Servant leadership and perceived employability: proactive career behaviours as mediators

How do leaders' positive emotions improve employees' psychological safety in China? The moderating effect of leader-member exchange

The extant research on psychological safety has explored mainly its consequences, with less attention paid to its formation mechanism and its applied situation. This study investigates the impact of leaders' positive emotions on employees' psychological safety based on a questionnaire survey of 319 employees working in 67 teams in China and verifies the moderating role of leader-member exchange in this relationship. According to the findings of the multilevel analysis, there is a positive association between leaders' positive emotions and employees' psychological safety, and leader-member exchange has a cross-level moderating influence on the link between leaders' positive emotions and subordinates' psychological safety.

Influence of servant leadership on the life satisfaction of basic education teachers: the mediating role of satisfaction with job resources

Background

Life satisfaction is essential for teachers' work performance and student learning. Additionally, servant leadership has been shown to be one of the best leadership practices as it promotes employee well-being and satisfaction. Moreover, satisfaction with job resources acts as a mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and life satisfaction by influencing individual and collective performance in the organization.

Objective

This research aimed to evaluate the mediating role of satisfaction with job resources in the relationship between servant leadership and life satisfaction.

Methods

The study was cross-sectional and explanatory. 620 teachers aged between 20 and 62 years (M = 35 and SD = 9.49) participated in the study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to measure life satisfaction, service leadership, and job resource satisfaction through the use of questionnaires.

Results

The results indicated that the model obtained an adequate fit, χ2 = 2,658, df = 551, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.941, TLI = 0.936, RMSEA = 0.079, SRMR = 0.070. The results confirm the positive influence of leadership on satisfaction with resources and life satisfaction. Additionally, a positive influence of satisfaction with job resources on life satisfaction was observed. Moreover, the mediation of job resources in servant leadership and life satisfaction was confirmed.

Conclusion

Servant leadership, supported by satisfaction with job resources, can reduce effort and associated costs, stimulate personal growth and learning, and improve the well-being of teachers.

The influence of leadership on employees' employability: a bibliometric analysis, systematic literature review, and research agenda

Introduction

Policymakers, researchers, and practitioners have recently begun treating employability-an individual's ability to possess and continuously adjust and acquire up-to-date competencies, flexibility, adaptability, and openness to change-as crucial to enabling employees to respond to ubiquitous and rapid changes in organizations (e.g., changing tasks and work-related processes). Research into ways to enhance employability, particularly through supervisor leadership, which, for example, facilitates training and competence development, has thus grown in popularity. A review on leadership as an antecedent of employability is both evident and timely. This review thus addresses the question of whether a supervisor's leadership influences employees' employability, and in which contexts and through which mechanisms it does so.

Methods

As preliminary study we conducted a bibliometric analysis (which corroborated employability's recent rise in popularity) and as main study we conducted a systematic literature review. For this, the authors independently searched for articles, which met the inclusion criteria and subsequently were included for full text analysis. The authors also independently used the forward and backward snowballing technique for identifying additional articles which met the inclusion criteria and subsequently were included for full text analysis. The procedure resulted in 17 articles in total.

Results

Most of the articles identified positive relationships among several conceptualizations of supervisor leadership and employee employability, such as transformational leadership and leader-member exchange, and to a lesser extent, servant leadership and perceived supervisor support. This review suggests that such relationships occur across different work contexts, such as educational, SMEs, healthcare, and several other industries, and these contexts also vary geographically.

Discussion

The relationships among supervisor leadership and employee employability are largely explained using a social exchange perspective, which means that the positive influence of leadership on employability is itself influenced by a two-way social exchange relationship between supervisor and employees. The quality of the dyadic relationship between leader and followers thus determines the extent to which leaders offer valuable resources such as training and feedback, which subsequently enhances employees' employability. This review demonstrates that investing in supervisors' leadership is a valuable HRM strategy that fosters employability, and it identifies practical implications that inform policy and practice and sets an agenda for future employability research.

