Investigating the impact of servant leadership on service excellence: the mediating role of PsyCap as a personal resource and buffering role of conscientiousness
| Date | 27 February 2023 |
| Pages | 515-532 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-11-2022-0259 |
| Published date | 27 February 2023 |
| Author | Faisal Qamar,Shuaib Ahmed Soomro |
Investigating the impact of servant
leadership on service excellence:
the mediating role of PsyCap as a
personal resource and buffering
role of conscientiousness
Faisal Qamar and Shuaib Ahmed Soomro
Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University,
Sukkur, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –Applying servant leadershiptheory, this study aims to investigate whether servant leadership
predicts service excellence of bank employees through mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap). It
also testsbuffering role of conscientiousness in boostingservice excellence.
Design/methodology/approach –The study uses data collected from224 bank employees. SPSS and
jamovi statisticswere used for data analysis.
Findings –Study findings suggesta significant relationship between servant leadership,service excellence
and PsyCap. PsyCap emerged as a mediator, and conscientiousness moderated the nexus between servant
leadershipand service excellence.
Practical implications –Findings highlight important implications for organisational practitioners.
Because servant leadership leads to service excellence, practitioners should consider adopting servant
leadershipat every organizational level. Further,servant leaders could enhance followers’PsyCapfor creating
service excellence.Organisations should use customizedtraining programs and development interventionsto
enhanceservice excellence.
Originality/value –This study is one of the few studies to investigate the mediatingrole of PsyCap as a
personal resource and bufferingrole of conscientiousness for service sector employees. Study generatesnew
insightsonemployeeexperiences working in service sectors.
Keywords Conscientiousness, Psychological capital, Perceived service excellence,
Servant leadership
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Service excellence is gainingincreased importance, as it is a key ingredient for creating high
customer satisfaction (Safaeimanesh et al.,2021;Zhan et al.,2021). Delivering excellent
services enables firms to gaina sustainable competitive edge and meet demanding andever-
changing customer needs (Bani-Melhem et al.,2020). Service organizations must achieve
service excellence by delighting their customers because their survival depends mainly on
consistent efforts to maintain long-term customer relationships (Gouthier et al.,2012).
Service excellence occurs by delivering superb customer experience “Wow experience”
(Safaeimanesh et al.,2021). Being a multi-dimensional construct, it includes competitor
orientation, employee orientation and patient (customer) orientation (Voon et al.,2014).
While it is a continuous process based on strong commitments made and delivered from
every organizational aspect, including culture, management, workforce, technology and
process (Kim and Kleiner,1996).
Impact of
servant
leadership
515
Received11 November 2022
Revised14 December 2022
Accepted29 January 2023
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.74 No. 1/2, 2025
pp. 515-532
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-11-2022-0259
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9342.htm
Kosovali et al. (2010) emphasized employee’s viewpoints on service improvement. They
termed it one of the crucial factors for business success because service excellence is more
related to employees’mindset (Voon et al.,2014). Horwitz and Neville (1996) stressed that
employees have a crucial role in articulating customer experience for reaching at service
excellence because they are responsible for service creation and delivery process (Cina,
1990). Further, Den Hartog and Verburg(2002) reported that employee’s perceptions related
to the quality of service is strongly correlatedwith customer’s perceptions of service
received. Therefore, considering employee view of service as a powerful tool to achieve
excellence, we propose perceived service excellence as an outcome variable.From a service
excellence perspective, Greenleaf’s servant leadership model (Greenleaf, 1970) has also
attracted much interest, and this study connectsservant leadership with service excellence.
Servant leadershipis atrue combination of serving and leading,where service is the leader’s
top priority (Hutabarat et al., 2021). Literature reported that servant leadership could
effectively enhance service-oriented behaviors and could contribute to service-related
outcomes (Christensen-Salemet al.,2021;Rabiul et al., 2021).
Present study proposes psychological capital (PsyCap) of followers as an underlying
channel between servant leaders and service excellence.PsyCap combines an individual’s
first-order four positive psychologicalresources: self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience
(Slaatten et al., 2019). We argue that investing in followers’PsyCap can be instrumental in
fostering service excellence because employees’higher PsyCap can exhibit better
performance (Farrukh et al.,2021;Luo et al., 2021). Earlier studies reported that servant
leadership could enhance employees’PsyCap (Brohi et al.,2021;Clarence et al., 2020).
Further, literature also evidencesPsyCap’s intervening role between servant leadership and
high-quality service outcomes(Bouzari and Karatepe, 2017). We also propose an interaction
of conscientiousness between servant leadership and service excellence. Conscientiousness,
a big five personality trait (Nudelman and Otto, 2021), is well-known for dependability,
preparedness and work efficiency. Characterized by higher motivation and job satisfaction,
conscientiousness can positively influence employee’s commitment to service quality and
service recovery performance in service firms (Oentoro and Popaitoon, 2017). It can also
perform moderator’s role between leadership and positive outcomes (Ahmed Iqbal et al.,
2021;Smithikraiand Suwannadet, 2018).
Present study applies Greenleaf’s servant leadership theory (Greenleaf, 1970)asan
overarching theoretical underpinning to understand the mechanism of creating service
excellence. Given servant leadership’s instrumental role in service industries, especially in
customer service domains (Melchar and Bosco, 2010), this study insists that servant
leadership can significantly create and enhance service excellence. So this study is
undertaken in banks of Pakistan. According to McKinsey andCompany (2022), Asian
bankers need to put customer at the center of the banking ecosystem and focus more on
giving exceptional service with long-lasting customer experience. Thirumaran et al. (2021)
stress that future of service excellence lies in highly personalized experiences. Similarly,
KPMG (2022) concluded that from Pakistan’s perspective, reshaping customer experiences
with personalized and individualized offerings defines the future of banking. Considering
the above, we argue that service excellenceis vital to achieving these objectives.
This research contributes to the nascent literature on servant leadership and service
excellence. First, it advances our incomplete knowledgeof servant leadership’sinfluence on
service excellence from Greenleaf’s servant leadership theory perspective.Although there is
evidence that servant leadership affectsemployee PsyCap (Brohi et al., 2021;Clarence et al.,
2020), little is known about contribution of both of these to service excellence. Through
Greenleaf’s theorizing,this study provides an alternative account of how servant leaders can
GKMC
74,1/2
516
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting