The effects of servant leadership on job satisfaction, employer commitment to a supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors in electonic retailing industry

--- NGUYEN HONG PHUOC THE EFFECTS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP ON JOB SATISFACTION, EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT TO A SUPERVISOR AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS IN ELECTRONIC RETAILING INDUSTR

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NGUYEN HONG PHUOC

THE EFFECTS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP ON JOB SATISFACTION, EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT TO A SUPERVISOR AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS IN ELECTRONIC RETAILING INDUSTRY

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014

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NGUYEN HONG PHUOC

THE EFFECTS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP ON JOB SATISFACTION, EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT TO A SUPERVISOR AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS IN ELECTRONIC RETAILING INDUSTRY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The completion of this study represents a milestone in my life It has been a long time and demanded a lot of effort and time Many people's patience, support and constant encouragement helped bring this work to life

First of all, I would like to thank with gratitude Sir Luu Trong Tuan, PhD, who provided guidance and encouragement in his own unique way I feel extremely blessed to have him as my supervisor His passion for research has been exceptionally inspirational Working under his supervision has been an extremely rewarding experience which has contributed significantly to the completion of the thesis

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friends for their input and, most importantly, for their friendships I am so grateful to all of you

Last, but not least, my warm and heartfelt thanks go to my wife, to my parents for their everlasting love and support which sustained me in the years it took to bring this work for completion Without the blessings and support of my whole family, this thesis would not have been possible

Thank you for giving me your strength I love all of you!

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the effects of servant leadership on job satisfaction, employee commitment to a supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors The effect of organizational citizenship behaviors on employee commitment to a supervisor, and in turn the effect of employee commitment to a supervisor on job satisfaction were also investigated This research framework was tested through a survey on Vietnamese sales staffs from electronic retailing companies in Vietnam The findings of this study showed significant and positive effects of servant leadership on job satisfaction, employee commitment to a supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors Additionally, the study found that organizational citizenship behaviors positively affected

on employee commitment to a supervisor, as well as employee commitment to a supervisor had a positive effect on job satisfaction The study provides managerial implications for sales managers who should identify the experiential needs of their staff and properly adopt the servant leadership as well as suggests directions for future research

Keywords: servant leadership; job satisfaction; employee commitment to a supervisor; organizational citizenship behaviors; Vietnam

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AMOS Analysis of Moment Structures

CFA Confirmation Factor Analysis

EC Employee Commitment to a supervisor

JS Job Satisfaction

OCB Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

SEM Structural Equation Modelling

SL Servant Leadership

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement i

Abstract ii

List of Abbreviations iii

Table of Contents iv

List of Tables viii

List of Figures ix

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the research problem 1

1.2 Research objectives and research questions 5

1.3 Research methodology 5

1.4 Thesis structure 6

1.5 Chapter summary 7

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMEMT 8

2.1 Literature review 8

2.1.1 Leadership 8

2.1.1.1 Leadership theories 9

2.1.1.2 Servant leadership 16

2.1.2 Job satisfaction 18

2.1.3 Employee commitment to a supervisor 20

2.1.4 Organizational citizenship behaviors 21

2.2 Hypothesis development 23

2.2.1 Servant leadership and job satisfaction 23

2.2.2 Servant leadership and employee commitment to a supervisor 24

2.2.3 Servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors 25

2.3.4 Organizational citizenship behaviors and employee commitment to a supervisor 29

2.3.5 Employee commitment to a supervisor and job satisfaction 30

2.3 Research model 31

2.4 Chapter summary 31

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 33

3.1 Research Design 33

3.2 Research participants and sample design 34

3.3 Questionnaire structure 36

3.4 Measure instruments 36

3.5 Data collection 38

3.6 Data analysis techniques 39

3.6.1 Preliminary data analysis 39

3.6.1.1 Handling missing responses 40

3.6.1.2 Assessing of the normality 40

3.6.1.3 Detecting outliers 40

3.6.2 Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) 41

3.6.3 Stage 1: Measurement model 43

3.6.3.1 Unidimensionality 43

3.6.3.2 Reliability 43

3.6.3.3 Validity 44

3.6.3.4 Evaluating the Fit of the Model 46

3.6 4 Stage 2: Structural model 49

3.7 Chapter summary 50

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS 52

4.1 Coding procedure 52

4.2 Data screening and characteristics of sample 54

4.2.1 Missing data analysis 54

4.2.2 Testing the normality assumption 54

4.2.3 Detecting outliers 56

4.3 Demographic characteristics 56

4.4 Structural Equation Modeling 57

4.4.1 Stage 1: The measurement model 58

4.4.1.1 Unidimensionality 58

4.4.1.2 Reliability 69

4.4.1.3 Validity 70

4.4.2 Stage 2: Structural model evaluation 73

4.5 Results of testing the hypotheses 75

4.6 Chapter summary 77

CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 78

5.1 Discussion of the hypotheses tests 78

5.2 Implications of research findings 80

5.2.1 Theoretical implications 80

5.2.2 Managerial implications 81

5.3 Limitations and future research 83

5.3.1 Limitations of research 83

5.3.2 Future research 84

5.4 Conclusion 85

REFERENCES 87

APPENDICES 101

Appendix A: English Questionnaire 101

Appendix B: Vietnamese Questionnaire 107

Appendix C: Missing Value 114

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Summary of goodness fit indices 46

