Exploring a model of servant leadership, empowerment, and commitment in nonprofit organizations

Abstract

This study examined a model of servant leadership's relationship to organizational commitment through structural and psychological empowerment, focusing on leader–follower dyads in a nonprofit organization. Survey data was collected from 128 employees of a nonprofit organization in a northeastern U.S. city. After model re‐specification, a well‐fitting model emerged, indicating that structural empowerment mediates the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment. Moreover, the model suggests that structural empowerment's effect on organizational commitment is both direct and indirect—the latter occurring through the meaning dimension of psychological empowerment. This study provides initial support for structural empowerment being a mechanism through which servant leadership impacts organizational commitment in nonprofits. In addition, the role of meaningful work is highlighted as an antecedent to organizational commitment for nonprofit employees. Servant leaders are suggested to create structurally empowering working environments, which support employees' stronger commitment to the organization.

Empowering Leadership, Risk-Taking Behavior, and Employees’ Commitment to Organizational Change: The Mediated Moderating Role of Task Complexity

“…Empowering leadership delegates authority and autonomy to employees, allowing them to work with confidence, value their contributions, and make their work more meaningful [19]. Through participative decision-making of empowering leadership [45], employees gain a sense of control over their performance and feel psychological empowerment [19], which can increase organizational commitment [33,46]. Psychological empowerment is an important factor in organizational change, as it allows employees to have control over their work and influence the process of organizational change [33,47].…”

Inclusion and commitment as key pathways between leadership and nonprofit performance

“…In other words, committed workers are more likely to remain in the organization than those who are uncommitted (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Organizational commitment generally refers to the individual's identification with and involvement in a particular workplace (Allen, Winston, Tatone, & Crowson, 2018), whereas affective commitment refers to an individual's emotional attachment to the organization (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Affective commitment, arguably the most pertinent form of employee commitment for nonprofit organizations (Erdurmazli, 2019), is an attitudinal process whereby employees think about their relationship to the organization with respect to their values and goals (Meyer & Allen, 1991).…”

Sustainable Workplace: The Moderating Role of Office Design on the Relationship between Psychological Empowerment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in Uzbekistan

“…Several studies have examined the impact of psychological empowerment (i.e., intrinsic motivation) on work satisfaction [23,24], organizational commitment [25,26] and performance [27,28]. Moreover, recent studies have confirmed that the higher the level of employees' psychological empowerment, the more motivated employees are to perform well and demonstrate more at work [29][30][31].…”