Does Servant Leadership Stimulate Work Engagement in the Workplace? The Mediating Role of Trust in Leader

Abstract

Servant leadership is a style that is considered to be ethical, positive, and desirable due to its compatibility with an array of situations. Moreover, work engagement is a key factor that can have positive short- and long-term outcomes for organizations. This research focuses on the role of servant leaders and their effects on employees’ work engagement in an academic setting. Furthermore, the role of trust as a mediator is analyzed to shed light upon its effect after the pandemic of COVID-19. As the academic sector has faced an abrupt shift to online formats, this study emphasizes on the role of leaders in fostering wellbeing for academic staff. This research emphasizes trust and work engagement as important elements for achieving positive employee outcomes within the context of sustainable psychology as a scientific domain. Through a specified approach, a sample of 138 people was collected from various faculty members and analyzed by SmartPLS. Results suggest a strong role played by servant leaders in improving the work engagement of their staff. Similarly, the mediating role of trust in a leader is statistically significant, implying its vitality for improving work engagement in an academic setting. These results can be beneficial for researchers (leadership and organizational psychology) and practitioners in the education sector.