Table 4.1 The constructs, its measurements and its codes 52

Table 4.2 Descriptive statistics 55

Table 4.3 Demographic profile of sales staffs 57

Table 4.4 The first AVE of servant leadership’s items 60

Table 4.5 The second AVE of servant leadership’s items 60

Table 4.6 The AVE of job satisfaction 62

Table 4.7 The first AVE of employee commitment to a supervisor 64

Table 4.8 The second AVE of employee commitment to a supervisor 65

Table 4.9 The first AVE of OCB 68

Table 4.10 The second AVE of OCB 68

Table 4.11 The results of the reliability test 69

Table 4.12 Constructs correlation 72

Table 4.13 ASV and MSV 72

Table 4.14 Results of testing the hypotheses 75

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Management Skills Necessary at Various Levels of an Organization 11

Figure 2.2 Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid of leadership styles 12

Figure 2.3 Hersey and Blanchard’ Situational leadership 13

Figure 2.4 Contingency leadership 14

Figure 2.5 Path–Goal Theory 15

Figure 2.6 Research model 31

Figure 3.1 Two stage structural model 42

Figure 4.1 The first CFA of servant leadership 58

Figure 4.2 The second CFA of servant leadership 59

Figure 4.3 The third CFA of servant leadership 61

Figure 4.4 The first CFA of job satisfaction 61

Figure 4.5 The second CFA of job satisfaction 62

Figure 4.6 The first CFA of employee commitment to a supervisor 63

Figure 4.7 The second CFA of employee commitment to a supervisor 63

Figure 4.8 The third CFA of employee commitment to a supervisor 64

Figure 4.9 The fourth CFA of employee commitment to a supervisor 65

Figure 4.10 The first CFA of organizational citizenship behaviors 66

Figure 4.11 The second CFA of organizational citizenship behaviors 67

Figure 4.12 The third CFA of organizational citizenship behaviors 69

Figure 4.13 The CFA of four constructs 71

Figure 4.14 The hypothesized structural model 74

Figure 4.15 Results of testing the hypotheses 75

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter draws a general picture of the following chapters and the study altogether Section 1.1 states the research problem Section 1.2 discusses the objectives of the study and identifies the research questions Then section 1.3 summarizes shortly the research methodology Section 1.4 introduces the structure of the study and a chapter summary is presented in section 1.5

1.1 Statement of research problem

The electronic retailing industry is facing a serious problem in Vietnam (Bao, 2014) Current recession has led to many electronic stores in major cities bankruptcy WonderBuy declared bankruptcy after one year of operation in Vietnam, with a loss of VND 52 billion Then Best Caring, in the top 500 largest retailers in Asia - Pacific in 2009, left Vietnamese market in 2012 Next, five store chains of Home One and Ebest did the same in 2013 Low demand leads many electronic retailing stores owed rent, salaries, social insurance, as well

as did downsize and reduced organizational size (Ngan, 2012)

Therefore electronic retailing staffs often receive low salary in recent years They usually work on weekend and holidays as well as many shifts Thus they have a little time for their family Furthermore, they also worry about losing their jobs to better candidates Younger, more beautiful and highly educated staffs are better for organizational competition These changes of work and working environment cause the staff stressful (Nam, 2008)

The organizational structure affects not only productivity and economic efficiency but also job satisfaction, the effective performance of key activities and the efforts of staff (Mullins,

2010, p 576) Organizational restructurings negatively decrease job satisfaction and organizational commitment and work attitudes (Schweiger & DeNisi, 1991)

After the downsizing, and outsourcing of recent years, Altman, Cooper, and Garner (1999, p.40) note that commitment from employees go down as the companies and leaders are no longer seen to be committed to them Galunic and Weeks (2001) say companies need other strategies to encourage commitment such as flexible working, spending to support telecommuting and lifestyle-friendly perks

A leadership approach that is not reasonable could cause the performance decline and satisfaction decrease (Quick & Quick, 1984) The organizations also need good organizational citizens who accept to work overtime, help newcomers learn the ropes, and make contribution beyond the requested performance of their job (Giffin & Moorhead,

