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The positive relationship between servant leadership and employees’ psychological health: A multi-method approach

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  • Rivkin, Wladislaw
  • Diestel, Stefan
  • Schmidt, Klaus-Helmut

Abstract

Servant leadership is thought to encourage socially responsible and moral behaviors. In the present article, we test the positive relationship between servant leadership and employees’ psychological health. We argue that servant leadership is positively related to employees’ health because servant leaders shape employees’ needs and create work environments that fulfill these needs. We examine the proposed relationship of servant leadership (a) competing for variance with different well-known stressors, (b) in multiple samples, (c) at the within- and between-person level, and (d) in relation to long- and short-term indicators of strain. On the basis of this multi-method approach we seek to demonstrate that our results are invariant across different methodological conditions. In Study 1 (N=443), we simultaneously tested the between-person level relationships of servant leadership and job ambiguity to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization as the core symptoms of burnout. In Study 2 (N=75), we simultaneously tested the relationships of person-level servant leadership and day-level emotional dissonance to day-level ego depletion and need for recovery as outcomes. The results of both studies demonstrate that servant leadership is negatively related to strain and accounts for unique variance in short- and long-term indicators of strain over and above that explained by well-known job-stressors. Accordingly, servant leadership can be regarded as an important determinant of employees’ psychological health.

Suggested Citation

  • Rivkin, Wladislaw & Diestel, Stefan & Schmidt, Klaus-Helmut, 2014. "The positive relationship between servant leadership and employees’ psychological health: A multi-method approach," Zeitschrift fuer Personalforschung. German Journal of Research in Human Resource Management, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 28(1-2), pages 52-72.
  • Handle: RePEc:rai:zfpers:doi:10.1688/zfp-2014-01-rivkin
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    Citations

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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. Hyun-ju Choi, 2021. "Effect of Chief Executive Officer’s Sustainable Leadership Styles on Organization Members’ Psychological Well-Being and Organizational Citizenship Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-29, December.
    3. Mar Ortiz-Gómez & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Horacio Molina-Sánchez, 2020. "Servant Leadership in a Social Religious Organization: An Analysis of Work Engagement, Authenticity, and Spirituality at Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-21, November.
    4. Larry M. Dooley & Amin Alizadeh & Shaoping Qiu & Hongchao Wu, 2020. "Does Servant Leadership Moderate the Relationship between Job Stress and Physical Health?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Ibrahim A. Elshaer & Samar K. Saad, 2022. "Learning from Failure: Building Resilience in Small- and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises, the Role of Servant Leadership and Transparent Communication," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-20, November.
    6. Hongchao Wu & Shaoping Qiu & Larry M. Dooley & Congying Ma, 2019. "The Relationship between Challenge and Hindrance Stressors and Emotional Exhaustion: The Moderating Role of Perceived Servant Leadership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Paul Jiménez & Anita Bregenzer & K. Wolfgang Kallus & Bianca Fruhwirth & Verena Wagner-Hartl, 2017. "Enhancing Resources at the Workplace with Health-Promoting Leadership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, October.
    8. Ruiz-Palomino, Pablo & Yáñez-Araque, Benito & Jiménez-Estévez, Pedro & Gutiérrez-Broncano, Santiago, 2022. "Can servant leadership prevent hotel employee depression during the COVID-19 pandemic? A mediating and multigroup analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    servant leadership; strain; emotional dissonance; burnout; job ambiguity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • C30 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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