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The relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour: A project management perspective

The relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and... Page 1 of 12 Original Research The relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour: A project management perspective Authors: Orientation: Understanding the relationship between a project sponsor’s servant leadership Camilla L. Krog traits and employee commitment, trust and innovative behaviour. 1,2 Krishna Govender Research purpose: This study aimed to understand the relationship, if any, between a project Affiliations: sponsor’s servant leadership traits of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive Regenesys Business School, mapping and organisational stewardship and a project team’s empowerment, commitment, Johannesburg, South Africa trust and innovative behaviour. School of Management, IT and Governance, University Motivation of the study: Most project leadership studies focus on understanding the role of KwaZulu-Natal, and power position of the project manager, with very little research being dedicated to South Africa understanding the effect the leadership style has on the project team and project success. Correspondence to: Research approach: A survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 48 project Krishna Govender team members from amongst a population of 257, comprising project managers, business Email: analysts and IT staff of a medium sized fleet management organisation that is in the process [email protected] of implementing an entirely new enterprise resource planning system. Postal address: Main findings: Through inferential statistical analysis, using structural equation modelling Postnet Suite #71, Private and path analysis, it was determined that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact Bag X9976, Sandton City on employee innovative behaviour, followed by employee commitment and trust via the 2146, South Africa mediator of employee perceived empowerment. Wisdom and organisational stewardship had Dates: a negative impact on employee perceived empowerment. Received: 11 May 2015 Accepted: 22 July 2015 Practical/managerial implications: Project sponsors need to exhibit persuasive mapping, Published: 16 Oct. 2015 altruistic calling and emotional healing traits due to the significant influence that these have How to cite this article: on employee innovative behaviour, commitment and trust, albeit through their perceived Krog, C.L., & Govender, K. empowerment. (2015). The relationship between servant Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to knowledge of leadership, more especially leadership and employee servant leadership and its significance in project management, which knowledge may empowerment, commitment, contribute to project success. trust and innovative behaviour: A project management perspective. SA Journal of Human Resource Introduction Management/SA Tydskrif vir Menslikehulpbronbestuur, Leadership has remained a fascination through the ages, possibly because of its mysterious 13(1), Art. #712, 12 pages. nature and also because it touches everyone’s lives (Yukl, 2013, p. 17). Within the project http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ management field, leadership is recognised as a key practical skill; however, what is more sajhrm.v13i1.712 interesting is the extent to which traditional leadership models and theories are able to Copyright: successfully capture their effectiveness within a project environment (Clarke, 2012, pp. 128– © 2015. The Authors. 129). Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1973, as cited in Clarke, 2012, p. 197) argue that leadership Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is style offers a means to categorise the different leaders’ behaviours within the current context licensed under the Creative and provides the mechanism to establish the manner in which a project manager would behave Commons Attribution towards the project team. License. Most studies focus on understanding the roles and power position of the project manager (Clarke, 2012, p. 128), with very little research being dedicated to understanding the effect of the Read online: leadership style on the project team. With the rapid expansion of organisations utilising projects Scan this QR code with your as an everyday form within the workplace (Jessen, 2002, as cited in Clarke, 2012, p. 128) it is smart phone or mobile device important to understand the relationship between the project sponsor’s leadership style and the to read online. project team’s ‘outcomes’. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 2 of 12 Original Research Although Greenleaf’s (1970) servant leadership essay strategy, in the development of new products and services sparked much interest, resulting in many articles being and to continually improve the organisation and its product written supporting it as a fresh approach to leadership and service offering (Winter et al., 2006, as cited by Leyva & (Sipe & Frick, 2009, as cited by Hayden, 2011, p. 3) it is only Matović, 2011, p. 1). Hauschildt et al. (2000, as cited by in the last 5 years, that it has been possible to measure the Thompson, 2010, p. 6) identified that both technical servant leadership dimensions within a leader (Hayden, components and organisational and human aspects are 2011, p. 4). This however only addresses half of the the challenges that affect the success of a project, and they problem, as the ability to measure follower outcomes is also established that the technical components contributed imperative (Greenleaf, 1970, as cited in Hayden, 2011, p. 2). to 50% of the challenge, with the remaining 50% being Furthermore, an understanding of followers’ ‘outcomes’ organisational and human aspects, with leadership being goes beyond those elements identified by Greenleaf , namely, the major factor. healthier, wiser, freer, autonomous and becoming servant leaders themselves, and requires further investigation. Leadership in a project team has yet to receive the attention Moreover, although studies have focused on the servant that it deserves (Clarke, 2012, p. 128) and has primarily leader in a general organisational environment, very little focused on trying to identify the optimal leadership profiles attention has been given to understanding the servant leader of a project manager for different project types. According in a project environment, especially the role of a project to Riaz, Masood and Mohammad (2013, p. 99) in order for a sponsor. Furthermore, little or no attention has been given project to be a success, it is essential that the right leadership to understanding the optimal leadership profile of a project and management skills, knowledge, expertise and sponsor and even less to understanding the influence that characteristics are present in order for the right decisions the project sponsor’s leadership style has on the individual to be made at the right time, with the right resources outcomes within a project team. allocated to the right place. Project leadership is ultimately responsible for defining a clear and understandable project In light of the above, the focus of this article is to understand mission outlining the project outcomes, which can be the influence, if any, that a project sponsor’s servant leadership measured (Anantatmula, 2010, p. 19). Although there is no traits of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, definitive leadership style that is preferred above others as persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship have on the ideal style when leading projects (Anantatmula, 2010, a project team’s ‘outcomes’, which, for the purposes of this p. 14), Thompson (2010) has recognised servant leadership article are defined as: employee empowerment, commitment, as being