Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:00:34.366Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Enabling the engine of workplace thriving through servant leadership: The moderating role of core self-evaluations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Muhammad Usman Open the ORCID record for Muhammad Usman [Opens in a new window] ,
Yuxin Liu Open the ORCID record for Yuxin Liu [Opens in a new window] ,
Haihong Li ,
Jianwei Zhang ,
Usman Ghani Open the ORCID record for Usman Ghani [Opens in a new window]  and
Habib Gul
Muhammad Usman
Affiliation:
School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Yuxin Liu*
Affiliation:
Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China
Haihong Li
Affiliation:
School of Business Administration, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, 7366 East Second Ring Road, Lixia Distinct, Jinan250014, P.R. China
Jianwei Zhang
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Social Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 South Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, P.R. China
Usman Ghani
Affiliation:
College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310000, China
Habib Gul
Affiliation:
Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: liuyuxin@uibe.edu.cn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Grounding our research in social exchange theory and the conservation of resources perspective, we hypothesized a model that examines the effects of servant leadership (SL) on employees' workplace thriving via agentic work behaviors. To clarify the effects, employee core self-evaluations (CSEs) were investigated to determine boundary conditions on the relationship between SL and thriving. Data were collected at three points in time from 260 professionals across diverse functional backgrounds and industries. The analysis results confirmed an indirect effect from SL to workplace thriving via agentic work behaviors. Importantly, the moderation results demonstrated that the relationship between SL and workplace thriving is stronger when individuals have high CSEs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Keywords

servant leadershipagentic work behaviorsworkplace thrivingcore self-evaluationsChinese employees
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 582 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, T. E. (2005). Potential problems in the statistical control of variables in organizational research: A qualitative analysis with recommendations. Organizational Research Methods, 8(3), 274–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bijlsma-Frankema, K., Rosendaal, B. W., & van de Bunt, G. (2005). Does trust breed heed? Differential effects of trust on heed and performance in a network and a divisional form of organizing. In Trust under pressure: Empirical investigations of trust and trust building in uncertain circumstances, eds. K. M. Bijlsma-Frankema and R. J. A. Klein Woolthuis, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 206–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bowling, N. A., Wang, Q., & Li, H. Y. (2012). The moderating effect of core self-evaluations on the relationships between job attitudes and organisational citizenship behavior. Applied Psychology, 61(1), 97–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, S. P., Westbrook, R. A., & Challagalla, G. (2005). Good cope, bad cope: Adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies following a critical negative work event. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 792.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carver, C. S. (1998). Resilience and thriving: Issues, models, and linkages. Journal of Social Issues, 54(2), 245–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, C. H., Ferris, D. L., Johnson, R. E., Rosen, C. C., & Tan, J. A. (2012). Core self-evaluations: A review and evaluation of the literature. Journal of Management, 38(1), 81–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, G., & Kanfer, R. (2006). Toward a systems theory of motivated behavior in work teams. Research in Organizational Behavior, 27, 223–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Z., Zhu, J., & Zhou, M. (2015). How does a servant leader fuel the service fire? A multilevel model of servant leadership, individual self-identity, group competition climate, and customer service performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(2), 511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colquitt, J. A., Baer, M. D., Long, D. M., & Halvorsen-Ganepola, M. D. K. (2014). Scale indicators of social exchange relationships: A comparison of relative content validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(4), 599–618.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Druskat, V. U., & Pescosolido, A. T. (2002). The content of effective teamwork mental models in self-managing teams: Ownership, learning and heedful interrelating. Human Relations, 55(3), 283–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (2019). Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 111–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiedler, F. E. (1964). A contingency model of leadership effectiveness. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 1, 149–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes. (2013). The causes and costs of absenteeism in the workplace. https://www.forbes.com/sites/investopedia/2013/07/10/the-causes-and-costs-ofabsenteeism-in-the-workplace/4ffa949b3eb6. Retrieved on May 30, 2017.Google Scholar
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerbasi, A., Porath, C. L., Parker, A., Spreitzer, G., & Cross, R. (2015). Destructive de-energizing relationships: How thriving buffers their effect on performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5), 1423.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gotsis, G., & Grimani, K. (2016). The role of servant leadership in fostering inclusive organizations. Journal of Management Development, 35(8), 985–1010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York: Paulist Press.Google Scholar
Greenleaf, R. K. (1998). The power of servant-leadership. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.Google Scholar
Halbesleben, J. R., Neveu, J. P., Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., & Westman, M. (2014). Getting to the ‘COR’ understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory. Journal of Management, 40(5), 1334–1364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, J. R., & Fields, D. L. (2007). Exploring servant leadership across cultures: A study of followers in Ghana and the USA. Leadership, 3(4), 397–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Highhouse, S. (2011). Designing experiments that generalize. Organizational Research Methods, 12, 554–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hildenbrand, K., Sacramento, C. A., & Binnewies, C. (2018). Transformational leadership and burnout: The role of thriving and followers’ openness to experience. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 23(1), 31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaiswal, N. K., & Dhar, R. L. (2017). The influence of servant leadership, trust in leader and thriving on employee creativity. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 38(1), 2–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Erez, A., & Locke, E. A. (2005). Core self-evaluations and job and life satisfaction: The role of self-concordance and goal attainment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(2), 257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Judge, T. A., Erez, A., Bono, J. E., & Thoresen, C. J. (2003). The core self-evaluations scale: Development of a measure. Personnel Psychology, 56(2), 303–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judge, T. A., & Hurst, C. (2008). How the rich (and happy) get richer (and happier): Relationship of core self-evaluations to trajectories in attaining work success. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(4), 849.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (2004). Aging, adult development, and work motivation. Academy of Management Review, 29(3), 440–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz-Navon, T., Naveh, E., & Stern, Z. (2009). Active learning: When is more better? The case of resident physicians’ medical errors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), 1200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kleine, A. K., Rudolph, C. W., & Zacher, H. (2019). Thriving at work: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(9–10), 973–999CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liden, R. C., Bauer, T. N., & Erdogan, B. (2004). The role of leader-member exchange in the dynamic relationship between employer and employee: Implications for employee socialization, leaders, and organizations. In The employment relationship: Examining psychological and contextual perspectives, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 226–250.Google Scholar
