Does servant leadership better explain work engagement, career satisfaction and adaptive performance than authentic leadership?

The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model in which work engagement (WENG) mediates the effects of servant leadership (SL) and authentic leadership (AL) simultaneously on career satisfaction and adaptive performance. It also aims to test whether SL better explains WENG and the aforesaid outcomes than AL.

This paper used time-lagged data collected from hotel employees and their direct supervisors in Turkey. Structural equation modeling was implemented to assess the aforesaid linkages.

Among others, the indirect impact of SL on career satisfaction and adaptive performance, through WENG, is stronger than the indirect effect of AL.

Management can use AL as a base to develop and boost SL. Appraising employees’ WENG on a periodical basis would enable management to understand whether SL really contributes to the enhancement of WENG. In addition, employees can take advantage of informal learning to foster their adaptive performance.

There are calls for research to ascertain whether SL better explains outcomes than other leadership styles such as AL. Evidence about the underlying mechanism linking SL and AL to outcomes is still sparse. The extant research on SL and AL has neglected adaptive performance in frontline service jobs so far. With this stated, this paper aims to fill in these voids.