The Impact of Servant Leadership on Employee Behavior
Abstract
The purpose of this research to examine the influence of servant leadership on employees’ behavior of Bank Pembangunan Daerah (BPD) Sulawesi Tenggara (Sultra) Main Branch. This research uses hypothesis testing method, analyzed by simple regression method. The data were collected from 137 employees using the census method. The results of hypothesis testing in this study indicate that there is a positive influence of servant leadership on: work engagement, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The current study contributed to the servant leadership by determining driving forces that encourage employee work engagement, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The company should improve servant leadership by providing leadership training because this will able to make leaders have a tendency to prioritize the interests and aspirations of the people they lead. To increase work engagement, the company is obliged to give employees the opportunity to express their opinion so that employees feel part of the organization. To increase organisational commitment, leaders should adhere to human values because it will foster higher employee loyalty in return. To improve organisational citizenship behavior, leaders and employees should have friendly and intimate interpersonal relationships so that they can increase employee work motivation.
Keywords: BPD Sultra, Organisational Commitment, Organisational Citizenship Behavior, Servant Leadership, Work Engagement
Introduction
During the current pandemic, the economy in Indonesia is declining and affecting many businesses (banking sectors). The leadership style plays a big influence on the smooth development and journey of the institution. One of the leadership styles is servant leadership. Servant leadership style leads employees by trying to meet their needs, and ultimately motivates employees to achieve work performance. Servant leadership is related to the possibility/possibility of followers in achieving predetermined organizational goals (Aboramadan et al., 2020).
A study conducted by Aboramadan et al. (2020) found servant leadership behavior has a positive influence on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Servant leadership is an important behavior to improve the performance of an organization as followers show their attitudes and behavior because it creates an organizational culture in a positive direction (Aboramadan et al., 2020).
Other efforts made to achieve the bank's goals include using a professional workforce that has work engagement such as a healthy physique, work enthusiasm, and an emotional sense of work. de Sousa and van Dierendonck (2014) propose that servant leadership can provide an effective pathway towards work engagement.
Companies must also pay attention to employees’ organizational commitment, because organizational commitment functions to increase employee job satisfaction, while increasing work performance (Ayodele et al., 2020). In addition, Ayodele et al. (2020) also confirmed that organizational commitment reduces truancy and the tendency of employees to leave, thereby ensuring the presence of highly motivated individuals with strong loyalty to the organization over a long period of time. Aboramadan et al. (2020) reported that other aspects of servant leadership are positively related to organizational commitment.
A good company must certainly improve OCB because OCB is a very important factor in organizational success in the service industry, where employees need to respond to and predict the needs of their clients (Nazarian et al., 2020).
With all of these things, it is inevitable that business competition is getting tougher in the banking sector, making the company PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch must pay more attention to the company's servant leadership so that work engagement, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior are fulfilled, so that employees have a high level of quality work for the company and can maintain and even advance PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch.
Currently, the condition of PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch is quite satisfactory. Almost all employees claim that their leaders are servant leaders or leaders who serve so that employees have a high level of work engagement with the company. Employees also admit that it is difficult for them to leave this company because they have a harmonious relationship between fellow employees and leaders, so that the organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior of employees in the company is quite high.
Hypotheses Development
Servant leadership and work engagement
As can be seen from Figure 1, the framework depicts the impact servant leadership on work commitment, employee engagement and OCB.
Bao et al. (2018) proposed that servant leadership can be a powerful organizational way in resisting the negative effects of job demands and promoting employee engagement. According to Aboramadan et al. (2020), employees with higher levels of engagement show a high level of enthusiasm for their work and are seen as a source of energy and inspiration for others. Servant leadership has a positive impact on work engagement.
Chen et al. (2013) argued that servant leadership influences employee’s morale, well-being, and work results, so that they begin to become more engaged, open-minded, patient, and considerate at work.
According to Liden et al. (2014), servant leadership is a humble leader and focuses on employees rather than themselves, this leadership style can build positive relationships with employees. This humility supports the findings of Owens and Hekman (2012), which suggests humble leaders can positively influence work engagement. Then the hypothesis can be described as follows:
H1: There is a positive influence of servant leadership on work engagement.
Servant leadership and organizational commitment
Regarding the relationship between leadership and commitment, previous research has shown that leadership is very important for increasing organizational commitment (Aboramadan et al., 2020). Mentoring by managers is an aspect of servant leadership related to organizational commitment. Ramli and Desa (2014) emphasized that servant leadership is significantly related to organizational commitment. According to Wei (2012), servant leadership fosters the emotional well-being of employees and has a significant positive correlation with their affective, normative, and continuance.
