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Leadership style and service orientation: the catalytic role of employee engagement

Sapna Popli (Department of Marketing, IMT Ghaziabad, Ghaziabad, India)
Irfan A. Rizvi (Department of OB&HR, International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi, India)

Journal of Service Theory and Practice

ISSN: 2055-6225

Article publication date: 9 January 2017

5644

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of leadership style and employee engagement (EE) as drivers of service orientation (SO). The competing models approach used in this study examines three models of influence on SO. The first model evaluates the influence of leadership on SO, the second focuses on the influence of EE on SO and the third explores the influence of leadership on SO through EE. The study provides evidence to support that the relationship between leadership styles and SO is impacted by EE. The results suggest that organizations need to develop systems and processes that focus on the employee and EE for definitive service outcomes. At a theoretical level, the paper provides a direction for further exploration of an integrated theory of leadership and engagement to drive SO in organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This empirical study uses a cross-sectional descriptive design. Hierarchical regression and mediation analysis were applied to process the data that were collected from more than 400 front-line employees from five service sector organizations in the Delhi-National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) of India using validated instruments.

Findings

The results from this study reveal both direct and indirect relationships among the variables. EE emerged as a critical variable that influences SO of employees. EE partially mediates the transformational leadership style-SO relationship and also the passive-avoidant-SO relationship and it fully mediates the transactional leadership-SO relationship. While all relationships of leadership-engagement, leadership-SO and engagement-SO are significant, the mediating effects accentuate the importance of EE in organizations.

Practical implications

Leadership style on its own has a direct bearing on EE and SO of employees, the three associations are significantly impacted under the mediating influence of EE. With EE emerging as a critical factor, organizations need to ensure engaging behaviors are measured and enhanced throughout the employee-life-cycle including hiring, training, rewarding and managing performance. The results of the study suggest that an integrated approach of developing and inculcating leadership styles that drive EE could be the basis for leadership development programs especially in the service sector organizations.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper is derived from the three variables studied in the context of the sample characteristics (front-line employees, young), industry sector (across service sector) and geographical location (Delhi-NCR-India). Not many empirical studies on these variables are available from the region. The empirical evidence on the influence of EE adds weight to the growing strategic importance of EE in organizations. The research also highlights leadership and EE together influence specific employee attitudes and behavior (SO).

Keywords

Citation

Popli, S. and Rizvi, I.A. (2017), "Leadership style and service orientation: the catalytic role of employee engagement", Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 292-310. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-07-2015-0151

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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