Servant leadership: a new perspective to explore project leadership and team effectiveness

Abstract

Purpose Servant leadership is a new follower-centric style of leadership. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the project leaders’ servant leadership style on project team effectiveness via team goal clarity and team process clarity within the project-based organizational context. Design/methodology/approach A total of 58 teams working in 3 project-based organizations participated in the survey study. Team members rated their project leaders’ servant leadership style, team goal clarity and team process clarity in the project, while leaders evaluated team effectiveness. Hypotheses were tested using multi-level structural equation modeling. Findings Results suggested that servant leadership had a positive and significant impact on project team effectiveness via team goal clarity and team process clarity. Originality/value The study examined the influence of servant leadership as a team leadership approach within a project context. As a multi-level design, the study also identified the team-specific mechanisms (team goal clarity and team process clarity), which could help accomplish team effectiveness.