Servant leadership and affective commitment: the role of psychological ownership and person–organization fit

Abstract

Purpose Building on social exchange theory, this study aims to propose a research model to examine the relationship between servant leadership (SL) and employee affective commitment (AC) where psychological ownership (PO) and person–organization fit are theorized to play a mediating role. Design/methodology/approach The study used quantitative research methods with a deductive approach to examine the proposed relationships and the underlying mechanisms. Data were collected from 346 employees working at higher education sector in Palestine. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The results reveal a significant mediating role of PO and person – organization (P-O) fit in explaining the relationship between SL and employee AC. Results indicate that the service orientation and humble attitude of servant leaders toward employees help employees develop a sense of ownership, leading to a better fit with organizational values and thus to a more committed workforce. Practical implications The results of this study may be useful for managers working in higher education in a non-Western context who are considering using SL behaviors to improve outcomes. Originality/value The study advances SL research currently in its early stages (Zhang et al., 2019). Moreover, it increases understanding of the mediating roles played by PO and P-O fit.

The effect of servant leadership on employees' extra‐role behaviors in NPOs: The role of work engagement

“…General management literature reveals that servant leadership inspires positive behaviors among employees. For instance, servant leadership has been found to generate positive outcomes such as creativity in hospitality (Aboramadan, 2021), affective commitment in higher education (Dahleez et al, 2020), work engagement in higher education , IWB, and OCB in hospitality (Elche et al, 2020;Karatepe et al, 2020). IWB is viewed as discretionary behavior directed toward developing, adopting, and implementing new products or ideas (Yuan & Woodman, 2010).…”

The impact of perceived servant leadership traits and safety climate on task performance and risk-taking behavior in times of crisis

“…In practical terms, servant leadership has received significant attention from researchers in diverse fields. Servant leadership has demonstrated to positively contribute to job performance (Sihombing et al , 2018), job satisfaction (Aboramadan et al , 2021b), affective commitment (Dahleez et al , 2020), work engagement (Aboramadan et al , 2020), innovative work behavior (Karatepe et al , 2020) and organizational citizenship behavior (Elche et al , 2020). Servant leadership is believed to work best in times of crisis (Firestone, 2020; Wankhade et al , 2015) because servant leaders demonstrate passion (serving and listening), effective communication through listening to others and assisting others.…”

Faculty Members in Polytechnics to Serve the Community and Industry: Conceptual Skills and Creating Value for the Community—The Two Main Drivers

“…More precisely, our results in terms of conceptual skills have important implications for HEIs, in that creating and sharing knowledge, as well as building capacities, all require certain competencies and skills (Latif et al, 2021). Moreover, since servant leaders understand the importance of building a sense of community among followers (Spears, 1995) and given servant leadership’s impact on commitment (Dahleez et al, 2021), this study’s findings could serve as guidelines for HEIs’ leaders in terms of ensuring that they have good policies that will increase academics’ organizational commitment and promote the quality of their service within the sector. Nevertheless, our study shows that job satisfaction is a better predictor of work motivation than our two servant leadership dimensions, which suggests that new and relevant policies need to be made in this regard.…”