How is Servant Leadership Linked to Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions?

Turner College management faculty Kevin Hurt and Neal Thomson recently teamed with Tobias Huning of the University of North Florida on research exploring how servant leadership is linked within organizations to job satisfaction and turnover intentions.  Their study, which was published in a 2017 issue of the Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, develops a model wherein these potential links are mediated through perceived organizational support and a relatively new theory about why people stick with an organization that is commonly referred to as “job embeddedness.”  As they explain, “[o]ur model proposes that organizational support and embeddedness theories are underlying theoretical foundations of servant leadership, and the mediators through which servant leadership behaviors impact follower behaviors and organizational outcomes.”  This new research may benefit organizational leaders by providing important explanations to the theoretical questions of how, when, and why servant leadership leads to specific outcomes.