2014, p 80) Then their managers need to apply a suitable leadership for that issue to lead their staffs to overcome that difficult time An effective leadership could make their staff become job satisfaction, have employee commitment to their supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors (Mullins, 2010, p 290)

Collins (2001) suggest that the leadership style adopt and promote within an organization is

a key component of a leader’s ability to be successful in achieving long-term goals Vietnamese companies also take care on leadership issues as the leadership is the key point

in achieving organizational effectiveness Then they need to find and implement an effective leadership to gain competitive advantage

Servant leadership has gained attention in both business and academic fields in recent years (Mayer, Bardes & Piccolo, 2008) Hale and Fields (2007, p 379) point out servant leadership as “an understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those led over the self-interest of the leader, emphasizing leader behaviors that focus on follower development, and de-emphasizing glorification of the leader” That focus leaders’ moral behaviors that protecting followers from self-interested leaders pursuing ends for their own selfish gain (Graham, 1991; Liden, Wayne, Zhao, & Henderson, 2008) It also emphasizes their moral responsibility to the success of the organization as well as to the success of their subordinates, the organization’s customers, and other stakeholders (Ehrhart, 2004)

Next Thompson (2003) and Girard (2000) report a statistically significant positive correlation between servant leadership and job satisfaction In addition, Sokoll (2014) stated there is a positive correlation between servant leadership and employee commitment to a supervisor Many empirical studies notice the correlation of servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006; Liden et al., 2008; Vondey, 2010) Ehrhart (2004) conclude that servant leadership could affect organizational citizenship behaviors

Furthermore, there are a few of research for the role of organizational citizenship behaviors

on employee commitment to the supervisor, and the effect of employee commitment to the supervisor on job satisfaction Paillé (2012) note the positive effect of organizational

citizenship behaviors on employee commitment to a supervisor Then Cheng, Jiang, and Riley (2003) conclude the employee commitment to a supervisor positively affect on job satisfaction

However, there are few studies about which leadership approach are appropriate in the Vietnamese context or how it empirically affect employee behaviors and performances Therefore there is growing interest on effective leadership in Vietnam Nguyen (2011) surveys 860 Vietnamese employees and pointed that overall leadership effected positively

on job satisfaction Immediate supervisors from stated-owned enterprises might not fully support their subordinates However leaders of non stated-owned enterprises show more support to their employees and achieved the optimum performance Then Dao and Han (2013) survey 200 Vietnamese workers and note that job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors was positively effected by transformational leadership Thus that study develop the investigation about the effects of servant leadership effects on job satisfaction, employee commitment to a supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors in Vietnamese electronic retailing industry

Furthermore servant leadership is an emerging leadership for empirical research in Vietnamese context Then the study investigates the effect of servant leadership on job satisfaction, employee commitment to the supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors in Vietnamese electronic retailing industry Furthermore, it also surveys the effect

of organizational citizenship behaviors on employee commitment to the supervisor, and the effect of employee commitment to the supervisor on job satisfaction in that industry

1.2 Research objectives and research questions

The purpose of this study is to investigate 1) the effects of servant leadership on job satisfaction; 2) the effects of servant leadership on employee commitment to the supervisor; 3) the effects of servant leadership on organizational citizenship behavior in Vietnamese context; 4) the effect of organizational citizenship behavior on employee commitment to the supervisor and 5) the effect of employee commitment to the supervisor on job satisfaction in electronic retailing industry context

The focus of this study is summarized through the following questions:

1 Does servant leadership have a positive effect on job satisfaction?

2 Does servant leadership have a positive effect on employee commitment to the supervisor?

3 Does servant leadership have a positive effect on organizational citizenship

behaviors?

4 Do organizational citizenship behaviors have a positive effect on employee

commitment to the supervisor?

5 Does employee commitment to the supervisor have a positive effect on job

satisfaction?

1.3 Research methodology

To accomplish the aims of this research, a quantitative study was carried out A administered questionnaire that measures the constructs of the study is developed on the

self-literature review That questionnaire with Likert five-point scale was distributed among 250 sales staffs who worked in electronic retail stores in Vietnam Subjects were asked to rate their agreement with each item on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) All of questionnaire items were taken from previously valid scales

Descriptive statistics for the entire sample were done with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22 To test the measurement model and structural equation modeling (SEM), Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 22 was used for data analysis

Structural equation modeling is a multivariate data analysis technique that is widely used for instrument validation and model testing in research In the current study, SEM was used to validate the conceptual framework and test the hypothesized relationships among latent variables Anderson and Gerbing (1988) two-stage procedure for SEM was done In the first stage the relationships between the observed variables and the underlying theoretical constructs (latent variables) were examined in order to eliminate any ambiguously loading items and ensure reliable and valid constructs In the second stage, the structural model fit was assessed through goodness-of-fit indices and paths between the constructs were estimated to test the research hypotheses