Servant leadership is significantly related to organizational commitment because servant leaders influence their employees to produce higher performance and contribute to achieving organizational goals (Setyaningrum, 2017). Servant leadership that serves the needs of employees will develop their desire to show the best side of themselves and togetherness and a sense of belonging to their organization (Ambali & Eissa, 2016). Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H2: There is a positive influence of servant leadership on organizational commitment.
Servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior
Servant leadership has been proven to shape OCB among employees in general. Therefore, according to Luu (2019) servant leaders with a professional orientation can form employee OCB. This hope is in line with one of Greenleaf's main principles in the philosophy of leadership, where serving others includes educating some employees, so that they can also become servant leaders (Luu, 2019). According to Nazarian et al. (2020), a positive relationship has been found between servant leadership and OCB in several studies. Several studies have shown that servant leadership produces OCB through the tendency of subordinates to reciprocate benefits that are felt and received from leaders.
Servant leadership can affect organizational citizenship behavior because servant leaders motivate and inspire their employees and win their trust, this becomes a source of motivation and guidance for employees, and they are also involved in the same activities within the organization (Aziz et al., 2018). Guiding employee development is the goal of servant leadership to influence employee organizational citizenship behavior (Rahgozar et al., 2013).
According to Van der Hoven et al. (2021), employee’s OCB depends on the leader's influence. Research has found that the quality of the relationship between leaders and employees is very important for OCB. Servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior have a very strong influence, servant leadership does not only function as a leader, but also serves employees (Wahyu et al., 2020). Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H3: There is a positive influence of servant leadership on organizational citizenship behaviour.
Method
Research design
This study aims to test the hypothesis or hypotheses testing. Data collection was carried out in a cross-sectional manner because the data were collected within a predetermined time and period. The unit of analysis in this study is employees who are currently working at PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch.
Variable and measurement
In this study, there are four (4) variables: one independent variable and three dependent variables. Servant leadership becomes independent variable, while work engagement, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior become dependent variables.
Assessment of respondents' answers was carried out based on an interval scale, with a Likert measurement scale of 5 points, namely: 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Simply agree, 4 = Agree, and 5 = Strongly Agree. The statements for the servant leadership are adapted from Nazarian et al. (2020) and consists of 7 statement items. For work engagement variable adapted from Toth et al. (2019) and measured by 13 statement items. The statements for the organizational commitment variable were adapted from Allen and Meyer (1990) and were measured by 24 statement items. While the statements for organizational citizenship behavior variables were adapted by Lau et al. (2016) and measured by 15 statement items.
Data collection procedures
Data collection technique
This study use primary and secondary data. The following are the techniques used in the research:
Questionnaire
The questionnaire distributed contains the characteristics of the respondents and statements regarding the variables to be examined, namely servant leadership, work engagement, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior.
Literature study
Literature study is a technique for collecting data by classifying and describing written documents, that have a relationship with the variables being studied, namely servant leadership, work engagement, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior.
Sampling technique
This study used a census, namely all populations were used as research objects. The objects used in this study are all employees of PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch, with total 137 people.
Research instrument testing
Instrument test is a test to reveal the reliability and validity. Validity is related to the accuracy of the instrument in measuring the variables to be studied, while reliability is related to the accuracy, consistency, and predictability of a measuring instrument.
Validity test
The basis for making a decision on the validity test is to use factor loading.
Table 1 shows the factor loading based on sample size which determines whether an indicator is valid or not.
In this study, the sample used was 137 respondents, so it is known that the loading factor that corresponds to the number of samples is ≥ 0.50 so that it can be said that the statement is valid.
Table 2 describes whether a variable measurement indicator is valid or not.
Reliability test
The basis for making a decision on the reliability test is:
If Cronbach's Alpha ≥ 0.60 then Cronbach's Alpha is acceptable (construct reliable).
If Cronbach's Alpha < 0.60 then Cronbach's Alpha is unacceptable (construct unreliable).
Table 3 illustrates the reliability of the variables.
