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The Influence of Servant Leadership on Restaurant Employee Engagement

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  • Danon Carter
  • Timothy Baghurst

Abstract

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy which addresses the concerns of ethics, customer experience, and employee engagement while creating a unique organizational culture where both leaders and followers unite to reach organizational goals without positional or authoritative power. With employees viewed as one of the greatest assets for organizations, maintaining loyal, productive employees while balancing profits becomes a challenge for leaders, and drives the need to understand employee engagement drivers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore servant leadership from the perspective of employees. Participants were 11 employees from a servant leadership led restaurant who took part in two focus groups. The modified van Kaam method (Moustakas 1994 ) contributed to data analysis, which examined employee responses for comparison and assessment. Several themes emerged including servant leader experience, servant leader traits, the impact of servant leadership, the application of servant leadership, and limited employee attrition. The themes revealed servant leadership positively influences employee engagement while contributing to employee loyalty to the workplace. Based on the servant leader experience, participants were more committed, built healthy work relationships, and actively participated in achieving organizational goals. Findings are discussed in light of current research and practical applications are provided. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Danon Carter & Timothy Baghurst, 2014. "The Influence of Servant Leadership on Restaurant Employee Engagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 453-464, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:124:y:2014:i:3:p:453-464
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1882-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Anthony Miyazaki & Kimberly Taylor, 2008. "Researcher Interaction Biases and Business Ethics Research: Respondent Reactions to Researcher Characteristics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(4), pages 779-795, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Yucheng Zhang & Yuyan Zheng & Long Zhang & Shan Xu & Xin Liu & Wansi Chen, 2021. "A meta-analytic review of the consequences of servant leadership: The moderating roles of cultural factors," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 371-400, March.
    2. Ahmed Mohammed Sayed Mostafa & Sam Farley & Monica Zaharie, 2021. "Examining the Boundaries of Ethical Leadership: The Harmful Effect of Co-worker Social Undermining on Disengagement and Employee Attitudes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 355-368, November.
    3. Sarah Kimakwa & Jorge A. Gonzalez & Hale Kaynak, 2023. "Social Entrepreneur Servant Leadership and Social Venture Performance: How are They Related?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 95-118, January.
    4. Émilie Lapointe & Christian Vandenberghe, 2018. "Examination of the Relationships Between Servant Leadership, Organizational Commitment, and Voice and Antisocial Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 99-115, March.
    5. Farida Saleem & Yingying Zhang Zhang & C. Gopinath & Ahmad Adeel, 2020. "Impact of Servant Leadership on Performance: The Mediating Role of Affective and Cognitive Trust," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440199, January.
    6. Rawan Alafeshat & Cem Tanova, 2019. "Servant Leadership Style and High-Performance Work System Practices: Pathway to a Sustainable Jordanian Airline Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-21, November.
    7. Sigurdur Ragnarsson & Erla S. Kristjánsdóttir & Sigrún Gunnarsdóttir, 2018. "To Be Accountable While Showing Care: The Lived Experience of People in a Servant Leadership Organization," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(3), pages 21582440188, September.
    8. Tomasz Gigol & Katarzyna Kreczmanska-Gigol & Renata Pajewska-Kwasny, 2021. "Socially Responsible Leadership’s Impact on Stakeholder Management, Staff Job Satisfaction and Work Engagement," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 4), pages 775-805.

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