1.4 Thesis Structure

The thesis is divided into five chapters Chapter 1 starts with the introduction about the research topic, research problem, research objectives and a brief discussion about the

methodology used Chapter 2 presents literature review of servant leadership, job satisfaction, employee commitment to a supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors; and hypotheses development about these relationships Chapter 3 addresses the proposed methodology for the study, including research design, sample, measure instrument, data collection and data analysis method Chapter 4 presents the analysis of data and research findings Chapter 5 concludes the research project with discussions of the implications of the results Lastly, the final chapter of this study present implications, identifies any limitations that arise in the course of the study and makes recommendations for future research based primarily on the research findings

1.5 Chapter summary

This chapter is the foundation for this thesis by introducing the research problem together with the research objectives and questions A short explanation about the research methodology is also presented Both theoretical and managerial contributions of the study are highlighted Finally, the contents of each chapter are outlined within thesis structure The next chapter will present the literature review

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

This chapter provides a literature review of the current study The 2.1 section starts by introducing leadership, leadership theories, including servant leadership as a major component, and compares different theories to servant leadership Next three other constructs of job satisfaction, employee commitment to a supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors are also discussed in this section Five hypothesis are developed from these constructs in section 2.2 Then the section 2.3 presents the research model and a chapter summary is presented in section 2.4

2.1 Literature Review

2.1.1 Leadership

Yukl (2010, p.26) defines leadership as the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives In addition, Northouse (2013, p 5) defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” Furthermore leadership is an influence process generated when acts of leading (e.g., influencing) are combined with acts of following (e.g., deferring) as individuals work together to attain mutual goals (Uhl-Bien, Schermerhorn, & Osborn, 2014, p 312)

Bass (1985, p 20) notes that a leader is “one who motivates us to do more than we originally expected to do” He said that this motivation could be achieved by raising the awareness level about the importance of outcomes and ways to reach them Bass also notices that leaders encourage followers to go beyond self-interest for the good of the team

or the organization Next, Yukl and Van Fleet (1992) focus on the importance of leadership

in the frame of an organization, as an effective leadership can lead to a number of desired outcomes at an individual, group and organizational level

2.1.1.1 Leadership theories

Trait theories

A trait is a specific component of personality that describes the particular tendencies a person has to feel, think, and act in certain ways Many people can easily speak out Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Richard Branson like leaders They have personality traits such as charisma, intelligence, a strong vision, and a determination to achieve their goals An effective leader is need to be found out by any way That is the first thing that researchers research about leaders They investigates individual traits that include intelligence, birth order, socioeconomic status, and child-raising practices, (Bass, 1960; Stogdill, 1974) Northouse (2013, p 19) summarize five traits associated with leadership in a positive way These are (1) intelligence, (2) self-confidence, (3) determination, (4) integrity, and (5) sociability

The Big Five personality traits are extraversion (or positive affectivity), neuroticism (or negative affectivity), agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience (Barrick

& Mount, 1991) To assess the links between the Big Five and leadership, Judge, Bono, Ilies, and Gerhardt (2002) find empirical support for personality traits being associated with effective leadership In particular, extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness are positively associated with effective leadership, in that order of importance Neuroticism is ranked third with openness but is negatively associated with effective leadership—in other words, less is better Finally, agreeableness is only weakly, even though positively, associated with effective leadership

Skills approach to leadership

The skills approach focus on knowledge and abilities for effective leadership (Northouse,

2013, p 43) Katz (1955, p 34) argues “Skills are what leaders can accomplish, whereas traits are who leaders are” He states there are three basic administrative skills: technical, human, and conceptual Katz notes that the importance of certain leadership skills varies depending on where leaders are in a management hierarchy and human skills are important

in all three levels of management As leadership is a set of skills, people can learn and develop their leadership at work

Figure 2.1 Management Skills (Katz, 1955, p 33-42)

Style approach to leadership

The style approach studies the actions of leaders toward subordinates with task behaviors and relationship behaviors Task behaviors help staffs to achieve their goals Relationship behaviors help employees feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and with the situation in which they find themselves Effective leaders combine and balance these two kinds of behaviors to influence staffs in their efforts to reach objectives

Blake and Mouton (1964) formulate the definition of a managerial grid containing five management or leadership styles based on the leader’s relative concerns for people (e.g considering the needs of team members) or production (e.g emphasis on objectives and high productivity), as shown in Figure 2

Figure 2.2 The Managerial Grid (Blake & Mouton, 1964)

Situational Leadership

While leadership styles introduce the notion that leadership could be construed as a set of behaviors, they give little interest as to what sort of behaviors worked best in which situations Hersey and Blanchard (1988) with “One Minute Manager” series present the idea that leaders should adapt their style to the competence and commitment of their followers The four styles of directing, coaching, supporting and delegating can be brought into play for different people at different stages of their engagement