Career capital, career success, and perceived employability: evidence from medical billing companies in the post-COVID world

BACKGROUND

This paper focuses on the concept of career construction based on the theory of conservation of resources to understand the overall effect of career capital on career success from both a subjective and objective manner through the mediating effect of perceived employability.

OBJECTIVE

This study attempts to explain how different integrated aspects of career capital, including human, social, and psychological (antecedents), influence both subjective career success and objective career success (outcome) through the mediating effect of perceived employability (mediator).

METHODS

Time-lagged data of 331 employees from the telehealth medical billing service companies based in Pakistan were analyzed through a structural equation modeling technique using SmartPLS software.

RESULTS

The main results confirmed that career capital positively affects perceived employability and career success while perceived employability positively mediates the relationship between career capital and career success.

CONCLUSION

This research responded to prior calls by explaining the positive mediating role of perceived employability (as a mediator) in explaining the positive influence of career capital on career success using different various dimensions of career capital and career success. This research included the contextual issues by testing the model in the telehealth sector of Pakistan. The findings suggested that context or occupation matters in the relationship between career capital and career success.

The Influence of Health-Promoting Leadership on Employees' Positive Workplace Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Employability and the Moderating Role of Workplace Civility

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely accelerated the transformation and rapid organisational change in the workplace. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hotel industry will not fade in a short time, and the long-term coexistence with the COVID-19 pandemic pressure is a real dilemma for the hotel industry. The topic of How to create employee positive workplace outcomes (task performance and innovative work behaviour) during the COVID-19 pandemic has garnered increasing interest in both practical and academic fields. Leaders play a critical role in influencing employee workplace outcomes, yet few studies have explored the predicting role of health-promoting leadership. Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aims to examine the employability mediator effect and workplace civility as the moderator effect in the relationship between health-promoting leadership and employee-positive workplace outcomes (task performance and innovative work behaviour). We conducted a two-wave survey of 421 participants from the hotel industry in China and formulated a series of hypotheses that were tested with structural equation modelling. The results showed that health-promoting leadership has a significant positive effect on employees' employability (β = 0.479, p < 0.001), task performance (β = 0.250, p < 0.001), and innovative work behaviour (β = 0.446, p < 0.001). Employability has a significant positive effect on task performance (β = 0.438, p < 0.001) and innovative work behaviour (β = 0.296, p < 0.001). This study makes certain contributions to the extant hotel industry employees' positive workplace outcomes literature by attending to the healthy leadership styles that promote employability during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its novel point is to evaluate the workplace civility moderating effect between the above model. It also provides practical insight that mutual transformation in workplace relationships inspire those positive outcomes.

Future orientation and perceived employability of chinese undergraduates: a moderated mediation model

Although scholars and practitioners have highlighted the significance of students' attitudes for their future employment, few empirical examinations have attempted to determine the potential association between students' future orientation and their perceived employability. Thus, drawing on career construction theory, we test the positive effect of students' future orientation on their perceived employability by exploring the mediator of problem-based learning and the moderators of job market knowledge and proactive personality. Collecting our data via a time-lagged design (N = 368), we have found that the positive association between future orientation and employability is mediated by problem-based learning. Our moderation analyses further revealed that job market knowledge positively moderates the relationship between future orientation and problem-based learning and that students' proactive personality positively moderates the relationship between problem-based learning and perceived employability.

Does benevolent leadership consistently lead to employees' voluntary behaviors?

Purpose

Benevolent leadership is a leadership style in which leaders show consideration for their employees' work and life. Empirical studies have shown inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and employees' voluntary behaviors. Therefore, this study examined benevolent leadership's mediating (gratitude) and moderating (trust) mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

Overall, 792 questionnaires were collected from Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) and continuing education students at a public university in Taiwan. The research model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and the PROCESS module.

Findings

Benevolent leadership influenced three voluntary behaviors of employees directly and indirectly through enhanced gratitude. Emotional trust moderated the relationship between work care and employee gratitude such that the positive relationship was stronger for employees with higher emotional trust levels.

