An Identification Perspective of Servant Leadership's Effects

There has been an increase in both the theoretical relevance and the practical significance of servant leadership, yet the mechanisms through which servant leadership impacts desired organizational outcomes are less known. The present research offers an identification perspective on servant leadership's effects. Using a sample of 293 front-line employees from the hospitality industry in China, we demonstrate that subordinate's identification with the supervisor and identification with the organization play crucial roles in translating servant leadership's effects to subordinate's coworker-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and turnover intention. However, the occurrence of the two identifications appears not parallel but in sequence, pointing from identification with the supervisor to identification with the organization. In addition, we find servant leadership's ability to reduce subordinate's fear of being close to the immediate supervisor to be an equally significant route through which subordinate's identification with the organization can be established. Data are collected from both the subordinates and their supervisors with a time lag of 30 days to reduce common method bias. Bootstrapping method and rival model comparisons are used to draw conclusions about various indirect effects. Implications, strengths, limitations, and future directions are discussed.