Figure 2.3 Situational leadership (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988)

Contingency leadership

Contingency theory is concerned with styles and situations It provides the framework for effectively matching the leader and the situation Leadership styles are described as task motivated or relationship motivated To measure leader styles, Fiedler (1967) develops the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) scale Leaders whose scores are high on this scale are described as relationship motivated, and those whose scores are low on the scale are identified as task motivated Situations can be characterized in terms of three factors: leader–member relations, task structure, and position power

Figure 2.4 Contingency leadership (Fiedler, 1967)

Path-Goal theory

Path–goal theory is about how leaders motivate subordinates to accomplish designated goals House and Mitchell (1974) notes leadership generates motivation when it increases the number and kinds of payoffs that subordinates receive from their work Leadership also motivates when it makes the path to the goal clear and easy to travel through coaching and direction, removing obstacles and roadblocks to attaining the goal, and making the work itself more personally satisfying By choosing the appropriate style, leaders increase subordinates’ expectations for success and satisfaction Figure 2.5 illustrates how leadership behaviors are related to subordinate and task characteristics in path–goal theory

Figure 2.5 Path–Goal Theory (Northouse, 2013, p 143)

Transactional and transformational leadership

Burns (1978) suggests that transactional leadership is common across all types of organizations and involves a transaction whereby leaders exchange something of value (e.g., pay, recognition, praise, and special consideration) with individual followers or a group based on their performance or compliance Burns recognized that the exchange occurs in the absence of an enduring bond or relationship between the two entities

Bass (1985) bases on Burns’s theory of political leadership to develop a theory of leadership for organizations He called his approach “performance beyond expectations” He focus on transformation was on organizational performance The transformation occurs when followers are inspired to set aside their self-interest for organizational interest In other

words, they accept the purpose is attainment of pragmatic task objectives for the good of the

organization

For Bass (1985), transformational leadership occurs when leaders broaden and elevate their followers’ interests, when they generate awareness and acceptance of the group’s purposes and mission, and when they stir their followers to look beyond their own self-interests to the good of others Transformational leadership has four dimensions: 1) idealized influence, 2) inspirational motivation, 3) intellectual stimulation, and 4) individualized consideration (Bass & Avolio, 1994) In the transformational model, leaders act to release human potential through the empowerment and development of followers They paint a picture of the future and develop in followers a real sense that they want to move towards that envisioned future

Ethical leadership

Heifetz (1994) has formulated a unique approach to ethical leadership His approach emphasizes how leaders help followers to confront conflict and to address conflict by effecting changes Five principles lead the development of ethical leadership: respect, service, justice, honesty, and community (Dubrin, 2010, p.170; Northouse, 2013, p 430)

2.1.1.2 Servant leadership

Greenleaf (1970, 1977) espouse servant leadership This perspective comes closest to altruism, described earlier The underlying tenants of servant leadership are as follows: Leaders need to be aware of followers’ concerns and needs, attend to followers’ needs and

concerns, empathize with followers, nurture and support followers, and look after followers Servant leaders make others better by their presence Through serving their followers, servant leaders encourage followers to gain more knowledge, freedom, and autonomy and

to develop as servant leaders themselves In addition, servant leaders have a broader responsibility to society to accept the “have-nots” and to set right inequalities and social injustices (Graham, 1991; Northouse, 2013, p 220; Yukl, 2010, p.340)

Therefore servant leadership stresses that leaders should take care of the needs of followers, empower them, and help them develop their full human capacities Servant leaders serve first They build strong relationships with followers, are empathic and ethical, and lead in the ways that are better for followers, the organization, the community, and society (Northouse, 2013, p 248)

Next Spears (1995) extends Greenleaf’s work by articulating 10 characteristics of a servant leader—listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and community building

Then Farling, Stone, and Winston (1999) present a hierarchical model of servant leadership

as a cyclical process, consisting of behavioral (vision, service) and relational (influence, credibility, trust) components It was unclear how this conceptualization differed from better-understood leadership theories such as transformational leadership (Bass, 1985)

In addition Polleys (2002) explores servant leadership and distinguished it from three predominant leadership paradigms—the trait, the behavioral, and the contingency

approaches to leadership Polleys’s views closely aligned transforming leadership (Burns, 1978) with servant leadership but made no distinctions among charismatic, transformational, and servant leadership

Furthermore Sendjaya and Sarros (2002) test the exits of servant leadership on religious scriptures They noted that servant leaders view themselves as stewards and are entrusted to develop and empower followers to reach their fullest potential But their examination did not present a testable framework and not connected to other constructs Next Barbuto and Wheeler (2002) develop 11 characteristics of servant leadership from the more influential works such as Greenleaf (1970) and Spears (1995) This framework is specified as fundamental to servant leadership and consisted with Greenleaf’s original message

