environmental passion and workplace green behavior in higher education institutions

Sketching on stimulus-organism-response theory, this study aims to investigate the mediating effect of environmental passion on the relationship of the environmentally specific servant leadership with employees’ green behavior. Using purposive sampling approach, the authors adopted one month time-lagged approach to collected data from 232 academic employees in higher education institutions of China. Response rate in this study is 46.40%. The partial least-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was conducted in the smartpls 4.0 software to test the proposed hypotheses. The current empirical findings confirm that environmentally specific servant leadership significantly positively influence employee’s environmental passion and environmental passion significantly positively affects the employee’s workplace green behaviors. This current finding offered support in favor of mediating impact of environmental passion on the “environmentally specific servant leadership-employees workplace green behaviors” relationship. To the best of authors, this study is among pioneers’ studies to investigate the integrated relationship of environmentally specific servant leadership, environmental passion and green behavior in higher education institutions context of China. Limitations and implication have been elaborated at the end.

Environmentally specific servant leadership and workplace pro-environmental behavior: A dual mediation in context of hotel industry

Environmental issues are getting significant attention from academicians and practitioners. In this regard, a top to bottom integration of actions has become necessary to address these issues. Therefore, the present study addresses the question of fostering the pro-environmental behaviors from a leadership perspective. The study examines the relationship between environmentally specific servant leadership and workplace pro-environmental behaviors. Additionally, the study examines the mediating effect of organizational support and environmental commitment. Since the study is designed in the context of hospitality industry, the population of this study comprises employees working in hotels. Following a positivist research philosophy, the study adopted a quantitative deductive approach. The questionnaire was developed by adapting previously validated measures. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among the respondents, and 204 returned questionnaires were subjected to data analysis using SPSS and SMART-PLS. The results of the study revealed that environmentally-specific servant leadership positively influences environmental commitments, organizational support, and workplace pro-environmental behaviors among employees. Additionally, the results identified a positive significant influence of environmental commitments, and organizational support on workplace pro-environmental behaviors. It was also found that organizational support and environmental commitments significantly mediate the relationship between environmentally-specific servant leadership and workplace pro-environmental behaviors. Notably, workplace environmental behaviors were found to be moderately influenced by environment-specific servant leadership. It is concluded that leaders play a crucial role in determining the environment oriented behavior among the employees. The study offers valuable insights for both policymakers and top management of hotels to focus on servant leadership for fostering pro-environmental behaviors among hotel employees to achieve environmental sustainability.

The Influence of Servant Leadership, Self-Awareness, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior on Employee Performance in Badan Perencanaan Pembangungan Daerah Provinsi Jawa Timur

This study aims to examine the influence of servant leadership, self-awareness, and organizational citizenship behavior on employee performance at Badan Perencanaan Pembangungan Daerah Provinsi Jawa Timur. The research was conducted using a quantitative approach and data were collected through questionnaires distributed to employees. The data obtained was analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) PLS method using Smart PLS Version 4.0 software. The respondents used in this study were 79 employees out of a total of 97 employees at Badan Perencanaan Pembangungan Daerah Provinsi Jawa Timur. The data collection instrument measured on a Likert scale. The findings revealed that servant leadership, self-awareness, and organizational citizenship behavior have a significant positive influence on employee performance. These results highlight the importance of fostering servant leadership qualities, promoting self-awareness, and encouraging organizational citizenship behavior in improving employee performance at Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Daerah Provinsi Jawa Timur.

Being Aware of Death: How and when Mortality Cues Incite Leader Expediency Versus Servant Leadership Behaviour

AbstractThe COVID‐19 crisis has been associated with existential concerns regarding mortality. These concerns, described as ‘mortality cues’, can influence people's emotions, behaviours, and the quality of leadership in organizations. Using the contingency model of death awareness (CMDA; Grant and Wade‐Benzoni, 2009), we provide new evidence on how mortality cues can incite negative and positive leadership behaviours via two forms of death awareness: death anxiety and death reflection. Specifically, we theorize that mortality cues can increase leader death anxiety, giving rise to leader expediency (a leader's use of unethical practices to expedite work for self‐serving purposes); however, mortality cues can also facilitate leader death reflection and, consequently, servant leadership behaviour. We further suggest that leaders’ responses to mortality cues depend on their psychological capital (PsyCap), such that leaders with high (vs. low) PsyCap respond to mortality cues with less expediency (via death anxiety) and more servant leader behaviours (via death reflection). We support our hypotheses through three separate studies using an experiment, time‐lagged data from healthcare workers, and daily diary data from non‐healthcare professionals. We conclude that mortality cues have a double‐edged influence on leadership behaviour. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

Servant Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Politics and the Moderating Role of Political Skill in Public Service Organizations

Servant Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Politics and the Moderating Role of Political Skill in Public Service Organizations

A servant perspective of leadership and knowledge co-creation process for IT/IS exploration-exploitation innovation in the B2B enterprise context