a model that may assist in overcoming many trust and innovative behaviour. of the challenges a leader may face on a project. In order for a project to be a success it relies heavily on effective Literature review and efficient activities performed by individuals at three levels, namely the project sponsor, project managers and Leadership project team members (Kilkelly, 2011, p. 4). Project teams Yukl (2013, p. 26) argues that a leader’s characteristics have are widely used in organisations that undertake research been the dominant focus of leadership studies, with specific and development, innovation and product development, emphasis on one or all of the following characteristics: and are relatively easy to study as they have clearly defined trait, behaviour, or power. Research in the field of, inter tasks, dedicated resources with a fairly stable membership alia, contingency or situational theory states that the ideal and leadership structure (Rickards & Moger, 2000, p. 273). leadership style is dependent on the situation, the follower It is the responsibility of the project’s leadership, in this case and the leader (Hannay, 2009, p. 2). This approach emphasises the project sponsor, to ensure that the project team forms the importance of contextual factors that influence leadership a cohesive unit, which can only be achieved through the processes, the major variables being the type of work to continual nurturing of the team in order to cultivate a team be carried out, the type of organisation and the external that has its own unique identity and personality, whilst environment (Yukl, 2013, p. 29). Emerging leadership theories remaining focused on its objectives and goals. According suggest that the true power of a leader is no longer linked to to Redick, Reyna, Schaffer and Toomey (2014, p. 29), one of the leader’s position within the organisation, but rather to the most challenging tasks of the leader or project sponsor transforming the organisation and its workers (Burns, 1978 is to get the project team to work together as a team, since as cited by Stone & Patterson, 2005, p. 7). Today’s leadership without a cohesive team, the project could be in jeopardy of theory studies have evolved and extend into focusing on the being unsuccessful. ethical leader, which encompasses transforming, servant, authentic and spiritual leadership styles (Yukl, 2013, p. 335). The concern for societies is on leadership that is focused on employee well-being (Van Dierendonck, 2010, p. 1228); Project leadership servant leadership emerged as a leadership theory that has As a result of the environmental challenges, projects are been linked to ethics, virtues and morality (Parris & Peachey, proving to be an effective vehicle for organisations to be 2013, p. 378). Graham (1991, as cited by Van Dierendonck, flexible and adaptable to their changing environments 2010, p. 2) states that servant leadership may be of particular and are therefore able to assist organisations achieve their relevance in this era due to its focus on social responsibility. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 3 of 12 Original Research drives an individual to act in the service of others, without Servant leadership regard for their own well-being; it is not motivated by the The concept ‘servant leadership’ was coined by Greenleaf recognition or rewards that can be had as a result of serving (1970, as cited by Yukl, 2013, p. 336) who defined it as an others. Thus, altruistic calling may therefore impact on how individual’s desire to serve others. Servant leadership can a project sponsor influences the project team to be inspired to be defined as the manner in which a servant leader goes achieve the objectives of the project. about influencing their followers; a servant leader is also the leader who actively understands and practises behaviour According to Hannay (2009, p. 5), in order for a servant that places the good of those they lead over their own self- leader to be effective they will require the participation and interest: the emphasis is placed on developing followers interaction of their employees, and in order for employees to rather than the glorification of the leader (Hale & Fields, participate and interact, they need to feel empowered, that is, 2007, as cited by Walumbwa, Hartnell & Oke, 2010, p. 517). they need the freedom (autonomy) to be able to contribute Whilst researchers acknowledge that volumes have been their thoughts, opinions and recommendations in a work written about servant leadership and its attributes, the focus environment where those contributions are respected and of this article is on Barbuto and Wheeler’s (2006) five servant utilised. In order for employees to work autonomously they leadership dimensions, namely altruistic calling, emotional need to feel empowered to do so; thus empowerment is healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational about giving employees the autonomy to make the necessary stewardship, and an exploration of how the aforementioned decisions as to how they go about their daily tasks (Haas, are related to employee commitment, trust and innovative 2010, as cited in Humborstad & Perry, 2011, p. 326). In light behaviour mediated through employee empowerment. A of the above, and with respect to the project sponsor as the brief description of each of the aforementioned constructs servant leader and the project team member as the employee, thus follows, resulting in the formulation of hypotheses to it is hypothesised that: explore the proposed relationships. • Hypothesis 1: Altruistic calling will be positively related to employee perceived empowerment. Empowerment In order for teams to be effective, the members should be Emotional healing and employee empowerment empowered and trusted, committed and given space to Barbuto and Wheeler (2006, p. 318) define emotional healing be innovative. The impact of empowered employees goes as a leader’s commitment and skill in helping others recover beyond the organisation, which ultimately results in a better spiritually from a trauma. They further expand and state that society (Patterson, as cited by Van Winkle, Allen, De Vore & leaders who are skilled in emotional healing are empathic Winston, 2014, p. 72), which confirms what Greenleaf (1970) individuals and great listeners, thereby facilitating the noted, namely, that a leader who uses power and authority healing process. Leaders with this emotional healing trait will to create a better society is defined as a servant leader (Van create a safe environment for employees to voice both their Winkle et al., 2014, p. 72). personal and professional issues. Some scholars have argued that the ability of a leader to provide emotional healing to The empowerment of individuals in a project team context employees goes beyond the individual and provides the has become an important area of study as there is increasing emotional stability for the organisation as a whole (Weymes, evidence that what holds true for empowering employees 2003, as cited in Barbuto & Gifford, 2010, p. 6). Emotional in a general organisational context does not necessarily healing has been associated with the leader’s ability to really translate to a project context (Nauman et al., 2010 as cited by listen to their followers and that the leader is empathetic to the Tuuli, Rowlinson, Fellows & Liu, 2012, p. 150). This research plight of others. An empathic leader has the ability to create endeavoured to investigate the influence servant leadership an environment that is safe for their followers to express has on empowering a project team utilising the employee both their professional and personal issues (Barbuto & empowerment assessment developed by Menon (2001, Wheeler, 2006, p. 318). In light of the above, specifically with p. 166). respect to the project sponsor (as servant leader) and project team