Then Ehrhart (2004) develops a one-dimensional scale of servant leadership with 14 items

In his study, procedural justice is hypothesized to mediate between servant leadership and unit-level organizational citizenship behavior As Ehrhart asserts, this scale captures seven key characteristics of servant leaders: 1) forming relationships with subordinates, 2) empowering subordinates, 3) helping subordinates grow and succeed, 4) behaving ethically, 5) behaving conceptual skills, 6) putting subordinates first, and 7) creating value for those outside the organization

2.1.2 Job Satisfaction

Locke (1976) forms with a classical definition of job satisfaction as a positive emotional status that resulted from an individual’s evaluation on his or her work experiences Job

satisfaction or dissatisfaction is affected by the relation between a person’s job expectations and his/ her actual achievements

Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman (1959) build a two-factor theory, according to which job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are two separate phenomena, which should not be measured on the same continuum Intrinsic factors-motivators are considered to be

“satisfiers”, while extrinsic factors – hygiene factors are perceived as “dissatisfies”

Next Smith, Kendall and Hulin (1969) classify all sources of job satisfaction into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction Intrinsic sources originate from within the individual and have psychological value Such satisfactions are essentially self-administered In contrast, extrinsic sources of satisfaction originate from the environment (outside the individual) Forces beyond the individual's control (e.g., job security and fringe benefits) determine the frequency and magnitude of extrinsic satisfaction Furthermore, some sources of satisfaction serve a dual purpose They can be extrinsic or tangible in nature while having intrinsic or psychological value because of what they symbolize For example, both “a high salary”' and “rapid career progress” would offer dual sources of satisfaction

Then Hackman and Oldman (1975) formulate another model of job satisfaction, according

to which employees are more likely to react positively to their work if they experience the feeling that their work is remarkable and that they are responsible for their job performance and if they are aware of their actual job performance In addition Balzer et al (1997) define job satisfaction as a global concept It could be measured as integrated feelings that relate to

all job aspects Identified job satisfaction is satisfaction with the job itself, salary, promotion, supervision and relationships with colleagues That notion is similar to thoughts

by Brooke and Price (1989) They looked at job satisfaction as an individual’s attitude toward his or her work Reschley and Wilson (1995) also define job satisfaction as employee’s satisfaction in relation to his or her task, supervision, promotion and salary Then Kennerly (1989) indicates the relationship between job satisfaction, leadership behaviors and organizational culture More specifically, organizational behaviors, like warmth among employees, mutual trust, respect and rapport between employees and superiors can be significant predicting factors of the job satisfaction experienced by employees in the field of health

In addition Billingsley and Cross (1992) reveals that leadership support, work involvement and low role conflict can be predicting factor of job commitment, job satisfaction and unwillingness to quit Therefore, leadership influences all dimensions of work and affects employees’ behavior, performance and general well being

2.1.3 Employee commitment to the supervisor

Organizations are not monolithic entities The employee commitment may be effected to multiple foci, both within (supervisors, co-workers) and outside (clients, profession) the organization Employees have also experience conflicts between commitments (Reichers, 1985)

Therefore, the multiple-commitment approach must be considered by the extent to which it offers “added value” That is, if the recognition that we live in a multiple-commitment world is to have either theoretical or practical importance, we must show that examining commitments to different constituencies and domains refines our understanding of work-related behavior (Cohen, 2003; Meyer & Allen, 1997; Morrow, 1993)

In this perspective, studies of Becker, Billings, Eveleth, and Gilbert (1996) and Hunt (1994) investigated a strong relationship of organizational commitment with constituency commitment such as supervisor, coworkers and top management Organizational commitment is a psychological state that reflects an employee’s relationship to the organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990) Becker et al (1996) sought to understand the potential relationship between employee commitment as a multidimensional phenomenon and performance Therefore, employee commitment to a supervisor is a psychological state that reflects an employee’s relationship to the supervisor

2.1.4 Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB)

First, Barnard (1938) builds the Acceptance Theory of Authority, which stated that authority flows downward but depends on acceptance by the subordinate He argues that an employee will accept a task or order from the leader under the following conditions that 1)

he can and does understand the communication; 2) he believes it to be consistent with the purpose of the organization; 3) it is compatible with his personal interest; and 4) he is able mentally and physically able to comply Next, Katz's (1964) notes that employees willingly contribute extra efforts for the attainment of the organizational outcomes

