Servant Leadership, Trust, and the Organizational Commitment of Public Sector Employees in China

Miao, Qing; Newman, Alexander; Schwarz, Gary; Xu, Lin

Abstract

Servant leaders strive selflessly and altruistically to assist others before themselves, work to develop their followers to their greatest potential, and seek to benefit the wider community. This paper examines the trust-based mechanisms by which servant leadership influences organizational commitment in the Chinese public sector, using data from a survey of civil servants. Quantitative analysis shows that servant leadership strongly influences affective and normative commitment, while having no impact on continuance commitment. Furthermore, we find that affective trust rather than cognitive trust is the mechanism by which servant leadership induces higher levels of commitment. Our findings suggest that in a time of decreasing confidence levels in public leaders, servant leadership behavior may be used to reestablish trust and create legitimacy for the Chinese civil service.

Citation

Miao, Q., Newman, A., Schwarz, G., & Xu, L. (2014). Servant Leadership, Trust, and the Organizational Commitment of Public Sector Employees in China. Public Administration, 92(3), 727-743. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12091

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Apr 15, 2014
• Deposit Date: Oct 27, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 26, 2018
• Journal: Public Administration
• Print ISSN: 0033-3298
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9299
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 92
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 727-743
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12091