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Cited by 43Job Satisfaction and Organizational BehaviorEmployee Performance and ManagementWorkaholism, burnout, and well-being

The effect of service workers' proactive personality on their psychological withdrawal behaviors: a moderating effect of servant leadership

Song, Chanhoo, Lee, Chul Ho·2020·Leadership & Organization Development Journal
DOI 10.1108/lodj-04-2019-0149
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Abstract

Purpose: A worker with a proactive personality actively pursues changes in the environment instead of maintaining the status quo, leading to an expected result of a negative relationship between proactive personality and psychological withdrawal behaviors. The authors propose that based on the trait activation theory (TAT), this negative relationship is moderated by servant leadership. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data collected from subway station workers in three metropolitan cities in South Korea supported all the hypothesized relationships. Even though the workers are not public servants, the subway companies are owned by three metropolitan cities. With reliability and validity tests for the measurements, the authors performed an ordinary least square (OLS) hierarchical multiple regression analysis for hypotheses testing. Findings: A multilevel analysis showed that the higher a worker's proactive personality is, the less likely it is that he/she shows withdrawal behaviors at work and that the negative relationship between the two is stronger under servant leadership. An organization pursuing maximization of its members' proactive personality may find an advantage in servant leadership. Research limitations/implications: First, the data was collected from three metropolitan city-owned companies, which may have different work attitudes and behaviors. Second, the authors hypothesized and found a negative relationship between the predictor and the dependent variable. To apply TAT more appropriately, the dependent variable could have been a positive work behavior showing a positive relationship between the predictor and the dependent variable. Originality/value: The results of this study have both theoretical and empirical implications. In terms of theoretical implication, the study rather indirectly supports TAT. While Greenbaum et al.(2017) demonstrated the triggering effect of abusive supervision on employees' Machiavellianism, which leads to unethical behaviors, this study showed a stronger negative relationship between proactive personality and psychological withdrawal behaviors. This study provided empirical evidence showing servant leadership's role in lowering negative behaviors. This study's findings suggest how an organization could maximize the benefits of members' proactive personality under high servant leadership.

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  • Previous literature has demonstrated that proactive personality influences how followers respond to servant leaders and is in turn influenced by servant leadership itself, leading to positive individual outcomes such as the willingness to master tasks and goals.

    “Previous literature has already demonstrated that proactive personality influences how followers respond to servant leaders (Newman et al., 2017) and is in turn influenced by servant leadership itself (Panaccio et al., 2015;Song & Lee, 2020), leading to a series of positive individual outcomes, such as the willingness to master tasks and goals.”

    From Servant Leadership and Employee Engagement: A Qualitative Study (2022) · cites this paper as Song & Lee, 2020

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Authors
Song, C., & Lee, C. H.
Affiliations
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
ORCID
Venue
Leadership & Organization Development Journal
Publisher
Emerald
Published
2020-06-19
Volume
41
Issue
5
Pages
653-667
ISSN
0143-7739 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1108/lodj-04-2019-0149
OpenAlex
W3036251912
Cited by
43
References
44
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1
FWCI
5.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.emerald.com/insight/site-policies (tdm)
Locations
Leadership & Organization Development Journal (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Workaholism, burnout, and well-being
Keywords
proactive personality, psychological withdrawal, servant leadership, trait activation theory, service employees, moderating effect, work attitudes

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