Practical implications

Benevolent leadership is an effective leadership style that cares about employees' work and lives, enhancing their gratitude and engagement in voluntary behaviors.

Originality/value

The mediating effect of gratitude and the moderating effect of trust provide a possible explanation for the inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and voluntary behaviors.

Negative Work Attitudes and Task Performance: Mediating Role of Knowledge Hiding and Moderating Role of Servant Leadership

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis that particularly hit employment globally. Due to the economic crisis, many small businesses attempted to minimise their expenses by either closing or downsizing. During such organisational situations, the employees face negative workplace attitudes that lead to knowledge hiding and affect team performance. This study examines negative attitudes and their effect on team performance. Further, this study examines the mediating effect of knowledge hiding and moderating the role of servant leadership. Through a multi-time data collection approach, the authors obtained 363 responses from the education sector in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. PROCESS Hayes model 1 and 4 were used for mediation and moderation analysis. Results show that job insecurity, cynicism, and role stress are significant forces behind knowledge-hiding behaviour. Furthermore, the knowledge hiding behaviour adversely affects task performance. Servant leadership shows a buffering effect on knowledge hiding behaviour caused by negative workplace attitudes. This is one of the first studies in the South Asian environment to examine the association between employees’ negative attitudes and task performance using knowledge hiding as a mediator and servant leadership as a moderator in the COVID-19 scenario. Lastly, the paper concludes with a consideration of its theoretical, practical implication and future direction.

The contagious servant leadership: exploring the role of servant leadership in leading employees to servant colleagueship

Purpose

This paper intends to ascertain whether servant leadership can trigger servant colleagueship among subordinates. Additionally, the study is set out to divulge the mediating role of self-transcendence relating servant leadership to servant colleagueship.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from the respondents in three waves that were two months apart. In the first wave, employees rated their managers' servant leadership behavior. In the second wave, employees rated their self-transcendence, and finally, they rated their colleague-directed servant behavior. The final sample size for the study was 209 employees employed in the service sector. Structural equational modeling through Smart-PLS and hierarchical regression through SPSS were used for data analysis.

Findings

The study found servant leadership to be related to self-transcendence and employees' enacted servant colleagueship. Additionally, the study found self-transcendence to mediate the relationship between servant leadership and servant colleagueship.

Originality/value

The study has established the previously unexplored mediating role of self-transcendence linking servant leadership to servant colleagueship. The study is also the first to empirically test the relationship between self-transcendence and servant colleagueship.

How does the protean career attitude influence external employability? The roles of career resilience and proactive career behavior

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the structural relationships between protean career attitude, career resilience, proactive career behavior and external employability.

Design/methodology/approach

This study sampled 212 training apprentice employees who participated in training programs using a proportional stratified sampling in South Korea. The study tested the research model using structural equation modeling.

Findings

This study revealed that protean career attitude influenced external employability through career resilience and proactive career behavior. Career resilience fully mediated the relationship between protean career attitude and external employability and partially mediated protean career attitude and proactive career behavior. Proactive career behavior also mediated the relationship between protean career attitude and external employability.

Research limitations/implications

This study has a limitation by relying on cross-sectional data. In terms of theoretical implications, this study can add new knowledge to the protean career research by demonstrating that the protean career attitude influences perceived external employability through career resilience and proactive career behavior for the sample of young training apprentice employees.

Originality/value

This study uncovers the dynamic processes between protean career attitude and perceived external employability. Moreover, this study’s sample is significant because training apprentice employees are mostly young in their 20s and 30s with less than three years of working experience and working in small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea.

