Public servant leadership: Myth or powerful reality?

Abstract

This study investigates whether servant leadership has a benevolent influence on government employees’ attitudes and productivity. Employing survey responses from 471 local government employees in Korea, this study found that servant leadership contributes to (1) developing employees’ trust in leadership, (2) enhancing employees’ perception of fair work procedures (procedural justice), and (3) inducing benevolent work behaviors (OCB). Thus, the results indicate that public sector leaders who define themselves as servant leaders can provide a better work environment and greater work engagement opportunities for their employees.

Keywords:

• servant leadership
• trust in leadership
• procedural justice
• OCB

Notes

1. News from KBS, Feb 5th, 2008 (http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=1505249)

2. http://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html

3. Our initial investigation included several control variables (i.e., gender, tenure, education level, and rank), but none of these variables was significant, and they were found to deteriorate the general model fits. Based on the observation, all the control variables were excluded in the final data analyses.