Furthermore, Organ (1988) defines Organizational Citizenship Behavior as behaviors that are “discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and that in the aggregate promote the effective functioning of the organization” (p 4) Organ (1997) identifies five dimensions of OCB: (1) helping behavior - includes altruism (employees help coworker with job relevant duties and tasks), peacekeeping, and cheerleading, (2) courtesy - being polite, considerate of others, and treat them with respect, (3) conscientiousness - when employee goes beyond normal requirements or expectations (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman & Fetter, 1990), (4) sportsmanship employees have a positive attitude and are willing to tolerate less than ideal circumstances without complaining, and (5) civic virtue - participating in the governance of the organization

Williams and Anderson (1991) categorize these five dimensions of OCB into behavior that

is directed towards the individual (OCBI) and behavior that is directed towards the organization (OCBO) Individual-level OCB consists of altruism, courtesy, peacekeeping, and cheerleading efforts directed at individuals OCBI includes the helping behavior and the courtesy dimensions Organizational-level behavior is directed towards the benefit of the organization Conscientiousness, civic virtue, and sportsmanship are included in this category

Lee and Allen (2002) built a 16-point scale designed to operate OCBI and OCBO The scale includes statements that describe either OCBI or OCBO behavior and the participants are asked to indicate how often the described behavior is performed This scale is useful in determining the type of OCB that an individual is most likely to perform In addition to

there being different dimensions of OCB, there are also different motives for performing OCB

Although Lee and Allen’s (2002) scale was designed to capture OCB directed toward individuals and OCB directed toward the organization respectively; Walumbwa, Hartnell, and Oke (2010) combined these two scales to measure overall OCB They conducted a principal factor analysis of the 16 items and find if one factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1.00, with a composite internal reliability (α) of 91 Therefore, the researcher use the

16 items to create an index of OCB

2.2 Hypothesis development

2.2.1 Servant Leadership and Job Satisfaction

Billingsley and Cross (1992) reveal that leadership support can be predicting factor of job satisfaction Servant leadership build strong relationships with followers, are empathic and ethical, and lead in the ways that are better for followers (Northouse, 2013, p 248) Then employees are more likely to react positively to their work if they experience the feeling that their work is remarkable and that they are responsible for their job performance and if they are aware of their actual job performance (Hackman & Oldman, 1975; Dalton, Hoyle

& Watts, 2011, p.16) Therefore, servant leadership foster effective relationships and increase job

Servant leaders encourage followers to gain more knowledge, freedom, and autonomy by delegating authority to their followers (Northouse, 2013, p 220) That lessen red tape and

increase morale Followers who are allowed to perform higher-level tasks feel heightened job satisfaction (Dalton, Hoyle & Watts, 2011, p.356)

Stone et al (2004) find that servant leadership, in comparison to transformational leadership, is predominantly a relations-oriented leadership, with the worker as its primary focus, while organizational outcomes are secondary The employees feel dignified in their jobs and gain intrinsic benefits from their work, their level of job satisfaction and correlate with the practice of servant leadership that includes similar values

Then, Thompson (2003) reports a statistically significant positive correlation between participants’ perception of servant leadership characteristics and their level of job satisfaction In a study of servant leadership characteristics in superintendents and job satisfaction of principals in 12 Illinois school districts, Girard (2000) notes a significant correlation as well

In addition, the study of Mayer et al (2008) with a sample of 187 respondents reports there

is a link between servant leadership to follower need and job satisfaction through the mediating mechanism of organizational justice It has also been shown that satisfaction has

a positive relationship with servant leadership (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006)

Based on the above mentioned discussion, this study therefore hypothesizes that:

H1: Servant leadership has a positive effect on job satisfaction

2.2.2 Servant leadership and employee commitment to the supervisor

Servant leaders help employees grow and develop They persuade employees instead of using power to achieve their objective (Robbins & Judge, 2014, p.192) Leaders are aware

of followers’ concerns and needs, attend to followers’ needs and concerns, empathize with followers, nurture and support followers, and look after followers (Graham, 1991) If followers are informed about each step and told them how it will affect them, the leaders will garner commitment (Dalton, Hoyle & Watts, 2011, p.443) Therefore, the effect of servant leadership resulted in higher levels of employee commitment to the supervisor (Walumbwa et al., 2010)

The thought of Jacobs (2006), Russell and Stone (2002), Van Dierendonck (2011) argue a positive relationship between servant leadership and employee commitment Servant leadership theory and employee commitment has begun to be qualitatively studied by few researchers such as Ebener and O'Connell (2010) and Winston (2004) That idea also is empirically confirmed by investigators such as Hu and Liden (2011) and Liden et al (2008)

In addition, the study of Sokoll (2014) adds the empirical evidence to the construct validity

of servant leadership theory and the positive influence said behavior has on employee commitment to a supervisor Servant leadership has a significant effect on employee commitment to a supervisor

Based on the above mentioned discussion, this study therefore hypothesizes that:

H2: Servant leadership has a positive effect on employee commitment to the supervisor

