Servant leadership and employee attitudes within a South African state-owned enterprise: Mediation by employee motivation

Abstract

We sought to investigate employee motivation mediation of the relationship between servant leadership, employee motivation, job satisfaction, and affective organisation commitment in a public sector enterprise. Participants (n = 128; male = 73; female = 55; age range = 31–40 years = 43; working more than 10 years = 49) where from a South African state-owned enterprise. They completed measures of perceptions of servant leadership, employee motivation, job satisfaction, and affective organisation commitment. Following mediation analysis, results indicated that intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation mediated the relationship between servant leadership, job satisfaction, and affective organisation commitment. These findings suggest that motivation is an important intervening condition to enhance the relationship between servant leadership and employee attitudes such as extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and affective commitment. Therefore, managers who display servant leadership behaviour are more likely to instil motivation, job satisfaction, and affective organisation commitment in their followers.