Are servant leaders appreciated? An investigation of how relational attributions influence employee feelings of gratitude and prosocial behaviors

• Published date: 01 June 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2354
• Author: Robert C. Liden,Linyi Ouyang,Jiaqing Sun
• Date: 01 June 2019

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Are servant leaders appreciated? An investigation of how

relational attributions influence employee feelings of gratitude

and prosocial behaviors

Jiaqing Sun

1

|Robert C. Liden

1

|Linyi Ouyang

2

1

Department of Managerial Studies,

University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago,

Illinois, U.S.A.

2

School of Business, Renmin University of

China, Beijing, China

Correspondence

Jiaqing Sun, Department of Managerial

Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S

Morgan St., 2201 University Hall, Chicago,

Illinois, U.S.A.

Email: jsun46@uic.edu

Linyi Ouyang, School of Business, Renmin

University of China, 59 Zhongguancun Street,

Haidian, Beijing, China.

Email: ouyang01@ruc.edu.cn

Funding information

Greenleaf scholars Program 2017

Summary

Multisource data collected at three time phases were used in investigating when ser-

vant leadership elicits gratitude and then promotes prosocial behaviors. We tested a

moderated mediation model, contending that relational attributions moderate the

relationship between servant leadership and gratitude, and then gratitude sequentially

predicts interpersonal citizenship behaviors and upward voice. As hypothesized, when

employees do not highly rely on relational attributions for servant leadership, they

feel more gratitude and subsequently engage in more interpersonal citizenship behav-

iors and upward voice than the employees who rely on relational attributions to

explain their interactions with the leader. The sequential indirect effect from servant

leadership to upward voice via gratitude and then interpersonal citizenship behaviors

was significant when relational attributions are low rather than high.

KEYWORDS

gratitude, organizational citizenshipbehavior, relational attributions, servant leadership, upward

voice

1|INTRODUCTION

Servant leadership—practiced by leaders who place their subordinates'

needs and interests before their own (Greenleaf, 1970)—is increasingly

gaining research attention (Eva, Mulyadi, Sendjaya, van Dierendonck,

& Liden, in press; Hoch, Bommer, Dulebohn, & Wu, 2018; Liden,

Panaccio, Meuser, Hu, & Wayne, 2014). Because servant leaders place

a priority on providing need‐based support to followers in order to

assist them in reaching their full potential, followers in turn engage

in appropriate behaviors and make positive contributions in the work-

place (Greenleaf, 1970; Liden, Wayne, Liao, & Meuser, 2014).

Although accumulating evidence has shown the influence of servant

leadership on employees' in‐role and extra‐role performance (Auxier,

2013; Choudhary, Akhtar, & Zaheer, 2013) and work attitudes

(Amadeo, 2008; Chu, 2008; Engelhart, 2012; Jenkins & Stewart,

2010), limited attention has been paid to the individual differences of

employees' affective and behavioral reaction to servant leaders (e.g.,

Liden, Wayne, Zhao, & Henderson, 2008; Meuser, Liden, Wayne, &

Henderson, 2011). Of specific interest in the current investigation is

to explore the way in which followers attribute the favorable treat-

ment they receive from servant leaders.

According to Greenleaf's (1970) seminal essay, a remarkable char-

acteristic that makes servant leadership different from other types of

leadership is servant leaders' selflessness (van Dierendonck, 2011;

Wong, Davey, & Church, 2007). This unique characteristic of servant

leadership challenges lay‐people's fundamental opinion of human

beings—that people are selfish (Dawkins, 1976). When employees per-

ceive that their leader shows sensitivity to their personal feelings,

demonstrates genuine concerns for their growth and success, satisfies

their work needs, and always puts them first (Liden et al., 2008; van

Dierendonck, 2011), employees may wonder why the leader does

these things without asking for an immediate payback. The answers

may vary from person to person and trigger different feelings and

reactions. We contend that a major force that drives employees'

explanations for the servant leadership bestowed upon them is the

degree to which they make relational attributions, defined as those

attributional explanations “made by a focal individual that locate the

cause of an event within the relationship that the individual has with

Received: 4 January 2018 Revised: 1 January 2019 Accepted: 10 January 2019

DOI: 10.1002/job.2354

528 © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J Organ Behav. 2019;40:528–540.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job