Understanding how servant leaders can influence employee playful work design: the role of meaningful work, positive affect and work engagement

Abstract Leadership plays a pivotal role for employees’ proactive work behaviours. A recently researched concept is playful work design (PWD), a proactive process wherein employees redesign their work activities to infuse elements of fun and competition, has garnered significant attention for its positive outcomes, including for employee wellbeing. However, the underlying factors through which leaders can influence such proactive behavior over time remains relatively unexplored. Further, information on which leadership style enables PWD remains unclear. Bridging this gap and adopting a resource-based work-centric perspective, our study investigates the underlying psychological pathways through which servant leadership influences employee PWD. Using three-wave time-lagged data from 234 workers in Ghana, the study identifies four key psychological pathways. First, an affective pathway, where servant leaders boost PWD through positive affect. Second, a motivational pathway, where servant leaders enhance PWD by fostering meaningful work. Third, a complex motivational pathway, where meaningful work leads to work engagement, which in turn, promotes PWD. Finally, an affective-motivational pathway, where positive affect and work engagement sequentially mediate the relationship between servant leadership and PWD. These findings suggest that integrating servant leadership into leadership development programs can effectively encourage PWD, enhancing employee engagement and wellbeing.