Impact of servant leadership on innovative work behaviour: a moderation mediation analysis

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to investigate the effect the servant leadership on innovative work behaviour (IWB) of teachers. Besides this, the mediating effect of ambidexterity on enhancing IWB and moderating role of gender has also been investigated.Design/methodology/approachVariance-based SEM has been used for testing the proposed structural model with a sample of 350 college teachers.FindingsFindings of the study revealed that servant leadership positively influences IWB. Additionally, IWB can be augmented with the presence of individual ambidexterity.Originality/valueAs per our knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind that makes an additional contribution to the IWB literature by investigating a partial mediating role of individual ambidexterity on the relationship between servant leadership and IWB.

The effectiveness of servant leadership in enhancing innovative work behavior: The art of job engagement

“…The present study's statistical analysis demonstrates a strong and positive association between servant leadership and innovative work behavior (IWB), consistent with the findings of Kaya & Karatepe (2020) and Shailja et al (2023). Servant leadership is a leadership style characterized by prioritizing the needs of followers, emphasizing visioning, modeling through personal example, mentoring, and empowering.…”

“…It also ensures that work is distributed in a fair and equal manner, taking into account each person's individual abilities (Rabiul & Yean, 2021). Some examples of research of this topic in service industry are: in high-tech company (Su et al, 2020), school institutions (Anshori et al, 2023;Hermanto & Srimulyani, 2022), hotel (Ling et al, 2016), college teachers (Shailja et al, 2023), and public company (Chen et al, 2022). These studies have found that servant leadership enhance job engagement (Kaya & Karatepe, 2020), innovative work behavior (Dayanti & Yulianti, 2023;Shailja et al, 2023;Su et al, 2020;Yoshida et al, 2014), creative process engagement (Chen et al, 2022), higher performance (Hermanto & Srimulyani, 2022), organizational citizenship behavior and extra role behavior (Hermanto & Srimulyani, 2022), and career satisfaction (Kaya & Karatepe, 2020).…”

“…Employees feel supported by the leader, fostering innovative problem-solving. In addition, Shailja et al (2023) mentioned that servant leadership increases positive feelings at place of work because they practice an employee-centered approach. The supportive working environment in turn increases the cognitive ability of employees and thereby has the possibilities of generating creative ideas.…”