On the Servant Leadership Behaviors Perceived in Voluntary Settings: The Influences on Volunteers’ Motivation and Organizational Commitment

• Main Author: Eser Erdurmazlı
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2019-09-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019876265

Building on the functional approach theory, the current study empirically examined the influences of servant leadership behaviors on volunteers’ motivations and on their organizational commitment feelings. In addition, it also examined servant leadership’s indirect influences via those motivations on volunteers’ commitment feelings. To test its hypotheses, the study used the data collected from 385 volunteers. The research has found out that the degree of perceived servant leadership behaviors affected both participants’ motivation to volunteer and their affective and normative commitments feelings toward their organizations. Furthermore, as one of the six dimensions of the motivation concept suggested by the functional approach theory, only the protective motive partially mediated the influences of perceived servant leadership behaviors on the volunteers’ normative commitment attitudes. The study discussed the possible rationales under these research findings and made some future research proposals. The study hopes that its findings, through responding to expectations of their voluntary members, help voluntary organizations to be more effective and efficient in their recruiting and sustaining efforts.