To serve (or not) Gen Z employees to positively influence their responses to organizational change?

Purpose Leveraging social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity, the goal of this study is to examine the influence of servant leadership(SL) on employee responses to organizational change (i.e. change proactivity, change acceptance, change disengagement and change resistance) and explore the potential role of employee work engagement. Design/methodology/approach The study hypothesizes that employee work engagement mediates the relationship between SLand employee responses to organizational change. Data were collected from 330 Gen Z employees in the Greek food and beverage industry and their supervisors in three sequential phases. To evaluate the research model, we employed the Structural Equation Modeling technique with maximum-likelihood estimation, utilizing the Analysis of Moment Structures software. Findings The research findings indicate that SL may positively influence employee work engagement, which in turn may significantly influence all employee responses to organizational change. Further, they suggest that work engagement mediates the relationship between SLand change proactivity, change acceptance and change resistance. Practical implications The results note that leaders/managers should try to positively influence (Gen Z) employees’ work engagement by employing anthropocentric and supportive practices/approaches to positively influence their responses to change efforts. Originality/value In this study, we extend the existing literature on leadership and change by integrating SL, work engagement and change responses in a single, empirically tested model, an integration not previously examined in this specific context. Further, this study is the first to focus exclusively on GenZ, using multi-source data from both employees and supervisors across three time points.