members as employees, it may be hypothesised that: Altruistic calling and employee empowerment • Hypothesis 2: Emotional healing will be positively related Greenleaf (1977, as cited by Hayden, 2011, p. 23) describes to employee perceived empowerment. altruistic calling as the conscious choice of the leader to serve others. Fry (2003, p. 112) further describes altruism in Wisdom and employee empowerment a spiritual leadership setting as ‘unconditional, unselfish, loyal, and benevolent care, concern, and appreciation for Scholars have likened wisdom to notions of awareness both self and others’. Scott and Seglow (2007, as cited by and the astuteness of the leader to pick up cues in their Vaughn, 2014, p. 7) define altruism as a means to ‘promote environments (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006, p. 306). McKenna the interests of others’ with Smith et al. (1983, as cited by and Rooney (2005, p. 2) on the other hand summarise Chin, 2011, p. 4) expanding on this and describing altruism as wisdom as being the intellect of both rational (scientific) a ‘pro-social act’ towards individuals within an organisation. practices as well as transcendent (tacit) processes that include From the above it is apparent that altruism is the force that imagination, intuition and creativity. Wisdom in a leader http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 4 of 12 Original Research has also been defined as the ability of the leader to assess • Hypothesis 5: Organisational stewardship will be their environment and extract the necessary cues from the positively related to employee perceived empowerment. environment to make decisions based on an understanding of what the consequences would be as a result of their decisions Employee empowerment and commitment (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006, cited in Hayden, 2011, p. 23). Team commitment has three dimensions that can be Based on the above, and with respect to the project sponsor identified, namely affective commitment, which describes an and project team members, it is hypothesised that: employee’s commitment and willingness to remain with the a team because they want to, continuance commitment, which • Hypothesis 3: Wisdom will be positively related to describes the costs associated with leaving a team and results employee perceived empowerment. in an employee remaining with said team because they have to, and normative commitment, which refers to an employee Persuasive mapping and employee empowerment remaining with a team because they ought to as a result of Greenleaf (1980, as cited by Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 151) their feelings of obligation towards the team (Mahembe & highlights persuasion as a fundamental trait of the servant Engelbrecht, 2013, p. 1). leader. Persuasive mapping also enables the servant leader to identify their followers’ needs as well as be able to provide According to Seibert, Wang and Courtright (2011, p. 985), the necessary information so that their followers are able to when an employee has feelings of autonomy and perceive the importance of their work (Chin & Pan, 2011, empowerment, it is probable that these feelings will result as cited by Klein, 2014, p. 58). Another important aspect of in increased commitment to the organisation. Furthermore, persuasive mapping is that the leader’s influencing ability employee empowerment has also been associated with an stems from a place where they are not reliant on formal increase in continuance commitment as the employee would authority or legitimate power to influence their followers be reluctant to leave a work environment that is empowering, (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006, p. 307). since the employee may view leaving the organisation as sacrificing something of value (Meyer & Allen, 1991, as cited In order to have a lasting and effective influence over their by Seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). Taking into consideration the followers, the servant leader needs to approach persuasion abovementioned, it is hypothesised that: from a rational perspective and have the ability to identify • Hypothesis 6: Project team member’s perceived their follower’s needs. Bennis and Nanus (1997, as cited by empowerment will be positively related to their Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 152) state that a ‘pull’ leadership commitment. style will result in employees being empowered. Thus, through influencing their followers, servant leaders are Employee empowerment and trust ultimately persuading their team to follow their lead Anantatmula (2010, p. 19) states that trust encourages project willingly and thus the employees are empowered to choose team members to work together in a collaborative manner, to follow. Greenleaf (1980, as cited in Russell & Stone, 2002, encourages networking amongst the team members and p. 151) argues that persuasion on the part of the leader is to enables the team to innovate. Leaders demonstrate their go out ahead of the team, to show them the way forward; trust in team members through their actions, such as how followers voluntarily and willingly follow as they are much the leader controls or checks up on the team’s work, empowered to do so. Considering the above, this study the level of delegation, as well as the amount of freedom the hypothesises that: team members are given in order to participate (Barry, 2002, • Hypothesis 4: Persuasive mapping will be positively as cited in Redick et al., 2014, p. 24). related to employee perceived empowerment. Trust is a key factor for leaders to establish as it enables the Organisational stewardship and employee empowerment leader to motivate the team to accomplish both the mission and vision of the project and allows the leader to manage Organisational stewardship is not only the servant leader’s any conflicts that may arise that, if unresolved, could impact ability to create a sense of community within the organisation, negatively on project performance and may prevent the team but also includes the leader’s passion for impacting positively from forming a cohesive unit (Anantatmula, 2010, p. 19). on society as a whole (Klein, 2014, p. 3). Due to the ever Leadership style has been noted as playing a significant growing demand on organisations to stay ahead of the game, indirect role in forming team cohesiveness and efficacy, via it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to trust amongst team members (Chuang et al., 2004, as cited evolve and adopt innovative approaches to organisational by Fung, 2014, p. 4). Employees perceive empowerment as a stewardship. Stewardship encompasses empowerment and sign that their leader trusts them and, in turn, the employee the individual ‘choosing partnership over patriarchy’ and trusts their leader, colleagues and organisation (Henkin & ‘distributing ownership and responsibility’ (Block, 1993, Moye, 2006, as cited in Berraies et al., 2014, p. 86). In light of as cited by Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 149). By sharing and the aforementioned arguments, this study hypothesises that: owning the responsibility for organisational stewardship, employees will feel empowered to act. In light of the above, • Hypothesis 7: Employees’ perceived empowerment will it is hypothesised that: be positively related to trust. