Antecedents and consequences of servant leadership in local governance: Evidence from three case studies

Abstract

Although servant leadership has emerged as an important community-oriented leadership approach that is desirable for public organizations, relatively less research attention has been devoted to understanding its antecedents as well as its organizational and community-level consequences. Drawing on selfcategorization and stakeholder theories, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of servant leadership in local government agencies using a comparative analysis of three case studies (two counties and a city). Findings highlight two frameworks of antecedents and consequences of servant leadership in local governance: (1) the underlying mechanisms-translating antecedents into servant leadership and (2) the intervening mechanisms-translating as organizational and community-level consequences of servant leadership. These findings have implications for both public sector leadership theory and practice. Theoretically, servant leadership emerges as an inclusive approach that fosters stakeholder engagement and community prosperity in local governments. Practically, the findings suggest a pathway for utilizing servant leadership as an instrument for potential selection, training, succession planning, and servant leadership development in local government managers. Evidence for practice• Antecedents such as servant identity and moral potency are vital to develop local government managers and employees as servant leaders. • Servant leadership framework for local governance consists of five dimensions:(1) empathy and concern for people, (2) behaving ethically, (3) conceptual skills, (4) creating value for the community, and (5) follower centric dimensionsputting subordinates first, empowerment, and helping subordinates grow and succeed. • Servant leaders utilize listening, communication, and negotiation to achieve organizational and community service goals in local government organizations. • Servant leadership is a community focused approach which is inclusive to the interests and concerns of both internal as well as external stakeholders in local government organizations. This results in building trust and sustainable partnerships with stakeholders and overall community well-being and prosperity.

Does servant leadership affect organisational citizenship behaviour? Mediating role of affective commitment and moderating role of role identity of young volunteers in non-profit organisations

“…Servant leaders demonstrate a strong moral sense and consideration for their followers, inspiring them to grow personally and professionally through ethical behaviour that transcends their interests (Awasthi and Walumbwa, 2022;Eva et al, 2019;Heine et al, 2022;Malik et al, 2022;Ozbek, 2020;Van Dierendonck et al, 2017). Previous research emphasised that "managers responsible for providing leadership (i.e.…”

“…As followers observe their leaders' behaviour, they will eventually emulate it. Servant leaders inspire their followers to excel, which contributes to organisational success (Awasthi and Walumbwa, 2022;Heine et al, 2022). Numerous researchers recognise that servant leadership has a positive impact on other organisational internal and external outcomes, such as commitment to OCB (see Elche et al, 2020;Panaccio et al, 2015;Qiu and Dooley, 2022).…”

“…Servant leadership is important to the success of an organisation because it inspires its followers to perform exceptionally well and can help an organisation become more efficient (Awasthi and Walumbwa, 2022;Eva et al, 2019;Heine et al, 2022;Khan et al, 2022;Malik et al, 2022;Ozbek, 2020). Moreover, negative feedback from the leader influences the creative process of employees via impression management motivation (Deng et al, 2023).…”

“…Servant leadership is important to the success of an organisation because it inspires its followers to perform exceptionally well and can help an organisation become more efficient (Awasthi and Walumbwa, 2022; Eva et al. , 2019; Heine et al.…”

Epistemic decolonization of public policy pedagogy and scholarship

“…Their dyadic study reports that managers using public values in transactional leadership realize superior leadership effectiveness to managers using only generic transactional leadership. Meanwhile, Awasthi and Walumbwa (2022) investigate the antecedents and consequences of servant leadership in local government agencies using a comparative analysis of three case studies (two counties and a city). Their findings suggest two frameworks of antecedents and consequences of servant leadership in local governance: underlying mechanisms (translating antecedents into servant leadership) and intervening mechanisms (translating as organizational and community‐level consequences of servant leadership).…”