Discussion & Conclusion
With a total mean of servant leadership variable is 4.0146 can be concluded that the leaders applies servant leadership style, which is full of empathy and concern for the conscience of employees, and has the ability to see problems from a conceptualization perspective. Total mean of work engagement variable items is 4.5474. This shows that employees have high engagement and enthusiasm for their work and in matters related to long-term company activities. Total mean of organizational commitment variable items is 3.4234. This value indicates that employees has a fairly high emotional attachment to the company so that they feel happy when they are in the company. Then with a total mean organizational citizenship behavior variable is 4.2701. It can be understood that the employees express a good work ethic, such as innovating in contributing to the development of work systems or procedures.
Results
To find out whether there is an influence of servant leadership on work engagement, organizational commitment and OCB, hypothesis testing was carried out using the simple regression method, with the help of the SPSS 23 program. Hypothesis testing was carried out by comparing the p-value or level of significance (alpha) of 0.05. The basis for decision making is:
If sig. ≥ 0.05 then Ho is not supported, Ha is supported.
If sig. > 0.05 then Ho is supported, Ha is not supported.
Table 4 presents the hypothesis testing results. Hypothesis 1 had a significant value of 0.00, less than 0.05, meaning that, Ha1 is supported. It can be concluded that there is a positive influence of servant leadership on work engagement with an estimated value (Beta) of 0.246. This means that the thicker the application of servant leadership, the stronger the work engagement of employees in the company.
Hypothesis 2 testing found a significant value of 0.014, less than 0.05, meaning that, Ha2 is supported. It can be concluded that there is a positive influence of servant leadership on organizational commitment with an estimated value (Beta) of 0.319. This means that servant leadership can increase employee organizational commitment.
Finally, for hypothesis 3, it also obtained a significant value of 0.00, less than 0.05, meaning that Ha3 is supported. It can be concluded that there is a positive influence of servant leadership on organizational citizenship behavior with an estimated value (Beta) of 0.350. This means that servant leadership can improve organizational citizenship behavior of employees.
Findings
This research intends to illuminate the role of servant leadership in work engagement, organizational commitment, and OCB. The results of hypotheses showed positive influence of servant leadership on work engagement, organizational commitment and OCB.
The results of H1 supported by previous research conducted by Aboramadan et al. (2020). This shows that respondents feel the leaders of PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch tries to understand and be able to empathize with its employees so that employees have a close attachment to the company. Liden et al. (2014) argues that the support provided by servant leaders to employees makes it possible to increase employee work engagement, namely their maximum potential at work. Servant leadership encourages the enthusiasm of employees to work because these servant leaders recognize the unique skills and competencies of employees (Aboramadan et al., 2020).
The analysis results from H2 supported by previous research conducted by Nazarian et al. (2020). This shows that respondents feel that company leaders emphasize openness and persuasion to build trust from their employees, so that employees at PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch has an organizational commitment to the company. Leaders who serve the needs of employees will build the best performance in employees and a sense of harmony with the organization or company (Ambali & Eissa, 2016). In addition, servant leadership in a company will help companies increase their effectiveness including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, loyalty, and confidence in the information provided by leaders and commitment to the decisions they make (Ramli & Desa, 2014).
Finally from the results of H3 supported by previous research conducted by Nazarian et al. (2020). This shows that respondents feel the leaders of PT. BPD Sultra Main Branch is responsible for making efforts to improve the professional growth of its employees so that employees have high organizational citizenship behavior. Servant leadership can affect organizational citizenship behavior because servant leaders motivate and inspire employees and win their trust (Aziz et al., 2018). Servant leadership improves employee organizational citizenship behavior by forming quality relationships and encouraging the development of employee performance (Van der Hoven et al., 2021).
Conclusion
This study shows that the leader has implemented the servant leadership style. Employees have high work engagement. Employee commitment to the company is quite high and employees have high OCB. The three hypotheses proposed are supported. Servant leadership has the greatest influence on OCB, followed by organizational commitment and work engagement.
This research only investigated in one banking sector and 4 variables, thus the result can not be generalized across BPD. Therefore, it is important for future research to use the different banking sector or other industries and add another variable to investigate the impact of servant leadership to employees’ service innovative behavior (Su et al., 2020).
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Tanuwijaya, J., Gunawan P, A. W., Aeeanty, D., & Tasruddin, T. Q. (2023). The Impact of Servant Leadership on Employee Behavior. In N. M. Suki, A. R. Mazlan, R. Azmi, N. A. Abdul Rahman, Z. Adnan, N. Hanafi, & R. Truell (Eds.), Strengthening Governance, Enhancing Integrity and Navigating Communication for Future Resilient Growth, vol 132. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 436-446). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2023.11.02.33