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 5 of 12 Original Research Employee empowerment and innovative behaviour conceptual model were explored using the methodology explained below. Innovative behaviour, which includes creativity and servant leadership, has been cited as an important leadership construct that encourages creativity (Neubert et al., 2007, Method as cited by Yoshida, Sendjaya, Hirst & Cooper, 2014, p. 2). Research context The development of new services, which requires innovative This study was conducted in a medium sized organisation that behaviour by employees, is heavily dependent on leadership provides products and services within the fleet management (De Jong & Den Hartog, 2003, p. 7), and effective leadership industry in South Africa and surrounding African countries. has been credited for the presence of innovative behaviour in The organisation was in the process of implementing an an organisation (Khan, Aslam & Riaz, 2012, p. 18). According entirely new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to some researchers, leadership has been noted to stimulate that was to form the foundation for the organisation’s innovative behaviour (Kouzes & Posner, 2002; Mumford information technology (IT) solution. A critical part of the et al., 2010, as cited by Noor & Dzulkifli, 2013, p. 129). organisational strategy is to improve on and automate its business, remove redundant processes and implement key Research has identified a strong relationship between performance indicators (KPIs) set against each process in employee empowerment and innovation, which encompasses order to manage employee and supplier deliverables and both the encouragement to innovative and actual innovative service delivery to clients. The objective of the IT project behaviour (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). The is to empower its employees, clients and suppliers and empowering of employees is important for initiating the increase the organisation’s client base without having to process of innovation as it provides the employee with increase staff overheads. The ERP system will enable the the independence to act in new and creative ways that delivery of an additional six IT solutions which will utilise go against the normal organisational standard operating the ERP transactional data and processes to deliver the processes and procedures (Pierce & Delbecq, 1977, as cited by following: a client and supplier portal, mobility solutions, Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). In order to explore business intelligence reporting, output documentation and the relationship between employee empowerment and transactional reporting, system integration and enterprise innovative behaviour in a project management context, H8 content management. The unique organisational requirements was formulated: necessitated the need for the project sponsor to have an active • Hypothesis 8: The employee’s perceived empowerment hands-on approach and to personally engage and work with will be positively related to their innovative behaviour. all members of the project team in order to deliver the ERP and its additional six IT solutions to the organisation. The The various relationships hypothesised between the project project team was made up of the following sub-units that sponsor as the servant leader and the project team members as are interdependent: the project sponsor, the programme employees are depicted in the conceptual model in Figure 1. manager, four IT managers, the project manager, the business The above hypothesised relationships depicted in the analysts, the functional unit representatives comprising the PREDICTORS MEDIATOROUTCOME VARIABLE Project Sponsor – Altruisc Calling H1 Project Sponsor – Emoonal Employee – Commitment Healing H2 H6 H3 Employee Perceived H7 Project Sponsor – Wisdom Employee – Trust Empowerment H4 H8 Project Sponsor – Persuasive Employee – Innovave Mapping Behaviour H5 Project Sponsor – Organisaonal Stewardship Source: Compiled by the authors FIGURE 1: Hypothesised relationships and conceptual model. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 6 of 12 Original Research general managers, external consultants representing third (2001) was used to measure organisational commitment, party suppliers and developers, all of whom are required since it was deemed reliable (0.93 alpha coefficient on the to collaborate in order to achieve the project objectives. full scale, with the subscales ranging between 0.89 and 0.95). However, only a select number of questions were included in The outcomes of empowerment, commitment, trust and the combined questionnaire used for this study’s purposes, innovative behaviour will be measured at these sub-unit namely those that could be reasonably modified to represent levels, with the servant leadership traits being measured at accurate scenarios that the project team member could face in the project sponsor’s level. a project environment and those aligned to the purpose of the study and the proposed hypotheses. Sample Non-probability sampling, specifically purposive or Innovative behaviour judgement sampling, was used (Ivankova, Creswell & Plano Dobni (2008) developed a questionnaire to measure innovative Clark, 2011, p. 178), as it ensured that the ‘sample selected behaviour which was associated with unidimensionality for the study was representative of the population in terms and activities and elements of innovation. Certain questions of the context of the study based on the researcher’s specific were selected from Dobni’s questionnaire from amongst purpose, and expert opinion regarding the population those that appeared under the subheading of ‘organizational being studied’. The sample comprised third party ‘supplier’ constituency’ because they resonated with situations that employees fulfilling the role of consultants on the ERP could be contextualised by a project team member within the project and project managers, as well as internal employees setting of the project environment. fulfilling the role of business analysts, general managers, IT managers, project managers and developers. The survey was Data collection procedure conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 48 project For the purposes of this study, the group administration team members from amongst a population of 257, comprising method was adopted, which entailed arranging an project managers, business analysts and IT staff of the fleet appropriate date, time and location for the respondents to management organisation. complete the questionnaire. However, in instances when the respondent was not available, an electronic version of Research instruments the questionnaire was emailed for completion and returned Servant leadership measurement electronically. The traits of servant leadership were measured by means Ethical considerations of the Servant Leadership Questionnaire developed by Barbuto and Wheeler (2006, as cited in Hayden, 2011, p. 22). Written permission was obtained from the organisation The aforementioned authors derived five conceptually and implementing the ERP system. Further, written permission empirically distinct servant leadership factors, namely altruistic was received from the project sponsor, who is the calling, emotional healing, persuasive mapping, wisdom and independent variable in this study; finally, each questionnaire organisational stewardship, analysed the five-factor construct incorporated a covering letter addressed to the respondents and confirmed the revised 23-item instrument’s internal which explained the research process. Furthermore, the consistency whose Cronbach’s coefficient alphas ranged from researcher was cognisant of the sensitivities regarding the 0.82 to 0.92 (Freeman, 2011, p. 127). research and the resultant impact that the research may have on the participants. Employee empowerment Menon’s (2001) Employee Empowerment Questionnaire Data analysis was used to measure employee empowerment, since it is The Smart PLS software for structural equation modelling both valid and reliable. Menon’s approach to employee was used to explore the relationships in the proposed empowerment was an integrative psychological approach conceptual model and assess the measurement instruments. and was developed on the basis that the psychological Smart PLS is a regression based technique that has emerged experience of power forms the basis for feeling empowered as a powerful approach to test causal relationships amongst (Menon, 2001, p. 153). Although the questionnaire had variables (Chinomona & Surujlal, 2012), even under three sub-categories, namely perceived control, perceived conditions of non-normality. In addition, Smart PLS can competence and goal internalisation, the researchers selected handle complex predictive models in small to medium specific questions from each sub-category on the basis that sample sizes and therefore fits the purpose of this study they were aligned to the purpose of this study and the since the current study sample size is relatively small (44). hypotheses proposed. PLS also generates path coefficients for the relationships modelled amongst the constructs. The significance of these Commitment coefficients was assessed using the bootstrap procedure The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire adapted (with 100 sub-samples), which provided the t-values for from the questionnaire developed by Tayyab and Tariq each path estimate. