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Cited by 36Job Satisfaction and Organizational BehaviorWorkplace Spirituality and LeadershipLeadership and Management in Organizations

Leader purposefulness within servant leadership: Examining the effect of servant leadership, leader follower-focus, leader goal-orientation, and leader purposefulness in a large U.S. healthcare organization

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Irving, Justin, Berndt, Julie·2017·Administrative Sciences
DOI 10.3390/admsci7020010
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Abstract

As the study of servant leadership expands beyond theoretical exploration, empirical research continues to validate the positive effect of servant leadership behaviors and attitudes on diverse follower and organizational measures. This study expands the conversation by engaging the theme of leader purposefulness within servant leadership studies. A sample of over 1700 employees from a large U.S. healthcare organization provided responses to five research instruments. Follower perspectives on servant leadership, leader follower-focus, leader goal-orientation, and leader purposefulness were assessed using the Purpose in Leadership Inventory and each of these independent variables were analyzed for hypothesized positive relationships with four dependent variables: follower job satisfaction, follower organizational commitment, follower person-organization fit, and follower perception of leadership effectiveness. Each of the 16 hypothesized relationships were supported at a statistically significant level (<0.001) with positive correlations ranging from 0.40 to 0.88. Regression analyses were conducted to provide predictive modeling and indicators of the relative importance of each independent variable on the related dependent variables.

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  • Servant leadership is positively related to organizational identification, perceived person-organization fit, and person-job fit.

    “This includes increased levels of organizational identification (Zhao et al., 2016), increased levels of perceived person-organization fit (Irving & Berndt, 2017), and person-job fit (Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2010).”

    From Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future research (2019) · cites this paper as Irving & Berndt, 2017

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Irving, J., & Berndt, J.
Affiliations
  • Bethel University (US)
  • The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, 4800 West 57th Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57108, USA
Corresponding author
Irving, Justin
ORCID
Irving, Justin
Venue
Administrative Sciences
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2017-05-05
Volume
7
Issue
2
Pages
10
ISSN
2076-3387 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/admsci7020010
OpenAlex
W2611531863
Cited by
36
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 7
FWCI
7.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Administrative Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Leadership and Management in Organizations
Keywords
servant leadership, organizational commitment, person-organization fit, perceived leadership effectiveness, healthcare organizations, leader-follower relationships

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