Servant Leadership and Service Performance: A Multilevel Mediation Model

Abstract

This study proposes and tests a multilevel mediation framework to explicate the processes that link servant leadership to frontline employees' service performance at both the employee and the branch levels of analysis. Data were obtained from 58 branch managers and 324 branch frontline employees of a chain restaurant in Taiwan. The results of hierarchical linear modelling indicate that two factors, concern climate and work engagement, mediate the relationship between branch managers' servant leadership and frontline employees' service performance; and that work engagement mediates the relationship between concern climate and such service performance. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered, along with future research directions and the study's limitations.