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 7 of 12 Original Research TABLE 1: Accuracy analysis statistics. Research constructs Mean value Factor loading R-squared value Cronbach’s alpha value CR value Average variance extracted AC AC1 0.864 AC2 0.946 2.977 - 0.927 0.948 0.821 AC3 0.922 AC4 0.89 EH EH1 0.767 EH2 0.954 3.841 - 0.936 0.946 0.816 EH3 0.966 EH4 0.913 W1 0.797 W2 0.849 W3 0.89 3.545 - 0.904 0.927 0.718 W4 0.863 W5 0.831 PM PM1 0.836 PM2 0.817 PM3 0.784 3.75 - 0.894 0.918 0.691 PM4 0.877 PM5 0.839 OS OS1 0.652 OS2 0.795 OS3 0.577 3.636 - 0.793 0.853 0.541 OS4 0.861 OS5 0.759 EPE EPE1 0.611 EPE2 0.75 EPE3 0.745 3.568 0.091 0.74 0.828 0.503 EPE4 0.777 EPE5 0.614 EC EC1 0.702 EC2 0.814 EC3 0.738 3.841 0.419 0.833 0.882 0.6 EC4 0.813 EC5 0.799 ET ET1 0.71 ET2 0.803 ET3 0.888 3.227 0.128 0.853 0.89 0.621 ET4 0.834 ET5 0.693 EIB EIB1 0.814 EIB2 0.76 EIB3 0.833 3.591 0.464 0.755 0.832 0.508 EIB4 0.592 EIB5 0.502 AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. acceptable. Discriminant validity was checked by ensuring Results that there was no significant inter-research variable Table 1 shows the measurement reliability, validity, mean cross-loadings (Chin, 1998). As reflected in Table 1, values and the item loadings of the variables. Convergent all items have loadings greater than 0.5, with no cross- validity was determined by assessing the values of items loadings greater than 0.750, whilst the t-statistics were that loaded on their respective variables. The item loadings derived from bootstrapping (100 resamples). As such, this are expected to reach a threshold of 0.5 or higher to be confirms that all the measurement items converged well http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 8 of 12 Original Research TABLE 2: Correlation between research constructs. Research construct AC EC EH EIB EPE ET OS PM W AC 1.000 - - - - - - - - EC 0.549 1.000 - - - - - - - EH 0.637 0.389 1.000 - - - - - - EIB 0.386 0.669 0.260 1.000 - - - - - EPE 0.280 0.658 0.225 0.690 1.000 - - - - ET 0.297 0.238 0.161 0.525 0.385 1.000 - - - OS 0.660 0.387 0.605 0.175 0.205 0.169 1.000 - - PM 0.542 0.529 0.526 0.275 0.386 0.086 0.750 1.000 - W 0.515 0.479 0.428 0.370 0.228 0.285 0.673 0.747 1.000 AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. TABLE 3: Results of structural equation model analysis. Hypothesised relationship Hypothesis Path coefficients T-statistics Hypothesis rejected or supported AC à EPE H1 0.217 2.029 Supported (Significant) EH à EPE H2 0.016 0.065 Supported (Insignificant) W à EPE H3 -0.0.117 0.590 Rejected (Insignificant) PM à EPE H4 0.570 2.209 Supported (Significant) OSà EPE H5 -0.297 2.058 Rejected (Significant) EPE à EC H6 0.658 8.765 Supported (Significant) H7 0.385 2.259 Supported (Significant) EPE à ET EPE à EIB H8 0.690 10.537 Supported (Significant) AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. on their respective constructs and therefore are acceptable [Eqn 1] GoF = AVE× R measures. The calculated global GoF is 0.38, which exceeds the According to Chin (1998), research variables should have threshold of 0.36 suggested by Wetzels, Odekerken- an average variance extracted (AVE) of more than 0.5 Schröder and Van Oppen (2009); this led the researchers to and inter-construct correlations should be less than 0.850 conclude that the research model has a good overall fit. for discriminant validity to exist. Table 1 reflects that all constructs exceeded these criteria, with the AVE being In summary, this study reveals that persuasive mapping has greater than 0.503 and the highest inter-construct correlation strongest influence on employee perceived empowerment value being 0.750 (Table 2). The aforementioned confirms the compared to altruistic caring, emotional healing, wisdom existence of discriminant validity of the measurement used and organisational sponsorship. However, wisdom and in this study. organisational sponsorship have a negative effect on employee perceived empowerment, whilst at the same time, Table 3 and Figure 2 present the results of the PLS analysis the relationships between wisdom and employee perceived procedure on the structural model, along with the path empowerment and emotional healing and employee estimates and t-values. Support for the study hypotheses, perceived empowerment relationships are insignificant. which are labelled on their corresponding paths in Figure 2, On the other hand, employee perceived empowerment has could be ascertained by examining the directionality (positive a stronger effect on employee innovative behaviour, when or negative) of the path coefficients and the significance of compared to employee trust and employee commitment. the t-values. The standardised path coefficients are expected to be at least 0.2 and preferably greater than 0.3 (Chin, 1998). The results also show that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact on employee innovative behaviour, Although the results provide support for the proposed followed by employee commitment and lastly, employee positive relationships between the hypotheses, Table 3 trust via employee perceived empowerment. By implication, indicates that only three (H3, H4 and H5) of the posited the findings indicate that the more the employers or sponsors relationships are statistically significant ( t-statistics value use a persuasive approach in their leadership, the more the is greater than 2). Figure 2 and Table 3 provide the path employees will feel empowered and consequently the more coefficients for H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7 and H8 (0.217, willing they are to adopt innovative behaviour. 0.016, -0.117, 0.570, -0.297, 0.658, 0.385 and 0.690 respectively). By following the formulae provided by Tenehaus, Vinzi, Discussion of the findings Chatelin and Lauro (2005), the global goodness-of-fit (GoF) statistic for the research model was calculated using the Haas (2010, as cited in Humborstad & Perry, 2011, p. 326) equation: argues that autonomy comes about when employees are http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 9 of 12 Original Research AC1 0.864 AC2 0.946 0.922 AC3 0.890 AC AC4 EC1 0.702 EH1 EC2 0.814 0.767 0.738 EH2 0.433 EC3 0.954 0.813 0.966 EH3 EC EC4 0.913 0.799 EH EH4 EC5 0.217 W1 0.797 W2 0.849 0.658 0.016 W3 0.890 0.868 ET1 W4 0.831 W 0.701 ET2 W5 17 EPE1 0.803 0.148 ET3 0.611 0.888 EPE2 0.834 0.385 0.750 ET ET4 0.693 EPE3 0.745 0.197 ET5 0.777 EPE EPE4 0.614 EPE5 0.570 0.690 PM1 0.836 EIB1 PM2 0.817 0.841 EIB2 PM3 0.784 -0.297 0.760 0.877 0.883 EIB3 0.476 PM4 PM 0.839 0.592 EIB4 EIB PM5 0.459 EIB5 OS1 0.652 OS2 0.795 OS3 0.577 0.861 OS4 OS 0.759 OS5 Source: Compiled by the authors AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. FIGURE 2: Measurement and structural model results. empowered, by their leader, to be self-sufficient in