PurposeThis study aims to build an integrated model for information technology (IT)/information system (IS) team exploration and exploitation innovation in the business-to-business (B2B) enterprise context by empirically investigating the mediating role of tacit-explicit knowledge co-creation and exploring the behavior approach of servant leaders for IT/IS team exploration-exploitation innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors' analysis was supported by 182 enterprise-IT/IS teams (403 participants) in Taiwan. The authors used a questionnaire and Structural Equation Model (SEM)-SmartPLS to validate the development model. This study examines IT/IS exploration-exploitation innovation using a combination of quantitative survey research and qualitative case studies.FindingsThe specific roles of direct and mediating effects for two innovations of IT/IS team exploration and exploitation were investigated. The findings show a direct effect of knowledge creation (tacit and explicit) on IT/IS team exploration-exploitation innovation. Servant leader behavior positively influences tacit-explicit knowledge co-creation practices, IT/IS team exploration and exploitation. Moreover, knowledge creation (tacit and explicit) successfully mediates the correlation between servant leaders and IT/IS team innovations (for exploration and exploitation).Practical implicationsManagers, IT/IS consultants and enterprises at the executive level are suggested to encourage knowledge co-creation practices, both tacit and explicit to support their IT/IS team innovation. The greater the degree of explicit knowledge (i.e. socialization and internalization) and tacit knowledge creation (i.e. externalization and combination), the greater will be the opportunities for meeting the enterprise-IT/IS team exploration and exploitation innovation goals. The project manager may follow servant leadership behavior to promote effective knowledge co-creation process on the IT/IS team.Originality/valueThis effort contributes to greater and new understanding of how ambidexterity capability, tacit-explicit knowledge co-creation (mediators) and servant leaders for IT/IS team exploration-exploitation innovation in the B2B enterprise context and new foundations for future studies on a cross-enterprise IT/IS team. This research is also the first empirical effort to understand how a servant perspective leadership contributes through the knowledge co-creation process for IT/IS exploration-exploitation innovation.

How mentors inspire affective commitment in newcomers: The roles of servant leadership, psychological capital, and feedback-seeking behavior

This study investigated the impacts of the dual roles of servant-leadership and mentoring on hotel new employees' affective commitment. Guided by self-determination theory, an integrated model proposed the associations between servant mentors and employees’ affective commitment mediated via psychological capital. The model also hypothesized the moderating effect of employees' feedback-seeking behavior on the relationship between mentors’ servant leadership and employees’ psychological capital. Three hundred and seventy new employees at thirteen hotels in five regions of China provided responses during a time lag of ten weeks. The data was analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and a series of Moderated Hierarchical Regression (MHR). The results indicated that mentors' servant leadership had a direct positive effect on hotel new employees’ psychological capital and affective commitment, and indirectly predicted affective commitment via psychological capital. Moreover, feedback-seeking behavior could enhance the relationship between mentors’ servant leadership and employees’ psychological capital. The findings extend knowledge of understanding mentoring and servant leadership in the hospitality organizations, and imply the effective ways to improve hotel newcomers management.

Exploring the nexus between servant teacher leadership behaviour, psychological empowerment, and cognitive learning: evidence from universities of Pakistan

Exploring the nexus between servant teacher leadership behaviour, psychological empowerment, and cognitive learning: evidence from universities of Pakistan

Servant Leadership and Megaproject Citizenship Behaviour: The Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership

Servant Leadership and Megaproject Citizenship Behaviour: The Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership

Mediating Role of Affective Commitment in the Relationship Between Servant Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

This study explores the impact of servant leadership on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), with affective commitment serving as a mediating variable. The aim of the study is to examine how servant leadership influences OCB through the mediating role of affective commitment. This research employs a quantitative method to analyze the relationships among the variables. The research was conducted at Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) in Indonesia, witha sample size of 125 respondents selected through proportional sampling. The analysis was performed using Smart PLS 3 software. The results reveal that servant leadership has a positive effect on organizational citizenship behavior, as stated in the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis confirms that servant leadership significantly affects affective commitment. The third hypothesis indicates that affective commitment influences organizational citizenship behavior. The fourth hypothesis demonstrates that affective commitment mediates the relationship between servant leadership and OCB. The findings indicate that enhancing servant leadership and affective commitment can significantly boost OCB within the organization. The study highlights the essential role of affective commitment in facilitating the positive behaviors associated with servant leadership, which in turn fosters OCB. By enhancing OCB, DJBC is expected to improve its competitiveness.

Green HRM practices, green commitment, and green innovative work behavior in UAE higher education institutes

This study examines the relationships among green human resource management (GHRM), green commitment, green innovative work behavior (GIWB), and the moderating effect of environmentally specific servant leadership (ESSL) in UAE higher education institutes of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using a sample of employees, data were collected through a survey from 243 employees working in different universities across the UAE and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The SEM analysis confirms robust relationships between GHRM, environmentally specific servant leadership, green commitment, and green innovative workplace behavior. GHRM has a positive impact on GHRM. ESSL fosters the relationship between GHRM and green commitment, while green commitment positively impacts green innovative workplace behavior. Females were found to be more environmentally aware of the needed adjustments compared to male workers at the UAE campuses. The study suggests that higher education institutes in the UAE should adopt ESSL to support eco-conscious behaviors and green practices on their campuses and contribute to the achievement of national sustainability goals.

