The Influence of Servant Leadership towards and Organizational Commitment: The Mediating Role of Trust in Leaders

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of trust in leaders as a mediator between servant leadership style and organizational commitment in the context of market research firms in Malaysia. A total of 177 respondents participated in this survey. A correlation analysis was conducted and the result shows that all variables are significantly correlated at p < 0.01. In addition, results from the regression analyses indicate that trust in leaders serves as a partial mediator between servant leadership and organizational commitment. Servant leadership and trust in leaders are crucial to maintain higher organizational commitment among employees. Thus, leaders in organization should adopt servant leadership style to gain employees' trust and subsequently employees are more willing to participate and support in organizational activities.

Influence of the ethical servant leader and ethical climate on customer value enhancing sales performance

“…This is significant, because trust in leadership is positively related to job performance, presumably due to employees reciprocating toward the leader for what he/she has done for them (Dirks and Ferrin 2002). Also, because leadership trust mediates the relationship between organizational commitment and SL (Goh and Zhen-Jie 2014), it appears the nature of the relationship between managers and employees can be impacted by supervisor qualities. Although limited in numbers of studies, the empirical findings relating SL to performance suggest a positive relationship exists.…”

Servant leadership and ethics: a dyadic examination of supervisor behaviors and salesperson perceptions

“…Items were adapted for respondent type, e.g., 'I spend the time to form quality relationships with department employees' (salesperson perception) vs. 'My department manager spends the time to form quality relationships with department employees' (supervisor self-rating). In keeping with Jaramillo et al (2009b) and other recent studies (e.g., Bande et al 2015;Goh and Low 2014;Liden et al 2014), servant leadership was treated as unidimensional.…”

Explicating the Synergies of Self‐Determination Theory, Ethical Leadership, Servant Leadership, and Emotional Intelligence

“…Servant‐leaders created an environment promoting employee engagement in challenging tasks, focusing on development and reflection, and increasing team effectiveness (van Dierendonck, ). Goh and Low () and Reinke () suggested servant‐leaders created trust and had a positive effect on organizational commitment and performance. Servant‐leaders maintain a people‐centered focus founded upon moral values and foster an ethical climate in sport organizations (Burton, Welty Peachey, & Wells, ).…”