Did Leadership Become More Important During COVID-19? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Servant Leadership on Performance and Work-Life Balance Satisfaction in a Public Organization

• Published date: 01 March 2025
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X231198165
• Author: Samantha A. Metselaar,Erik Hans Klijn,Laura den Dulk,Brenda Vermeeren
• Date: 01 March 2025
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X231198165

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2025, Vol. 45(1) 77 –100

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X231198165

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Article

Did Leadership Become More

Important During COVID-19?

A Longitudinal Analysis of the

Impact of Servant Leadership

on Performance and Work-

Life Balance Satisfaction in a

Public Organization

Samantha A. Metselaar1, Erik Hans Klijn1,

Laura den Dulk1, and Brenda Vermeeren1

Abstract

In this article we raise the question whether servant leadership became more

important for performance and work-life balance satisfaction during the COVID-19

pandemic. Two alternative hypotheses are formulated stating that on the one hand

the impact of servant leadership may have increased during COVID-19 as servant

leadership can help in dealing with a crisis. On the other hand, it may have become

more difficult to express leadership behaviors when leaders and employees are

physically distanced from one another. A longitudinal approach was taken to examine

the role of servant leadership in relation to the performance and work-life balance

satisfaction, comparing the situation before and during the pandemic. Panel data

was collected in a Dutch government organization (N = 293). Results indicate that

there was a decrease in the amount of servant leadership experienced by employees,

however its impact remained in times where leaders and employees were confined

to their homes.

Keywords

servant leadership, performance, work-life balance, COVID-19

1Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Samantha A. Metselaar, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, Mandeville Building,

Rotterdam 3000 DR, The Netherlands.

Email: metselaar@essb.eur.nl

1198165ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X231198165Review of Public Personnel AdministrationMetselaar et al.

research-article2023

78 Review of Public Personnel Administration 45(1)

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has given special meaning to the concept of working from

home. Rather than a possibility, as it was before the pandemic, it suddenly became the

norm for many employees (especially in the public sector), including those who had

not worked from home before because they did not want to or were not allowed to do

so. Experiences during COVID-19 will likely have a lasting impact on work relations,

the debate about working from home, and work-life balance issues. Many organiza-

tions, for instance, are reconsidering how they use their workspace after the pandemic.

Should employees work from home more, or should they return to the office? What do

these alternatives mean for leadership, employee performance, and work-life balance?

The experiences and lessons learned during COVID-19 will be important in answering

all these questions.

For public sector organizations this may be especially relevant since extensively

working from home may affect the individual job performance of employees, which

could in turn influence the quality of public services. Moreover, in their role as a

model employer (Steijn & Knies, 2021), it is important that public sector organizations

pay attention to employee well-being. Having a good balance between work and per-

sonal life is a factor of substance when it comes to well-being (Clark, 2000). Hence,

examining ways in which public organizations can foster work-life balance satisfac-

tion and performance (in the context of working from home) becomes very relevant,

maybe even more so in times of crisis.

One crucial factor mentioned in the literature on employee well-being and perfor-

mance is leadership. Leadership is thought to have a significant effect on employee

performance, as argued in many theories on leadership (Bass, 1985; Van Wart, 2012)

and demonstrated in various empirical studies (see Howell & Avolio, 1993;

Keulemans & Groeneveld, 2020). The same can be said of the relationship between

leadership and work-life outcomes (e.g., Coetzer et al., 2017; Haar et al., 2017; Tang

et al., 2016). Leaders motivate people in organizations and, in particular, support and

empower employees in their daily activities, as emphasized in recent leadership

theories, for example, servant leadership (van Dierendonck, 2011; Van Wart, 2012).

The COVID-19 outbreak, however, shook workplace situations to the core in most

countries of the world (at least between early 2020 and mid-2022). Employees

worked from home more than ever before, and we are still exploring the implications

of this. One intriguing question, then, is whether leadership, especially supportive

forms of leadership (e.g., servant leadership), became more important for employ-

ees’ performance and work-life balance during COVID-19, when many more people

were working from home and remotely from one another (e.g., their colleagues) than

before the pandemic.

Answering this question might improve how we deal with work situations in the

future, which is likely to involve working from home to a greater extent (Centraal

Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2021; Eurofound, 2022). How leaders can lead when

employees work remotely is likely to become a more important issue in the future,

making experiences during COVID-19 highly relevant. On the one hand, leadership