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434–1452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Meuser, J. D., Hu, J., Wu, J., & Liao, C. (2015). Servant leadership: Validation of a short form of the SL-28. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(2), 254–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., & Sparrowe, R. T. (2000). An examination of the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relations between the job, interpersonal relationships, and work outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(3), 407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Zhao, H., & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(2), 161–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7(1), 83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., & Williams, J. (2004). Confidence limits for the indirect effect: Distribution of the product and resampling methods. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39(1), 99–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neubert, M. J., Hunter, E. M., & Tolentino, R. C. (2016). A servant leader and their stakeholders: When does organizational structure enhance a leader's influence? The Leadership Quarterly, 27(6), 896–910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, A., Schwarz, G., Cooper, B., & Sendjaya, S. (2017). How servant leadership influences organizational citizenship behavior: The roles of LMX, empowerment, and proactive personality. Journal of Business Ethics, 145(1), 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niessen, C., Sonnentag, S., & Sach, F. (2012). Thriving at work – A diary study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(4), 468–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paterson, T. A., Luthans, F., & Jeung, W. (2014). Thriving at work: Impact of psychological capital and supervisor support. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(3), 434–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piccolo, R. F., & Colquitt, J. A. (2006). Transformational leadership and job behaviors: The mediating role of core job characteristics. Academy of Management Journal, 49(2), 327–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual review of psychology, 63, 539–569.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porath, C., Spreitzer, G., Gibson, C., & Garnett, F. G. (2012). Thriving at work: Toward its measurement, construct validation, and theoretical refinement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(2), 250–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preacher, K. J., Rucker, D. D., & Hayes, A. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate behavioral research, 42(1), 185–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prem, R., Ohly, S., Kubicek, B., & Korunka, C. (2017). Thriving on challenge stressors? Exploring time pressure and learning demands as antecedents of thriving at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(1), 108–123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Purvanova, R. K., & Muros, J. P. (2010). Gender differences in burnout: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(2), 168–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ren, H., Yunlu, D. G., Shaffer, M., & Fodchuk, K. M. (2015). Expatriate success and thriving: The influence of job deprivation and emotional stability. Journal of World Business, 50(1), 69–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothbard, N. P. (2001). Enriching or depleting? The dynamics of engagement in work and family roles. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46(4), 655–684.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seibert, S. E., Wang, G., & Courtright, S. H. (2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), 981.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sonenshein, S., Dutton, J. E., Grant, A. M., Spreitzer, G. M., & Sutcliffe, K. M. (2013). Growing at work: Employees’ interpretations of progressive self-change in organizations. Organization Science, 24(2), 552–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sousa, M., & Van Dierendonck, D. (2017). Introducing a short measure of shared servant leadership impacting team performance through team behavioral integration. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 2002.Google Scholar
Spector, P. E., & Brannick, M. T. (2011). Methodological urban legends: The misuse of statistical control variables. Organizational Research Methods, 14(2), 287–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spreitzer, G., & Porath, C. (2012). Creating sustainable performance. Harvard Business Review, 90(1), 92–99.Google ScholarPubMed
Spreitzer, G., & Porath, C. (2014). Self-determination as nutriment for thriving: Building an integrative model of human growth at work. The Oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory, 245–258.Google Scholar
Spreitzer, G., Porath, C. L., & Gibson, C. B. (2012). Toward human sustainability: How to enable more thriving at work. Organizational Dynamics, 41(2), 155–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spreitzer, G., Sutcliffe, K., Dutton, J., Grant, A. M., & Sonenshein, S. (2005). A socially embedded model of thriving at work. Organization Science, 16, 537–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ten Brummelhuis, L. L., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). A resource perspective on the work–home interface: The work–home resources model. American Psychologist, 67(7), 545.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uchino, B. N., Berg, C. A., Smith, T. W., Pearce, G., & Skinner, M. (2006). Age-related differences in ambulatory blood pressure during daily stress: Evidence for greater blood pressure reactivity with age. Psychology and Aging, 21(2), 231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Dierendonck, D. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1228–1261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Dierendonck, D., Stam, D., Boersma, P., De Windt, N., & Alkema, J. (2014). Same difference? Exploring the differential mechanisms linking servant leadership and transformational leadership to follower outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(3), 544–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walumbwa, F. O., Hartnell, C. A., & Oke, A. (2010). Servant leadership, procedural justice climate, service climate, employee attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior: A cross-level investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(3), 517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walumbwa, F. O., Muchiri, M. K., Misati, E., Wu, C., & Meiliani, M. (2018). Inspired to perform: A multilevel investigation of antecedents and consequences of thriving at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(3), 249–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhai, X., Wang, M., & Ghani, U. (2019). The SOR (stimulus-organism-response) paradigm in the online learning context: An empirical study of students’ knowledge hiding perceptions. Interactive Learning Environments, 28(5), 586–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwingmann, I., Wegge, J., Wolf, S., Rudolf, M., Schmidt, M., & Richter, P. (2014). Is transformational leadership healthy for employees? A multilevel analysis in 16 nations. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(1–2), 24–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar