Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions. If you have discovered material in Aston Research Explorer which is unlawful e.g. breaches copyright, (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please read our Takedown policy and contact the service immediately ([email protected]) THE EFFECTS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP ON FOLLOWER PERFORMANCE AND WELL-BEING: UNDERLYING MECHANISMS, BOUNDARY CONDITIONS, AND THE ROLE OF TRAINING SVEN LOHREY Doctor of Philosophy ASTON UNIVERSITY September 2015 © Sven Lohrey, 2015. Sven Lohrey asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this thesis. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without appropriate permission or acknowledge- ment. 1 ASTON UNIVERSITY THE EFFECTS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP ON FOLLOWER PERFORMANCE AND WELL-BEING: UNDERLYING MECHANISMS, BOUNDARY CONDITIONS, AND THE ROLE OF TRAINING Sven Lohrey Doctor of Philosophy 2015 THESIS SUMMARY Based on a review of the servant leadership, well-being, and performance literatures, the first study develops a research model that examines how and under which conditions servant leadership is related to follower performance and well-being alike. Data was collected from 33 leaders and 86 of their followers working in six organizations. Multilevel moderated mediation analyses revealed that servant leadership was indeed related to eudaimonic well-being and lead- er-rated performance via followers’ positive psychological capital, but that the strength and di- rection of the examined relationships depended on organizational policies and practices promot- ing employee health, and in the case of follower performance on a developmental team climate, shedding light on the importance of the context in which servant leadership takes place. In addi- tion, two more research questions resulted from a review of the training literature, namely how and under which conditions servant leadership can be trained, and whether follower performance and well-being follow from servant leadership enhanced by training. We subsequently designed a servant leadership training and conducted a longitudinal field experiment to examine our sec- ond research question. Analyses were based on data from 38 leaders randomly assigned to a training or control condition, and 91 of their followers in 36 teams. Hierarchical linear modeling results showed that the training, which addressed the knowledge of, attitudes towards, and ability to apply servant leadership, positively affected leader and follower perceptions of servant leader- ship, but in the latter case only when leaders strongly identified with their team. These findings provide causal evidence as to how and when servant leadership can be effectively developed. Fi- nally, the research model of Study 1 was replicated in a third study based on 58 followers in 32 teams drawn from the same population used for Study 2, confirming that follower eudaimonic well-being and leader-rated performance follow from developing servant leadership via increases in psychological capital, and thus establishing the directionality of the examined relationships. Keywords: Servant leadership; well-being; performance; psychological capital; training; leader- ship development; leader identification; organizational policies and practices; team development climate; multilevel; quasi-experiment 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Completing my doctoral research would simply not have been possible without the help of many great people. First and foremost, I want to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr Yves Guillaume for his invaluable feedback and support, his encouragement during difficult times in the research process, as well as his interest in my progress and well-being far beyond purely professional matters. Writing a thesis on servant leadership certainly becomes much more rewarding if one is led by a servant leader oneself! Next, I want to thank my colleagues and friends Jakob, Jude, Kristin, Ana, Adam, Monti, Pascale, and all other fellow PhD students who have crossed my path and walked it with me, even if just for a short while. Sharing our thoughts and experiences has not only helped me to improve my work, but also made the process an absolute pleasure. My gratitude extends to all those people who kept things running smoothly and subsequently allowed me to get on with my work, in particular Jenny and Zabin in the Work and Organizational Psychology Group, as well as Liz, Jeanette, Irene, and Ranjit in the RDP Office. From the bottom of my heart, I also thank my spiritual friends Jnanaketu, Dharmashalin, Shantighosha, Richard, Dave Whipp, Dave White, Khemadana, Saraha, and the Triratna Bud- dhist Community as a whole. Many times I entered the Birmingham Buddhist Centre being stressed and anxious, but left happy, revived, and optimistic. It is a true privilege to encounter so many kind and wise people not only once, but on a regular basis. Last, but not least, I thank my parents, who always supported my decision to delve ever deeper into the realm of research instead of getting a “real” job. May you all be happy, may you all be well! 3 LIST OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Contributions ....................................................................................................................... 19 1.2.1 Contributions to Theory ................................................................................................... 19 1.2.2 Contributions to Practice .................................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW OF THE SERVANT LEADERSHIP LITERATURE 2.1 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................ 24 2.2 Conceptualizations of Servant Leadership .......................................................................... 24 2.3 Comparison with other Leadership Theories ...................................................................... 31 2.3.1 Comparison with Transformational Leadership ............................................................... 32 2.3.2 Comparison with Authentic Leadership ........................................................................... 33 2.3.3 Comparison with Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) ...................................................... 33 2.3.4 Comparison with Ethical Leadership ............................................................................... 34 2.3.5 Comparison with Self-sacrificial Leadership ................................................................... 35 2.3.6 Extension to Other Leadership Theories .......................................................................... 36 2.4 Proposed Key Outcomes ..................................................................................................... 36 2.5 Processes and Boundary Conditions ................................................................................... 37 2.5.1 Individual-Level Processes ............................................................................................... 38 2.5.2 Dyadic-Level Processes ................................................................................................... 41 2.5.3 Group-Level Processes ..................................................................................................... 43 2.5.4 Boundary Conditions ........................................................................................................ 46 2.5.5 Potential Negative Effects of Servant Leadership ............................................................ 47 2.6 Critique of Servant Leadership ............................................................................................ 51 2.7 Summary and Theoretical Framework of This Thesis ........................................................ 53 2.7.1 Summary of Existing Theoretical Claims ........................................................................ 53 2.7.2 Introduction of Self-Determination Theory ..................................................................... 54 2.8 Empirical Support for Servant Leadership .......................................................................... 64 2.8.1 Doctoral Theses and Conference Proceedings ................................................................. 64 2.8.2 Peer-reviewed Journals ..................................................................................................... 66 2.8.3 Summary of Empirical Findings ...................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER 3: OVERVIEW OF THE WELL-BEING AND PERFORMANCE LITERATURES 3.1 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................ 73 3.2 Linking Servant Leadership, Well-being, and Performance ............................................... 73 3.3 Defining Characteristics of Well-being ................................................................................ 74 3.4 Hedonic Well-being: Conceptualization