Effect of Chief Executive Officer’s Sustainable Leadership Styles on Organization Members’ Psychological Well-Being and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Situational leadership theory and the contingency approach of leadership were utilized and applied based on situational theory. Based on a total of four foundational theories, that is, bottom-up spillover theory, theories of prosocial behavior, and so on, this study empirically analyzed what influence a chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) sustainable leadership styles (servant, ethical, and authentic leadership) have on the psychological well-being and organizational citizenship behaviors of organization members. The study was conducted on adult employees of midsized or larger companies (including subsidiaries) across four countries: South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Data were obtained from 649 adult employees. SmartPLS was used to conduct structural equation modeling analysis of the data. The results were as follows: (1) CEOs’ servant and authentic leadership styles had statistically significant positive (+) effects on employees’ psychological well-being; however, ethical leadership did not. (2) CEOs’ ethical leadership had a statistically significant (+) effect on employees’ organizational citizenship behavior; however, servant and authentic leadership did not. (3) Employees’ psychological well-being had a statistically significant (+) effect on organizational citizenship behavior. CEOs are attracting more attention than ever, leading companies in today’s rapidly changing times. This suggests that it is necessary to comprehend principles that show when, where, and how important leaders are and sustainable leadership styles that can increase their chances of success. Moreover, this study derived constructive implications that a leader can overcome today’s challenges through sustainable leadership styles.

The relation of servant leadership with followers' organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB): mediating role of generalized self-efficacy (GSE) and organization–based self-esteem (OBSE)

Purpose

This study aims to understand the relationship between servant leadership (SL) and followers’ organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) along with the mediational role of generalized self-efficacy (GSE) and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) on the relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of literature on leadership has been carried out to formulate a conceptual model that has focussed on the relationship between SL and followers’ OCB. The paper has also drawn the role of GSE and OBSE with relation to SL and followers’ OCB.

Findings

The literature has highlighted the importance of SL in promoting followers’ OCB, GSE and OBSE, and the positive relation of GSE and OBSE with followers’ OCB is also demonstrated.

Research limitations/implications

This is a conceptual work that has drawn from secondary material. A further empirical examination can help validate the ideas that have been proposed here.

Practical implications

This paper has highlighted the role of SL in organizations. It has also provided ample scope for practitioners to rethink about their current leadership style/approach and to plan their approach in such a way that can facilitate followers’ OCB, GSE and OBSE, which may result in organizational productivity and sustainability.

Originality/value

This paper has tried to connect two mediators, i.e. GSE and OBSE with SL in the Indian context that has been studied differently concerning different contexts, and that may add a new dimension to the discourse on SL.

Broadcasters' Leadership Traits and Audiences' Loyalty With the Moderating Role of Self-Construal: An Exploratory Study

Although considerable attention has been paid to the application of leadership in virtual communities, the field of live streaming has not been involved. This exploratory study aimed to explore how different broadcaster leadership traits (charismatic, authoritarian, and servant) influence audiences' loyalty (cognitive and conative). And audience self-construal was chosen as a key moderator. The top 15 broadcasters from the regional rankings were selected from each of the two popular live streaming platforms, Douyu and YouTube, for the study. And we used snowball sampling with a link to an online questionnaire as a recruitment procedure. 310 audiences with live streaming experience from the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan participated. Hierarchical linear modeling was adopted for the analysis. This study found that broadcasters with servant and charismatic leadership traits positively affected cognitive loyalty. Broadcasters with servant leadership traits also had a positive effect on conative loyalty. Additionally, independent self-construal negatively moderated the relationship between servant leadership and cognitive loyalty. Independent self-construal positively moderated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and conative loyalty. Furthermore, interdependent self-construal negatively moderated the relationship between charismatic leadership and conative loyalty. Interdependent self-construal positively moderated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and conative loyalty. These conclusions extend the understanding of broadcasters' traits and audiences' psychology concerning the booming phenomenon of live streaming and can help platform managers motivate audiences' loyalty on these platforms.

