The Impact of Servant Leadership on Hotel Employees' "Servant Behavior"

Long Zeng Wu, Eliza Ching Yick Tse, Pingping Fu, Ho Kwong Kwan, Jun Liu

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

153 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study examined the link between servant leadership and hotel employees' customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) by focusing on the mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) and the moderating role of followers' sensitivity to others' favorable treatment. Using time-lagged data from 304 supervisor-follower pairs in nineteen hotels in China, we found that servant leadership positively influenced customer-oriented OCB, and this influence was mediated by LMX. In addition, moderated path analysis indicated that employees' sensitivity to others' favorable treatment strengthened the direct effect of servant leadership on LMX and its indirect effect on customer-oriented OCB. This study extends the scope of servant leadership research and provides evidence for arguments that servant leadership matters in the hospitality industry. The study also demonstrates the importance of LMX to the relationship between managers and employees, through findings that are strengthened by a longitudinal design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)383-395
Number of pages13
JournalCornell Hospitality Quarterly
Volume54
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • customer-oriented OCB
  • favorable treatment
  • hospitality industry
  • leader-member exchange (LMX)
  • sensitivity to others'
  • servant leadership

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Impact of Servant Leadership on Hotel Employees' "Servant Behavior"'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this