Servant leadership and ethics: a dyadic examination of supervisor behaviors and salesperson perceptions

Abstract

This study uses dyadic data from 145 salespeople paired with their managers to investigate relationships among servant leadership, ethical work climate (EWC), behavior control, trust in supervisor (TS), and salesperson performance. The manuscript tests a conceptual model based on precepts from servant leadership, the services climate concept, and the EWC notion. Research findings show that servant leadership behaviors from management (SLMB) impact salesperson performance through a mediating process that involves servant leadership perceptions from the salesperson (SLSP) and EWC. Results also show that (1) behavioral control moderates the impact of SLMB on SLSP and (2) TS moderates the impact of SLSP on EWC.

Keywords:

• servant leadership
• ethical climate
• salesperson performance