SERVANT LEADERSHIP, TRUST, AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT OF PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES IN CHINA
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12091 |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
doi: 10.1111/padm.12091
SERVANT LEADERSHIP, TRUST, AND THE
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT OF PUBLIC SECTOR
EMPLOYEES IN CHINA
QING MIAO, ALEXANDER NEWMAN, GARY SCHWARZ AND LIN XU
So-called servant leaders strive selflessly and altruistically to assist others before themselves, work
to develop their followers’ greatest potential, and seek to benefit the wider community. This
article 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 behaviour may be used to re-establish trust and create legitimacy for the Chinese
civil service.
INTRODUCTION
In his recent comprehensive review of the administrative leadership literature, Van Wart
(2013) noted that the changing historical, cultural, economic, and political contexts for
public managers require new leadership behaviours. Across states, public organizations
are said to experience a decline in public confidence due to corruption and other self-
serving tendencies of their officials. As a result, there have been calls for leaders who
set aside their self-interest by being concerned about improving the welfare of society in
general (Han et al. 2010). One approach to leadership, known as servant leadership, focuses
on this type of leader who is service-oriented and strives selflessly and altruistically to
assist others first before themselves (Greenleaf 1977). Servant leaders work to develop
their followers to their greatest potential by serving as role models who exhibit ethical
behaviour, provide support, and build self-confidence (Sendjaya et al. 2008). As well as
helping their followers, they also practise their service orientation outside the organization
by exhibiting concern for citizens and communities at large (Graham 1991).
Previous research has linked servant leadership to a number of positive group-
and individual-level outcomes, such as enhanced organizational citizenship behaviour
(Walumbwa et al. 2010), procedural justice (Ehrhart 2004), increased job satisfaction (Mayer
et al. 2008), and helping behaviour (Neubert et al. 2008). There is also growing evidence of
the effectiveness of servant leaders in engendering organizational commitment amongst
their subordinates (Liden et al. 2008). Organizational commitment has been studied by
public administration scholars as it relates to various positive attitudinal and behavioural
consequences, including greater motivation and better job performance (Angle and Perry
1981; Balfour and Wechsler 1996; Steinhaus and Perry 1996; Vandenabeele 2009; Dick 2011).
Despite the growing attention given to servant leadership in the literature, limited
research has examined the prevalence of servant leadership in the public sector, its
effectiveness in promoting positive employee attitudes, and the exact mechanisms by
Qing Miao is at College of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Alexander Newman is at the
Department of Management, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Gary Schwarz is at Nottingham University
Business School, China and Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School, USA. Lin Xu is at the Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Public Administration Vol. 92, No. 3, 2014 (727–743)
©2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
728 QING MIAO ET AL.
which it exerts its effects. We aim to address the gaps in existing research by examining
the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment in the context
of the Chinese public sector. Our study thus responds to the calls from Parris and Peachey
(2013) for more investigation of servant leadership within public organizations, and
from Su et al. (2013) for more focused research about Chinese administration that allows
hypothesis testing.
This article makes two main contributions to the existing literature. First, it examines
whether servant leadership can be used to promote positive attitudes among public
sector employees. This has not yet been studied, in spite of the fact that recent studies
have highlighted the importance of supportive managerial practices to organizational
commitment in public sector organizations (Gould-Williams 2004; Steijn and Leisink
2006; Dick 2011).
Second, the present research makes a contribution by focusing on the role of trust
in engendering organizational commitment. While prior research has found a strong
association between servant leadership and subordinate trust in supervisors (Joseph and
Winston 2005), this work did not examine its mediating effects on subordinate attitudes,
and treated trust as a uni-dimensional construct. We examine whether servant leadership
influences organizational commitment by leading to the development of affective trust or
cognitive trust. This enables us to test the salience of social exchange theory (Blau 1964),
which has been used to explain how leaders influence positive work attitudes amongst
their subordinates.
Servant leadership is particularly relevant in the Chinese public sector, which continues
to undergo fundamental change through attempts to improve administrative capacity (Su
et al. 2013). Creating a capable civil service is a major objective of Chinese administrative
reforms (Xue and Zhong 2012). Over the past few years, China’s political elite has
increasingly called for more ‘service-oriented’ administrative leadership, in support of the
central government’s focus on building a harmonious society and the campaigns against
the rampant corruption that led to the arrests of ‘princeling’ Bo Xilai, who was expected
to take a key leadership position in the Communist Party, as well as other high-profile
individuals, such as the Beijing Communist Party Chief, the Shanghai Communist Party
Chief, the Mayor of Shenzhen, the Vice-Governors of Hebei and Anhui Provinces, the
Minister of Railway Administration, and the Deputy Director of General Administration
of Customs in China (Gong and Wu 2012; Xue and Liou 2012). In light of these high-profile
corruption cases, then Chinese President Hu Jintao emphasized the need for government
officials to act selflessly to best serve society (Holzer and Zhang 2009). In essence, this was
a call for more servant leadership, and our study investigates how Chinese public sector
employees respond to this.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Servant leadership
The term ‘servant leadership’ was coined by Greenleaf (1970) in his book The Servant
as Leader. He refers to servant leaders as those who strive to serve individuals under
them, develop those being served, and benefit others in society. Greenleaf was inspired
by the book Journey to the East by Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse, in which a group
of travellers in India is assisted by a servant. After the servant disappears, the group
becomes dysfunctional and breaks up. Later on, the travellers realize that their servant
was in fact a highly respected leader.
Public Administration Vol. 92, No. 3, 2014 (727–743)
©2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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