2.2.3 Servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors

As employees are focused on being dutiful and responsible, the correlation between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior is stronger (De Cremer, Mayer, Schouten, Bardes & van Dijke, 2009) Ehrhart (2004) investigates a sample of 298 employees at grocery departmental stores in the United States of America He notes an indirect significant relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors through the mediating effect of procedural justice climate Ehrhart (2004) concludes that helping the growth and success of the followers is a way in which servant leadership can influence them in showing organizational citizenship behavior

Next, Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) reports that servant leadership is a good predictor for the quality of leader-member interaction from their survey In addition servant leadership has a positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior Then Neubert, Kacmar, Carlson, Chonko, and Roberts (2008) also implement another servant leadership-OCB study

by examining the mediating effects of regulatory focus on the relationship between servant leadership and OCB among 229 full time US workers including loan underwriters, first-grade teachers, and accountants They test two leadership styles (i.e initiating structure and servant leadership), and their relationship with OCB through the influence of regulatory focus The findings indicate that servant leadership through regulatory focus has significant positive effects on OCB In addition, the results showed significant differential effects on OCB, where servant leadership influences helping and creative behaviors more than initiating structure

Furthermore Liden et al (2008) add empirical evidence about the relationship between servant leadership and employee citizenship behaviors with a sample of 298 students from a Midwestern university in the USA They indicate that servant leadership at individual level makes a unique contribution beyond transformational leadership and leader-member exchange (LMX) in explaining community citizenship behaviors The findings confirm Graham’s (1991) argument on the difference between servant leadership, transformational leadership and LMX Servant leadership uniquely explains community citizenship, in-role performance and organizational commitment, suggesting that such leadership exhibits an active concern for the well-being of broader organizational constituencies and the community at large

In addition, Vondey (2010) with a sample of 114 respondents from various industries in the United States examines the moderating role of person-organization fit and organizational identification on the relationship between servant leadership and OCB The results shows a direct but partial effect of servant leadership on employee OCB In addition, the findings indicate positive moderating effects of person-organization fit and organizational identification on the relationship between servant leadership and OCB

Next, Walumbwa et al (2010) tested the influence of servant leadership on 2 group climates, employee attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior with a sample of 815 employees and 123 immediate supervisors The findings report that commitment to the supervisor, self-efficacy, procedural justice climate, and service climate partially mediated the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior Cross-

level interaction results present that procedural justice climate and positive service climate amplified the influence of commitment to the supervisor on organizational citizenship behavior

Then Van Dierendonck and Nuijten (2011) implement an open online servant leadership survey among 135 participants from the Netherlands They develop a new servant leadership instrument and examined its psychometric power to predict some follower outcomes Results indicate eight dimensions with a total of 30 items They are standing back, empowerment, accountability, forgiveness, courage, authenticity, humility and stewardship The study also shows that servant leadership significantly predicts follower OCB Specifically, the accountability dimension of the servant leadership shows a moderately strong relationship with civic virtue dimension of OCB Furthermore, humility dimension of servant leadership shows a moderately strong effect on civic virtue, altruism and taking charge dimensions of the OCB constructs More importantly, the leader becomes more forgiving, the followers decrease their engagements in political activities of the organization Furthermore Güçel and Begeç (2012) with a sample of 67 administrative and faculty members of a private university in Turkey investigate the effects of servant leadership on OCBs The finding indicate that vision and serve dimensions of the servant leadership construct have positive significant effect on sportsmanship and civic virtue dimensions of OCB

Based on the above mentioned discussion, this study therefore hypothesizes that:

H3: Servant leadership has a positive effect on organizational citizenship behaviors

2.2.4 Organizational citizenship behaviors and employee commitment to the supervisor

Becker (1992) notes that introducing complementary targets of commitment (for example, towards top management, supervisor and colleagues) which alongside affective commitment to the organization significantly raises the variance of two of these three forms

of organizational citizenship behaviors analyzed in the research In fact, unlike altruism and conscientiousness, idleness seems less sensitive to the multiplication of targets of commitment

Next Bentein, Stinghlamber, and Vandenberghe (2002) test relations between commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors by looking at these two concepts for three targets, the superior, the workgroup, and the organization The findings reveal that employees are affectively closer to the “workgroup” and more distant from the entities of “the organization” and “the supervisor” as well as that this proximity has the effect of improving organizational citizenship behaviors prediction The findings show positive correlations between organizational citizenship behaviors and commitment to the colleagues and commitment to the supervisor Once more time, Walumbwa et al (2010) note that procedural justice climate and positive service climate amplified the influence of commitment to the supervisor on organizational citizenship behavior

Finally, the survey of Paillé (2012) with a sample of 355 respondents reveals a positive impact of commitment to the supervisor and organizational citizenship behaviors Empirical relations between various targets of commitment and forms of citizenship are clarified in the French context