Impact of Servant Leadership on Performance of Individual Employee with Mediating Role of Trust in Leadership

Abstract

The study examines the impact of servant leadership on task accomplishment and organizational citizenship behaviour of individual employees. It also examines the mediating role of trust in leadership on relationship between servant leadership and performance of individual employee. Servant leadership, being a style of leadership, whose paramount concern is to serve others, has been the focus of attention these days. However better understanding of the underline mechanism of servant leadership that positively influences the performance of individuals in organisations is still needed. The research also examined the mediating role different dimensions of trust in leadership like cognitive trust which is related to someone’s authoritative aspect and affective trust which develops by positive influence and emotional attachment of others. The research model consists of eight testable hypothesis, which are based on premise developed through social exchange theory. In order to collect data, 350 questionnaires those consisted of five scales were distributed. The data generated from 261 useable questionnaires was used to test eight hypothesis through parallel mediation model. The research is conducted in health sector and samples collected from public and private hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi areas of Pakistan. The results derived from data analysis suggested that affective trust, individual task accomplishment and organizational citizenship behaviour are strongly predicted by servant leadership. The effect of servant leadership on task accomplishment of employees was fully mediated by affective trust whereas the organizational citizenship behaviour of employees was partially mediated. Contrary to this, the effect of servant leadership either on task accomplishment or organizational citizenship behaviour of employee is not mediated by cognitive trust.