An analysis of the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: The effect of emotional intelligence as a mediating role

The current study's primary goal is to ascertain the impact of servant leadership on organizational citizenship behavior as being affected by emotional intelligence as the mediating variable. This descriptive study was applied to the academic staff of private and public universities. The questionnaire was used for data collection. The dimensions of servant leadership (SL) were nine, the dimensions of emotional intelligence were nine while five dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior were used and collected from literature review. The questionnaire was distributed to 304 of the academic staff. The findings indicate a moderate degree of the servant leadership practice. Also, the evaluation of organizational citizenship behavior practice and emotional intelligence was negative in academic institutions. The results showed that servant leadership affects positively organizational citizenship behavior using emotional intelligence as a mediator. Servant leadership is very important in higher educational organizations when followed properly and affects organizational citizenship behavior by considering the emotional aspects of the academic staff.

Coach Servant Leadership and Athlete Serving Behaviors: The Role of Intrinsic Motivation and Positive Affect

This study argues, based on macro theory, which integrates self-determination and broaden-and-build theories, that a coach’s servant leadership enhances athletes’ intrinsic motivation and positive affect, thus enhancing their serving behaviors toward their teammates. In Study 1, data were collected from 600 athletes belonging to university athletic clubs in Japan through an online survey. In Study 2, data were collected from a university with one of the largest sport faculties in Japan at two time points—with 311 university athletes at Time 1 and 269 athletes, 3 months later, at Time 2. The results revealed that intrinsic motivation and positive affect sequentially mediated the positive relationship between coach servant leadership and athlete serving behaviors. The findings contribute to the development of the servant-leadership literature by demonstrating a new pathway from servant leadership of coaches (leaders) to serving behaviors of athletes (followers) based on macro theory.

Servant leadership and employee voice behavior: the role of employee work reflection and employee proactive personality.

Despite the recent proliferation of scholarly investigations on servant leadership, clarity remains elusive regarding the specific mechanisms and conditions underpinning employee cognitive processes and their responses to servant leadership. Drawing upon social cognitive theory, proposes a moderated mediation model tested through a time-lagged field data from 489 employees in Study 1 and an experimental data in Study 2. We found that servant leadership indirectly enhances employee voice behavior through increased employee work reflection. Additionally, we considered employee proactive personality as a boundary condition for the positive effect of servant leadership. Our results show that servant leadership prompts employee work reflection only when the level of employee proactive personality is high, which in turn increases employee voice behavior. This study presents significant theoretical and practical implications through the integration of social cognitive theory with servant leadership research.

SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF HARMONIOUS PASSION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

Purpose - This paper examines simultaneously mediating mechanisms through which servant leadership (SL) affects employee creativity (EC). Specifically, the authors test harmonious passion (HP) and psychological safety (PS) as the mediating paths through which servant leadership predicts employee creativity. Design/Methodology/Approach - Data were collected from 274 employees in seven four- and five-star hotels in Indonesia. A partial least squares structural equation modelling technique was used to estimate the measurement and structural models. Findings -The findings of this study indicate that managers should adopt servant leadership behaviors, which can improve employees’ psychological resources, such as harmonious creativity, passion, and psychological safety. Originality of the research - This study offers original insights into the emerging body of hospitality literature by presenting the initial empirical proof of the combined impact of harmonious passion and psychological safety in facilitating the influence of servant leadership on frontline employees’ creativity.

Implementation of Servant Leadership at “X” Christian High School in Surabaya

Servant leadership is a leadership approach that requires leaders to understand and meet their followers’ needs. During the pandemic, the learning process occurred remotely, requiring educational leadership that understands the difficulties faced by both teachers and students. This study examines how leaders and teachers understand and implement servant leadership in the learning process through a consultative project involving leaders, teachers, and students through interviews and questionnaires. The author used the Servant Leadership Behaviour Scale (SLBS) as a theoretical basis and statement items for 246 students. This research used ’mixed methods’ by combining qualitative and quantitative data. The author found the understanding of Servant Leadership in the leaders and teachers, including listening, serving by example, empathising, and cooperating to achieve common goals. Then, its application included listening, serving what’s needed, building relationships, inviting followers to think about the organisation, sparing time, paying attention to spirituality and morality, accepting criticism, and admitting mistakes. The SLBS dimensions found from those understanding are Voluntary Subordination, Covenantal Relationship, and Transforming Influence. The SLBS dimensions found from the application are Voluntary Subordination, Covenantal Relationship, Transforming Influence, Transcendence Spirituality, and Authentic Self.