IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v184y2023i3d10.1007_s10551-022-05162-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Providing Service During a Merger: The Role of Organizational Goal Clarity and Servant Leadership

Author

Listed:
  • Emma C. E. Heine

    (University of Leuven)

  • Jeroen Stouten

    (University of Leuven)

  • Robert C. Liden

    (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Abstract

Organizations operate in dynamic environments, which not only requires organizations to adjust, but also for employees to adapt quickly to align with new or adjusted organizational goals. Servant leadership has been shown to help employees develop and grow and behave in a moral and fair manner which are important elements for successful change. We aim to provide a further understanding of the associations between servant leadership and organizational outcomes during changing times. Drawing on the theories of social exchange and goal-setting, and the norm of reciprocity, we propose the mediating role of organizational goal clarity in the associations between servant leadership and five organizational outcomes. The hypotheses are tested in four studies: a two-wave time-lagged survey study conducted in a service company going through a merger, and three experimental studies. The results show that servant leadership relates positively to goal clarity and negatively to uncertainty of employees during organizational change. Furthermore, organizational goal clarity positively mediates the associations between servant leadership and employees’ organizational change commitment and service performance (e.g., organizational citizenship behavior, customer service and customer orientation). This investigation provides a theoretical and empirical validation of a mechanism through which servant leaders enhance organizational performance during changing times.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma C. E. Heine & Jeroen Stouten & Robert C. Liden, 2023. "Providing Service During a Merger: The Role of Organizational Goal Clarity and Servant Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 627-647, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:184:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-022-05162-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05162-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-022-05162-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-022-05162-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ziwei Yang & Haina Zhang & Ho Kwong Kwan & Shouming Chen, 2018. "Crossover Effects of Servant Leadership and Job Social Support on Employee Spouses: The Mediating Role of Employee Organization-Based Self-Esteem," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 595-604, February.
    2. Vincent J. Giolito & Robert C. Liden & Dirk Dierendonck & Gordon W. Cheung, 2021. "Servant Leadership Influencing Store-Level Profit: The Mediating Effect of Employee Flourishing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 503-524, September.
    3. James Gerard Caillier, 2016. "Does Public Service Motivation Mediate the Relationship between Goal Clarity and both Organizational Commitment and Extra-Role Behaviours?," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 300-318, February.
    4. Aleda V. Roth & William E. Jackson, III, 1995. "Strategic Determinants of Service Quality and Performance: Evidence from the Banking Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(11), pages 1720-1733, November.
    5. Eric M. Anicich & Nathanael J. Fast & Nir Halevy & Adam D. Galinsky, 2016. "When the Bases of Social Hierarchy Collide: Power Without Status Drives Interpersonal Conflict," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 123-140, February.
    6. Sea-Jin Chang & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Lorraine Eden, 2010. "From the Editors: Common method variance in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 178-184, February.
    7. Denise Parris & Jon Peachey, 2013. "A Systematic Literature Review of Servant Leadership Theory in Organizational Contexts," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 377-393, March.
    8. Émilie Lapointe & Christian Vandenberghe, 2018. "Examination of the Relationships Between Servant Leadership, Organizational Commitment, and Voice and Antisocial Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 99-115, March.
    9. Anna-Lena Ackfeldt & Veronica Wong, 2006. "The Antecedents of Prosocial Service Behaviours: An Empirical Investigation," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7), pages 727-745, October.
    10. Gebauer, Heiko & Fleisch, Elgar & Friedli, Thomas, 2005. "Overcoming the Service Paradox in Manufacturing Companies," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 14-26, February.
    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. Mengru Yuan & Wenjing Cai & Xiaopei Gao & Jingtao Fu, 2020. "How Servant Leadership Leads to Employees’ Customer-Oriented Behavior in the Service Industry? A Dual-Mechanism Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Rofcanin, Yasin & Heras, Mireia Las & Bosch, Maria Jose & Berber, Aykut & Mughal, Farooq & Ozturk, Mustafa, 2021. "Servant leadership and family supportiveness: Looking into employees’ work and family outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 70-82.
    3. Farida Saleem & Yingying Zhang Zhang & C. Gopinath & Ahmad Adeel, 2020. "Impact of Servant Leadership on Performance: The Mediating Role of Affective and Cognitive Trust," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440199, January.
    4. Howladar Mohammad Harisur Rahman & Rahman Md Sahidur, 2021. "The Influence of Servant Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behavior: the Mediating Effect of Organizational Commitment," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 70-83, June.
    5. Franco GANDOLFI & Seth STONE & Frank DENO, 2017. "Servant Leadership: An Ancient Style with 21st Century Relevance," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 18(4), pages 350-361, October.
    6. Dachs, Bernhard & Biege, Sabine & Borowiecki, Marcin & Lay, Gunther & Jäger, Angela & Schartinger, Doris, 2012. "The Servitization of European Manufacturing Industries," MPRA Paper 38873, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Newburry, William & Gardberg, Naomi A. & Sanchez, Juan I., 2014. "Employer Attractiveness in Latin America: The Association Among Foreignness, Internationalization and Talent Recruitment," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 327-344.
    8. Kurt T. Dirks & Patrick J. Sweeney & Nikolaos Dimotakis & Todd Woodruff, 2022. "Understanding the Change and Development of Trust and the Implications for New Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 711-730, October.
    9. Jean–Luc Arregle & Bat Batjargal & Michael A. Hitt & Justin W. Webb & Toyah Miller & Anne S. Tsui, 2015. "Family Ties in Entrepreneurs’ Social Networks and New Venture Growth," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 313-344, March.
    10. Jackson, William III & Nandakumar, Purushottaman & Roth, Aleda V., 2003. "Market structure, consumer banking, and optimal level of service quality," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 49-63.
    11. Ahammad, Mohammad Faisal & Tarba, Shlomo Yedidia & Liu, Yipeng & Glaister, Keith W., 2016. "Knowledge transfer and cross-border acquisition performance: The impact of cultural distance and employee retention," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 66-75.
    12. A Mukherjee & P Nath & M Pal, 2003. "Resource, service quality and performance triad: a framework for measuring efficiency of banking services," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(7), pages 723-735, July.
    13. Behrooz Gharleghi & Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Khaled Nawaser, 2018. "The Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility to Employees: Empirical Evidence from a Developing Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    14. Yi-Ju Lo & Tung Hung, 2015. "Structure offshoring and returns on offshoring," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 443-479, June.
    15. Omar Shafqat & Elena Malakhtka & Nina Chrobot & Per Lundqvist, 2021. "End Use Energy Services Framework Co-Creation with Multiple Stakeholders—A Living Lab-Based Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-24, July.
    16. Siri Jagstedt & Magnus Persson, 2019. "Using Platform Strategies In The Development Of Integrated Product-Service Solutions," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(04), pages 1-36, May.
    17. Deprez, Laurens & Antonio, Katrien & Boute, Robert, 2021. "Pricing service maintenance contracts using predictive analytics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(2), pages 530-545.
    18. Oscar F. Bustinza & Ferrán Vendrell-Herrero & Francisco J. Sánchez-Montesinos & José Antonio Campos-Granados, 2021. "Should Manufacturers Support the Entire Product Lifecycle with Services?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, February.
    19. Demeter, Krisztina & Szász, Levente, 2013. "Towards solution based thinking: characteristics of servitization at Hungarian manufacturing companies," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(3), pages 309-335.
    20. Feng Xu & Cam Caldwell & Verl Anderson, 2016. "Moral Implications of Leadership - Transformative Insights," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 6(3), pages 76-85, March.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:184:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-022-05162-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.