The Trickle-Down Effect of Authoritarian Leadership on Unethical Employee Behavior: A Cross-Level Moderated Mediation Model

Authoritarian leadership is of great significance to eastern countries, including China. Meanwhile, unethical employee behavior also exists in all types of social organizations. The relationship between authoritarian leadership and unethical employee behavior is worth studying. Senior leaders (managers) often do not have a direct influence on employees except for through their immediate supervisors. The leadership style of senior leaders also influences the leadership style of their subordinates (employees’ direct supervisors). This paper studies how authoritarian manager leadership trickles down to unethical employee behavior through authoritarian supervisor leadership (through social learning theory and ASA theory) and discusses the moderating effect of leader member exchange (LMX) and an ethical climate. Through a questionnaire survey of 406 pairs of leaders, supervisors, and employees, the research results of the multilevel model show that (1) authoritarian supervisor leadership is positively related to unethical employee behavior, (2) authoritarian supervisor leadership mediates the relationship between authoritarian manager leadership and unethical employee behavior, (3) LMX positively moderates the relationship between authoritarian manager leadership and authoritarian supervisor leadership and moderates the mediating effect of authoritarian supervisor leadership, and (4), that an ethical climate negatively moderates the relationship between authoritarian supervisor leadership and unethical employee behavior and moderates the mediating effect of authoritarian supervisor leadership.

Trickle-down effect of benevolent leadership on unethical employee behavior: a cross-level moderated mediation model

Purpose

Conducting research on the relationship between benevolent leadership and unethical employee behavior can help us find solutions to reduce unethical employee behavior. This paper also discusses how the benevolent manager leadership can be transmitted to the employee's unethical behavior through the benevolent supervisor leadership and the moderating effect of LMX and ethical climate.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a questionnaire survey of 406 pairs of leaders, supervisor and employees, the authors use data aggregation test, confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics and multilevel model (HLM) to test our hypothesis.

Findings

(1) Manager supervisor leadership is negatively related to unethical employee behavior, (2) benevolent supervisor leadership mediates the relationship between benevolent manager leadership and unethical employee behavior, (3) LMX positively moderates the relationship between benevolent manager leadership and benevolent supervisor leadership and moderates the mediating effect of benevolent supervisor leadership, and (4) ethical climate positively moderates the relationship between benevolent supervisor leadership and unethical employee behavior and moderates the mediating effect of benevolent supervisor leadership.

Originality/value

First, based on previous studies, this study further proves that benevolent leadership is a popular positive leadership among the three dimensions of paternalistic leadership that extends its influence to unethical employee behavior. Second, the study traces the source of the benevolent leadership of employees' supervisors and reveals the action mechanism of how benevolent manager leadership affects unethical employee behavior (trickle-down effect). LMX and the ethical climate provide the organizational context of the trickle-down effect and the occurrence of unethical employee behavior.

The Relationship Between Career Social Support and Employability of College Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

This study examines the underlying mechanism that connects career social support with employability through a survey of 392 Chinese college students. The results showed that career social support had a positive effect on career adaptation and employability of college students, and career adaptation mediated the association between career social support and employability. Furthermore, proactive personality was found to play a moderating role in linking career adaptation and employability. More specifically, higher levels of a proactive personality strengthen the enhancing effect of career adaptation on the employability of college students. Therefore, there was a moderated mediation effect between career social support and employability of college students.

Development and validation of servant leadership scale in Spanish higher education

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First is the validation of a scale to measure the servant leadership of the university leaders. Second is to analyze how servant leadership affects the career satisfaction and life satisfaction of the academics.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a survey of 148 academics at universities located in Spain collected in May 2018, a couple of models were conducted using structural equation model techniques: a confirmatory factor analysis of second order in order to assess the leadership scale and a mediation model to assess how servant leadership impacts on the life satisfaction through career satisfaction.

Findings

Results reveal that leadership is a multi-dimensional construct having dimensions namely: behaving ethically, development, emotional healing, empowerment, pioneering, relationship building and wisdom. The total effect of servant leadership on life satisfaction is null due to a competitive mediation of career satisfaction.

Originality/value

Research on servant leadership has primarily focused on business organizations through extensive search in peer-reviewed databases the authors could not find a scale to measure servant leadership behavior in higher education. Additionally, the study assesses the role of career satisfaction as mediator between servant leadership and life satisfaction. Existing research has called for further research into both career and life satisfaction. Life satisfaction research has been criticized on the grounds that it has mainly overlooked the work/organizational settings. Moreover, the authors could only find little research into life satisfaction in higher education, that too in context of students.