IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i14p11162-d1196253.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Can Managers Promote Employee Sustainability? A Study on the Impact of Servant Leadership on Emotional Labor

Author

Listed:
  • Ge Yan

    (School of Accounting and Finance, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hongkong 999077, China)

  • Liang Meng

    (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110167, China)

  • Bo Li

    (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110167, China)

  • Jiamin Li

    (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110167, China)

Abstract

How managers can promote sustainability among their employees has become an important research issue in the field of organizations. Based on the theory of person–environment fit and social learning, the internal mechanism and the conditions of servant leadership on the two dimensions of emotional labor of the epidemic situation were studied through the analysis of the questionnaire data at two time points. The study revealed that the adoption of servant leadership by managers can have a positive impact on employee well-being and deep acting in the context of COVID-19, and this is critically important for the sustainable development of employees. Employee well-being is positively correlated with deep acting and negatively correlated with surface acting. Employee well-being plays a mediating role between servant leadership and the two dimensions of emotional labor. Perceived organizational support plays a moderating role between servant leadership and surface acting. The research findings can serve as a reference for enterprises to take measures in mitigating the adverse impact of COVID-19. Moreover, they provide new insights for managers to facilitate the sustainable development of their employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Ge Yan & Liang Meng & Bo Li & Jiamin Li, 2023. "How Can Managers Promote Employee Sustainability? A Study on the Impact of Servant Leadership on Emotional Labor," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11162-:d:1196253
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11162/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11162/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Lamm & Jennifer Tosti-Kharas & Cynthia King, 2015. "Empowering Employee Sustainability: Perceived Organizational Support Toward the Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 207-220, April.
    2. Maja Rožman & Anita Peša & Mladen Rajko & Tjaša Štrukelj, 2021. "Building Organisational Sustainability during the COVID-19 Pandemic with an Inspiring Work Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-22, October.
    3. Junting Lu & Zhe Zhang & Ming Jia, 2019. "Does Servant Leadership Affect Employees’ Emotional Labor? A Social Information-Processing Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 507-518, October.
    4. C. B. Bhattacharya & Sankar Sen & Laura Marie Edinger-Schons & Michael Neureiter, 2023. "Corporate Purpose and Employee Sustainability Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(4), pages 963-981, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Järlström & Essi Saru & Sinikka Vanhala, 2018. "Sustainable Human Resource Management with Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 703-724, October.
    2. Saskia Crucke & Marie Servaes & Tom Kluijtmans & Shana Mertens & Eveline Schollaert, 2022. "Linking environmentally‐specific transformational leadership and employees' green advocacy: The influence of leadership integrity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 406-420, March.
    3. Kalpina Kumari & Jawad Abbas & Jinsoo Hwang & Lucian Ionel Cioca, 2022. "Does Servant Leadership Promote Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Citizenship Behavior among Employees? A Structural Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, April.
    4. Małgorzata Okręglicka & Prabhat Mittal & Valentinas Navickas, 2023. "Exploring the Mechanisms Linking Perceived Organizational Support, Autonomy, Risk Taking, Competitive Aggressiveness and Corporate Sustainability: The Mediating Role of Innovativeness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, March.
    5. Ma Ying & Naveed Ahmad Faraz & Fawad Ahmed & Ali Raza, 2020. "How Does Servant Leadership Foster Employees’ Voluntary Green Behavior? A Sequential Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Annum Tariq Maan & Ghulam Abid & Tahira Hassan Butt & Fouzia Ashfaq & Saira Ahmed, 2020. "Perceived organizational support and job satisfaction: a moderated mediation model of proactive personality and psychological empowerment," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Leonel Prieto & Muhammad Ruhul Amin & Arman Canatay, 2022. "Examining Social Sustainability in Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-43, September.
    8. Zhiyong Han & Qun Wang & Xiang Yan, 2019. "How Responsible Leadership Motivates Employees to Engage in Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment: A Double-Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, January.
    9. Andrey V. Sidorenkov & Eugene F. Borokhovski & Dmitry V. Vorontsov, 2023. "Associations of employees’ identification and citizenship behavior in organization: a systematic review and a meta-analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 695-729, June.
    10. Tahir Farid & Sadaf Iqbal & Jianhong Ma & Sandra Castro-González & Amira Khattak & Muhammad Khalil Khan, 2019. "Employees’ Perceptions of CSR, Work Engagement, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Organizational Justice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-16, May.
    11. Xiaoye Qian & Meijuan Zhang & Qiang Jiang, 2020. "Leader Humility, and Subordinates’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Withdrawal Behavior: Exploring the Mediating Mechanisms of Subordinates’ Psychological Capital," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-14, April.
    12. Pascal Paillé & Nicolas Raineri & Olivier Boiral, 2019. "Environmental Behavior On and Off the Job: A Configurational Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 253-268, August.
    13. Alla Mostepaniuk & Elsie Nasr & Razan Ibrahim Awwad & Sameer Hamdan & Hasan Yousef Aljuhmani, 2022. "Managing a Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    14. Paraskevi (Evi) Dekoulou & Anna Anastasopoulou & Panagiotis Trivellas, 2023. "Employee Performance Implications of CSR for Organizational Resilience in the Banking Industry: The Mediation Role of Psychological Empowerment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, August.
    15. Shah Ali Murtaza & Asif Mahmood & Saima Saleem & Naveed Ahmad & Muhammad Suhail Sharif & Edina Molnár, 2021. "Proposing Stewardship Theory as an Alternate to Explain the Relationship between CSR and Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    16. Paillé, Pascal & Francoeur, Virginie, 2022. "Enabling employees to perform the required green tasks through support and empowerment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 420-429.
    17. Moheb Qasemi & Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari & Tarek Ben Hassen & Mohammad Iman Askari & Hamid El Bilali, 2023. "Cultivating Change: Perceptions and Attitudes of Agricultural Experts towards the Sustainable Development Goals," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-14, August.
    18. Yong Yang & Fan Yang & Jingzhu Cao & Bo Feng, 2020. "The Multilevel Mechanism of Multifoci Service Orientation on Emotional Labor: Based on the Chinese Hospitality Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-21, June.
    19. Khalid Farooq & Mohd Yusoff Yusliza & Ratri Wahyuningtyas & Adnan ul Haque & Zikri Muhammad & Jumadil Saputra, 2021. "Exploring Challenges and Solutions in Performing Employee Ecological Behaviour for a Sustainable Workplace," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-19, August.
    20. Lucas Amaral Lauriano & Juliane Reinecke & Michael Etter, 2022. "When Aspirational Talk Backfires: The Role of Moral Judgements in Employees’ Hypocrisy Interpretation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 827-845, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11162-:d:1196253. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.