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Servant leadership and employee engagement: a qualitative study

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  • Alice Canavesi

  • Eliana Alessandra Minelli

Abstract

Servant Leadership is a holistic approach whereby leaders act with morality, showing great concern for the company’s stakeholders and engaging followers in multiple dimensions, such as emotional, relational and ethical, to bring out their full potential and empower them to grow into what they are capable of becoming. Servant leadership has been linked through various mediators to positive individual and collective outcomes, including behavioral, attitudinal, and performance. Among follower attitudinal outcomes, the present study aims at deepening the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement in a large Italian consulting firm; first, by assessing the implementation of a servant leadership approach through a survey based on SL-7; second, by qualitatively investigating the servant leadership experiences lived by junior employees and their influence on individual engagement though a semi-structured questionnaire. The findings of the study suggest that employee engagement is positively influenced by servant leadership through various mediators, either leader-centered, such as empowerment, teamcentered, such as team cohesion, organization-centered, such as positive organizational climate, jobcentered, such as challenging tasks, and employee-centered, such as proactive personality. Some factors also emerged to hinder the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement, particularly those related to the working environment: namely, high pressure, poor work-life balance and remote-working. The article also provides theoretical and practical implications and identifies potential areas for future research on servant leadership.

Suggested Citation

  • Alice Canavesi & Eliana Alessandra Minelli, 2021. "Servant leadership and employee engagement: a qualitative study," LIUC Papers in Economics 2021-11, Cattaneo University (LIUC).
    • Handle: RePEc:liu:liucec:2021-11
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Michael E. McNeff & Justin A. Irving, 2017. "Job Satisfaction and the Priority of Valuing People," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(1), pages 21582440166, January.
    2. A. Newman & G. Schwarz & B. Cooper & S. Sendjaya, 2017. "How Servant Leadership Influences Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Roles of LMX, Empowerment, and Proactive Personality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 49-62, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Maryam Khamis Rashid Mohammed Al-Muzahimi & Fathi Mohammed Abunaser & Houda Abdullah Mohammed Al-Housni, 2025. "Exploring female leadership: servant leadership practices in basic education in Oman," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Emmanuel Siaw Okai & Peter Agyekum Boateng & Esther F. Akonor & Jeanette Owusu, 2025. "Servant Leadership and Strategic Employee Engagement: Incarnational Leadership for Enhanced Workforce Commitment," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(4), pages 2141-2151, April.
    3. Marta Moczulska & Renata Winkler & Katarzyna Tarnowska, 2025. "Social and Economic Aspects of Sustainable Development: Intensity of Collaboration as a Key Driver of Team Work Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.

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