conducting would empower employees to express their personal and their day-to-day activities as they see fit. This study supports professional issues, this study did not support the postulation that the aforementioned assertion is equally applicable in made by the researcher, and the results were insignificant a project environment as well, since the altruistic calling in (H2). Furthermore, although Manz (1998, as cited in Russell a project sponsor is positively related to the project team’s & Stone, 2002, p. 152) states that if a leader is wise, they will sense of employee perceived empowerment (H1). guide and support their followers by empowering them to lead themselves, this view was also not supported in this Although Barbuto and Wheeler (2006, p. 318) highlight study, since the servant leadership trait of ‘wisdom’ did that the servant leadership trait of emotional healing not result in an empowered project team (H3). According http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 10 of 12 Original Research to Hannay (2009, p. 5), if employees feel that their leader is members (H7). Recent studies have acknowledged the strong omnipotent and unquestioningly correct in all matters, it is relationship that exists between employee empowerment unlikely then that they will feel empowered to provide an and employee innovativeness (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, opinion or challenge their leader’s position. This could be 2013, p. 492), and empowerment has been identified as a the case in this study, where the project team members are key initiator of the innovation process within employees, since through empowerment, employees have autonomy intimidated by the project sponsor’s wisdom and therefore to act in ways that are novel and unique and which go do not feel empowered to offer their opinion or object to or challenge the project sponsor. The project environment against the existing status quo (Pierce & Delbecq, 1977, as may also not lend itself to the project team members feeling cited by Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). This study empowered, due to the circumstances of the project; the also supports the aforementioned views in that there is a project sponsor may be taking unilateral decisions, as a result strong relationship between the project team’s perception of of their assumed wisdom, which sees them not consulting empowerment and their innovative behaviour (H8). with or getting feedback from the project team members, which may create a sense of disempowerment amongst the Practical implications project team members. These unilateral decisions maybe as a The findings provide fruitful implications to both practitioners result of the constraints and pressures experienced within a and academicians. On the academic side, this study project environment where time is of the essence. contributes to the leadership literature by systematically exploring the impact of altruistic caring, emotional According to some existing research, persuasive mapping healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational involves empowering employees to make their own sponsorship on employee commitment, employee trust and decisions; thus, when employees follow, they do so willingly employee innovative behaviour through the mediating role of (Bennis & Nanus, 1997, as cited in Russell & Stone, 2002, employee perceived empowerment in a project management p. 152). This study supports the aforementioned, in that the context in South Africa. In particular, the findings provide results show that persuasive mapping of the project sponsor tentative support for the proposition that altruistic caring, results in the project team feeling empowered (H4). emotional healing and persuasive mapping should be recognised as significant ‘instruments’ to influence employee In order for organisational stewardship to be adopted, a innovative behaviour, commitment and trust via employee leader needs to empower their followers so that they freely empowerment. On the practitioners’ side, the important choose to become stewards themselves (Fairholm, 1997, influential role of persuasive mapping and altruistic caring 1998, as cited in Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 149). The leader on employee empowerment and consequently on employee empowers followers by creating a partnership with them innovative behaviour, commitment and trust is highlighted. so that organisational stewardship is a responsibility that is This study points out that project leaders should adopt and jointly owned by all parties (Block, 1993, as cited in Russell & exhibit persuasive mapping and altruistic caring leadership Stone, 2002, p. 149). The results of this study do not support qualities, in order to make their employees feel empowered the aforementioned views, in that it was evident that and consequently stimulate their innovative behaviour, organisational stewardship in the project sponsor did not commitment and trust. result in the project team members being empowered (H5). Research shows that when employees experience a sense of Limitations empowerment it translates into an increase in the employee’s This study, albeit exploratory, was conducted in one commitment to the organisation (Seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). organisation and one project. For greater generalisation, Additionally, an increase in continuance commitment a repeated study in different organisational contexts is ensues when employees feel empowered; this continuance necessary. A further limitation is the geographic spread of commitment is accounted for by the employee experiencing the study, which only concentrated on a single province (out a sense of loss of something they hold as valuable should of nine) in South Africa. Moreover, the study was limited to they leave the organisation (Meyer & Allen, 1991, as cited by only 44 participants in one organisation. Seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). This study further supports the aforementioned views, in that the project team members felt Recommendations empowered, which translated into them being committed to the project (H6). Some studies have also argued that when The limitations of this research can also be viewed as employees feel empowered they perceive it as a sign that avenues for future studies. An important limitation is the their leader trusts them, which translates into the employees geographic spread of the study since it only concentrated on then trusting their leader, their colleagues, as well as the a single province (out of the nine South African provinces). organisation (Henkin & Moye, 2006, as cited in Berraies et al., Subsequent research should contemplate replicating this 2014, p. 86). The aforementioned seems to true in a project study in other provinces of South Africa or even other management environment, since, in this study, the project African countries for comparison. Moreover, since the study team members felt empowered and this translated into a was limited to only 44 participants in one organisation in positive relationship with trust amongst the project team South Africa, future studies should consider expanding http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 11 of 12 Original Research De Jong, J., & Den Hartog, D. (2003). Leadership as a determinant of innovative the data collection to include a larger, more representative behaviour: A conceptual framework, The Hague, The Netherlands: Scientific sample. Finally, further research could also investigate the Analysis of Entrepreneurship and SMEs. effects of other servant leadership dimensions on employee Dobni, C.B. (2008). Measuring innovation culture in organizations: The development of a generalized innovation culture construct using exploratory factor analysis. empowerment. 