Servant Leadership and Organisational Commitment Among Hotel Employees: Comparing the Roles of Job Satisfaction and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour

Servant leadership (SL) is associated with favourable employee outcomes in hospitality, but it remains unclear whether its relationship with organisational commitment (OCM) is reflected more strongly in employees’ job evaluations or in their discretionary contributions. This cross-sectional study compared job satisfaction (JS) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as concurrent indirect associations between SL and OCM and examined whether employee resilience (ER) modified the JS–OCM and OCB–OCM associations. Survey data from 680 full-time employees across 13 hotels in Da Nang, Vietnam, were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling, with covariance-based structural equation modelling used as a convergence analysis. SL was positively associated with OCM (β = 0.350) and showed positive indirect associations through JS (β = 0.142) and OCB (β = 0.171). The estimated difference between the two indirect associations was small (Δ = 0.029, p = 0.223), with equivalence supported at the 0.075 and 0.10 bounds. The ER × JS (β = 0.003) and ER × OCB (β = 0.012) interactions were not statistically significant, whereas ER itself was positively associated with OCM (β = 0.232). Overall, the findings show that both attitudinal and discretionary behavioural responses are relevant to the observed SL–OCM relationship, while the proposed boundary role of ER was not supported.