In the present times, a grappling issue confronting senior executives, especially HR managers, is employee engagement. Today’s ever-changing and chaotic business environment have made the organization’s realize the need to have a highly engaged workforce. Sensing this need, we wish to explore the role of a servant leader in creating an engaged workforce in the organization.
Servant leadership and Employee Engagement
Assessment of the characteristics of servant leadership and employee engagement shows an overlap between the attributes of both these constructs; implying about the possible constructive influence of servant leadership on employee engagement. The ethical orientation of a servant leader plays a strong role in creating an emotional bond with the followers, which is also a feature of employee engagement (Furness 2008; Hemsley 2007; Loehr and Groppel 2004).
…show more content…
A servant leader, driven by the desire to serve the needs of the followers, especially emotional needs, is able to create an atmosphere wherein healthy business discussions are encouraged (Sipe & Frick, 2009). Additionally, this helps in building the employees’ confidence (Keith, 2008) which in turn, ‘‘sends a positive, inspiring message to those who interact with customers and make thousands of decisions each day that affect the future of the organization’’ (Keith 2008, p. 51). With this background, the researchers would now examine the influence of servant leader’s trait on employee engagement,