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Relationships among team trust, team cohesion, team satisfaction and project team eectiv ff eness as perceived by project managers mapping and organisational sponsorship on employee in Malaysia. International Journal of Business, Economics and Management , commitment, employee trust and employee innovative 1(1), 1–15. behaviour through the mediating role of employee Greenleaf, R.K. (1970). Who is the servant leader? In The servant as leader. Retrieved September 4, 2015, from https://greenleaf.org . perceived empowerment. In particular, eight hypotheses Hannay, M. (2009). The cross-cultural leader: The application of servant leadership were postulated and tested using data from 44 respondents theory in the international context. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 1, 1–12. in South Africa. The empirical results supported three of Hayden, R.W. (2011). Greenleaf’s ‘best test’ of servant leadership: A multilevel the research hypotheses and five in a significant way. The analysis. Lincoln, NE: Faculty Publications: Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication Department. findings indicate that persuasive mapping has the strongest Humborstad, S.I.W., & Perry, C. (2011). Employee empowerment, job impact on employee innovative behaviour followed by satisfaction and organizational commitment: An in-depth empirical employee commitment and lastly employee trust via investigation. Chinese Management Studies, 5, 325–344. http://dx.doi. org/10.1108/17506141111163390 employee perceived empowerment when compared to the Ivankova, N.V., Creswell, J.W., & Plano Clark, V.L. (2011). First steps in research. (9th influence of altruistic caring, wisdom, emotional healing and edn.). Pretoria, South Africa: Van Schaik. organisational sponsorship on the same. Khan, M.J., Aslam, N., & Riaz, M.N. (2012). Leadership styles as predictors of innovative work behaviour. Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 10(1), 17–22. Acknowledgements Kilkelly, E. (2011). Using training and development to recover failing projects. Human Resource Management International Digest , 19(4), 3–6. http://dx.doi. org/10.1108/09670731111140649 Competing interests Klein, N.D. (2014). The relationship between servant leadership and employee The authors declare that they have no financial or personal engagement: The mediating roles of trust and fit . Omaha, NE: Creighton University. relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2002). The leadership practices inventory: Theory and in writing this article. evidence behind the five practices of exemplary leaders . Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http:// www.Leadershipchallenge.com Leyva, J.A.M., & Matović, V. (2011). Project management practices at the front-end Authors’ contributions of management consulting projects . Umeå, Sweden: Umeå School of Business. Mahembe, B., & Engelbrecht, A.S. (2013). 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(2014). The relationship org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.08.013 between the servant leader behaviours of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. Journal of Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organisations . (8th edn.). Essex, UK: Pearson Education Leadership Education , 13(3), 70–82. Limited. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png SA Journal of Human Resource Management Unpaywall

The relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour: A project management perspective

Krog, Camilla L.; Govender, Krishna
SA Journal of Human Resource Management – Mar 26, 2015
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Page 1 of 12 Original Research The relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour: A project management perspective Authors: Orientation: Understanding the relationship between a project sponsor’s servant leadership Camilla L. Krog traits and employee commitment, trust and innovative behaviour. 1,2 Krishna Govender Research purpose: This study aimed to understand the relationship, if any, between a project Affiliations: sponsor’s servant leadership traits of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive Regenesys Business School, mapping and organisational stewardship and a project team’s empowerment, commitment, Johannesburg, South Africa trust and innovative behaviour. School of Management, IT and Governance, University Motivation of the study: Most project leadership studies focus on understanding the role of KwaZulu-Natal, and power position of the project manager, with very little research being dedicated to South Africa understanding the effect the leadership style has on the project team and project success. Correspondence to: Research approach: A survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 48 project Krishna Govender team members from amongst a population of 257, comprising project managers, business Email: analysts and IT staff of a medium sized fleet management organisation that is in the process [email protected] of implementing an entirely new enterprise resource planning system. Postal address: Main findings: Through inferential statistical analysis, using structural equation modelling Postnet Suite #71, Private and path analysis, it was determined that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact Bag X9976, Sandton City on employee innovative behaviour, followed by employee commitment and trust via the 2146, South Africa mediator of employee perceived empowerment. Wisdom and organisational stewardship had Dates: a negative impact on employee perceived empowerment. Received: 11 May 2015 Accepted: 22 July 2015 Practical/managerial implications: Project sponsors need to exhibit persuasive mapping, Published: 16 Oct. 2015 altruistic calling and emotional healing traits due to the significant influence that these have How to cite this article: on employee innovative behaviour, commitment and trust, albeit through their perceived Krog, C.L., & Govender, K. empowerment. (2015). The relationship between servant Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to knowledge of leadership, more especially leadership and employee servant leadership and its significance in project management, which knowledge may empowerment, commitment, contribute to project success. trust and innovative behaviour: A project management perspective. SA Journal of Human Resource Introduction Management/SA Tydskrif vir Menslikehulpbronbestuur, Leadership has remained a fascination through the ages, possibly because of its mysterious 13(1), Art. #712, 12 pages. nature and also because it touches everyone’s lives (Yukl, 2013, p. 17). Within the project http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ management field, leadership is recognised as a key practical skill; however, what is more sajhrm.v13i1.712 interesting is the extent to which traditional leadership models and theories are able to Copyright: successfully capture their effectiveness within a project environment (Clarke, 2012, pp. 128– © 2015. The Authors. 129). Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1973, as cited in Clarke, 2012, p. 197) argue that leadership Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is style offers a means to categorise the different leaders’ behaviours within the current context licensed under the Creative and provides the mechanism to establish the manner in which a project manager would behave Commons Attribution towards the project team. License. Most studies focus on understanding the roles and power position of the project manager (Clarke, 2012, p. 128), with very little research being dedicated to understanding the effect of the Read online: leadership style on the project team. With the rapid expansion of organisations utilising projects Scan this QR code with your as an everyday form within the workplace (Jessen, 2002, as cited in Clarke, 2012, p. 128) it is smart phone or mobile device important to understand the relationship between the project sponsor’s leadership style and the to read online. project team’s ‘outcomes’. