Servant leadership, work engagement and affective commitment in social exchange perspective: A mediation-moderation framework

Background Servant leadership plays a crucial role in fostering employees’ affective commitment within organizations. However, understanding the underlying mechanism through which servant leadership influences affective commitment is important to provide valuable insights into organizational research and practice. Objective This study aims to examine the mediating and moderating role of work engagement on the relationship between servant leadership and affective commitment in social exchange theory (SET). Methods Using the quantitative data via the completion of an online survey derived from employees in Indonesian public health institution, 154 useful data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Additionally, SmartPLS version 3.2 was utilized for testing the proposed hypotheses. Results The results of the study show that servant leadership has no significant effect on affective commitment, but significant on work engagement. Also, the finding confirmed that work engagement has a significant effect on affective commitment. Furthermore, the empirical findings highlighted that work engagement fully mediates the link between servant leadership and affective commitment. However, regarding the moderation effect, work engagement does not moderate the relationship between servant leadership and affective commitment. Conclusion Servant leadership, rooted in the philosophy of serving others first, is theorized to have a significant impact on work engagement through the lens of SET. Servant leaders, by prioritizing the needs and development of their employees, foster a supportive work environment characterized by trust and empowerment. In return, employees reciprocate by investing more effort and energy into their work, leading to higher levels of work engagement.