The impact of servant leadership and subordinates' organizational tenure on trust in leader and attitudes
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between servant leadership, subordinates' trust in leader and job satisfaction, and whether subordinates' organizational tenure moderated the effect. Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire survey was used to collect data by 218 employees in a service-oriented private firm in the People's Republic of China. Findings – The findings indicated that trust in leader mediated the relationship between servant leadership and subordinates' job satisfaction. Also, the positive effect of servant leadership on subordinates' trust in leader and job satisfaction was stronger for short-tenure subordinates than that for long-tenure subordinates. Originality/value – This paper enriches the existing leadership literature and contributes to the research into how and why servant leadership may influence subordinates' attitudes.
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Social exchange theory has been used to explain how servant leaders enhance followers' helping/OCB and commitment through mediating mechanisms such as trust and justice.
“For example, social exchange theory has been used to explain how servant leaders enhance followers' helping/ organizational citizenship behaviors (Newman, Schwarz, Cooper, & Sendjaya, 2017) and commitment (Ling, Liu, & Wu, 2017), through mediating mechanisms such as trust (Chan & Mak, 2014) and justice (Schwepker Jr, 2016).”
From Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future research (2019) · cites this paper as Chan & Mak, 2014
Cites
Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis
van Dierendonck, D. (2011) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206310380462 · Cited by 2,218 · see citing works
Transformational versus servant leadership: a difference in leader focus
Gregory Stone, A., Russell, R. F., & Patterson, K. (2004) · Leadership & Organization Development Journal · doi:10.1108/01437730410538671 · Cited by 1,208 · see citing works
Walumbwa, F. O., Hartnell, C. A., & Oke, A. (2010) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0018867 · Cited by 940 · see citing works
The Servant Leadership Survey: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measure
van Dierendonck, D., & Nuijten, I. (2011) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-010-9194-1 · Cited by 920 · see citing works
Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations
Sendjaya, S., Sarros, J. C., & Santora, J. C. (2008) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00761.x · Cited by 761 · see citing works
Huang, X., Iun, J., Liu, A., & Gong, Y. (2010) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.636 · Cited by 407 · see citing works
Do servant-leaders help satisfy follower needs? An organizational justice perspective
Mayer, D. M., Bardes, M., & Piccolo, R. F. (2008) · European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1080/13594320701743558 · Cited by 322 · see citing works
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Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future research
Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (2019) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.07.004 · Cited by 1,858 · see citing works
“We are currently into a third phase of servant leadership research, which is the model development phase where more sophisticated research designs are being utilized to go beyond simple relationships with outcomes to understand the antecedents, mediating mechanisms, and boundary conditions of servant leadership. This…”
BackgroundHoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206316665461 · Cited by 1,364 · see citing works
Lee, A., Lyubovnikova, J., Tian, A. W., & Knight, C. (2020) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1111/joop.12265 · Cited by 347 · see citing works
A meta-analysis of the role of trust in the leadership- performance relationship
Legood, A., van der Werff, L., Lee, A., & Den Hartog, D. (2021) · European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1080/1359432x.2020.1819241 · Cited by 193 · see citing works
Yang, J., Liu, H., & Gu, J. (2017) · Leadership & Organization Development Journal · doi:10.1108/lodj-10-2015-0229 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Hsiao, C., Lee, Y.-H., & Chen, W.-J. (2015) · Tourism Management · doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2015.02.012 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
Zhang, Y., Zheng, Y., Zhang, L., Xu, S., Liu, X., & Chen, W. (2021) · Asia Pacific Journal of Management · doi:10.1007/s10490-018-9639-z · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Servant Leadership and Employee Engagement: A Qualitative Study
Canavesi, A., & Minelli, E. (2022) · Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal · doi:10.1007/s10672-021-09389-9 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
- Authors
- C.H. Chan, S., & Mak, W.-M.
- Affiliations
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- ORCID
- Mak, Wai-ming
- Venue
- Personnel Review
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2014-03-04
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 272-287
- ISSN
- 0048-3486 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2018923695
- Cited by
- 209
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 23.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personnel Review (publishedVersion)
- PolyU Institutional Research Archive (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) (submittedVersion)
- 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 › Demography › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
- Keywords
- servant leadership, trust in leadership, job satisfaction, organizational tenure, subordinates, mediation, moderating effect, service industry employees
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