The Relationship between Servant Leadership and Organizational Commitment: The Malaysian Perspectives

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between servant leadership and employees’ organizational commitment in a Malaysian situation and adding trust in leader as the mediator. The first objective of the study is to explore the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment of working adults in Malaysia. Second objective is to determine whether trust in leader mediate the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment among these working adults. There are 200 set of questionnaires were randomly distributed to the employees working with various organizations throughout Malaysia. Out of them, 143 were usable yielded a response rate of 71.5%. Data collected were analysed through correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis using SPSS version 20. The result of the study revealed that servant leadership has significant relationship with employees’ organizational commitment. In addition, trusts in leader do mediate the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment among working adults in Malaysia. This research therefore, highlighted the importance of having the right leadership in fostering employees’ positive job behaviour. The limitation and direction for future research also discussed.