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 2 of 12 Original Research Although Greenleaf’s (1970) servant leadership essay strategy, in the development of new products and services sparked much interest, resulting in many articles being and to continually improve the organisation and its product written supporting it as a fresh approach to leadership and service offering (Winter et al., 2006, as cited by Leyva & (Sipe & Frick, 2009, as cited by Hayden, 2011, p. 3) it is only Matović, 2011, p. 1). Hauschildt et al. (2000, as cited by in the last 5 years, that it has been possible to measure the Thompson, 2010, p. 6) identified that both technical servant leadership dimensions within a leader (Hayden, components and organisational and human aspects are 2011, p. 4). This however only addresses half of the the challenges that affect the success of a project, and they problem, as the ability to measure follower outcomes is also established that the technical components contributed imperative (Greenleaf, 1970, as cited in Hayden, 2011, p. 2). to 50% of the challenge, with the remaining 50% being Furthermore, an understanding of followers’ ‘outcomes’ organisational and human aspects, with leadership being goes beyond those elements identified by Greenleaf , namely, the major factor. healthier, wiser, freer, autonomous and becoming servant leaders themselves, and requires further investigation. Leadership in a project team has yet to receive the attention Moreover, although studies have focused on the servant that it deserves (Clarke, 2012, p. 128) and has primarily leader in a general organisational environment, very little focused on trying to identify the optimal leadership profiles attention has been given to understanding the servant leader of a project manager for different project types. According in a project environment, especially the role of a project to Riaz, Masood and Mohammad (2013, p. 99) in order for a sponsor. Furthermore, little or no attention has been given project to be a success, it is essential that the right leadership to understanding the optimal leadership profile of a project and management skills, knowledge, expertise and sponsor and even less to understanding the influence that characteristics are present in order for the right decisions the project sponsor’s leadership style has on the individual to be made at the right time, with the right resources outcomes within a project team. allocated to the right place. Project leadership is ultimately responsible for defining a clear and understandable project In light of the above, the focus of this article is to understand mission outlining the project outcomes, which can be the influence, if any, that a project sponsor’s servant leadership measured (Anantatmula, 2010, p. 19). Although there is no traits of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, definitive leadership style that is preferred above others as persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship have on the ideal style when leading projects (Anantatmula, 2010, a project team’s ‘outcomes’, which, for the purposes of this p. 14), Thompson (2010) has recognised servant leadership article are defined as: employee empowerment, commitment, as being a model that may assist in overcoming many trust and innovative behaviour. of the challenges a leader may face on a project. In order for a project to be a success it relies heavily on effective Literature review and efficient activities performed by individuals at three levels, namely the project sponsor, project managers and Leadership project team members (Kilkelly, 2011, p. 4). Project teams Yukl (2013, p. 26) argues that a leader’s characteristics have are widely used in organisations that undertake research been the dominant focus of leadership studies, with specific and development, innovation and product development, emphasis on one or all of the following characteristics: and are relatively easy to study as they have clearly defined trait, behaviour, or power. Research in the field of, inter tasks, dedicated resources with a fairly stable membership alia, contingency or situational theory states that the ideal and leadership structure (Rickards & Moger, 2000, p. 273). leadership style is dependent on the situation, the follower It is the responsibility of the project’s leadership, in this case and the leader (Hannay, 2009, p. 2). This approach emphasises the project sponsor, to ensure that the project team forms the importance of contextual factors that influence leadership a cohesive unit, which can only be achieved through the processes, the major variables being the type of work to continual nurturing of the team in order to cultivate a team be carried out, the type of organisation and the external that has its own unique identity and personality, whilst environment (Yukl, 2013, p. 29). Emerging leadership theories remaining focused on its objectives and goals. According suggest that the true power of a leader is no longer linked to to Redick, Reyna, Schaffer and Toomey (2014, p. 29), one of the leader’s position within the organisation, but rather to the most challenging tasks of the leader or project sponsor transforming the organisation and its workers (Burns, 1978 is to get the project team to work together as a team, since as cited by Stone & Patterson, 2005, p. 7). Today’s leadership without a cohesive team, the project could be in jeopardy of theory studies have evolved and extend into focusing on the being unsuccessful. ethical leader, which encompasses transforming, servant, authentic and spiritual leadership styles (Yukl, 2013, p. 335). The concern for societies is on leadership that is focused on employee well-being (Van Dierendonck, 2010, p. 1228); Project leadership servant leadership emerged as a leadership theory that has As a result of the environmental challenges, projects are been linked to ethics, virtues and morality (Parris & Peachey, proving to be an effective vehicle for organisations to be 2013, p. 378). Graham (1991, as cited by Van Dierendonck, flexible and adaptable to their changing environments 2010, p. 2) states that servant leadership may be of particular and are therefore able to assist organisations achieve their relevance in this era due to its focus on social responsibility. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 3 of 12 Original Research drives an individual to act in the service of others, without Servant leadership regard for their own well-being; it is not motivated by the The concept ‘servant leadership’ was coined by Greenleaf recognition or rewards that can be had as a result of serving (1970, as cited by Yukl, 2013, p. 336) who defined it as an others. Thus, altruistic calling may therefore impact on how individual’s desire to serve others. Servant leadership can a project sponsor influences the project team to be inspired to be defined as the manner in which a servant leader goes achieve the objectives of the project. about influencing their followers; a servant leader is also the leader who actively understands and practises behaviour According to Hannay (2009, p. 5), in order for a servant that places the good of those they lead over their own self- leader to be effective they will require the participation and interest: the emphasis is placed on developing followers interaction of their employees, and in order for employees to rather than the glorification of the leader (Hale & Fields, participate and interact, they need to feel empowered, that is, 2007, as cited by Walumbwa, Hartnell & Oke, 2010, p. 517). they need the freedom (autonomy) to be able to contribute Whilst researchers acknowledge that volumes have been their thoughts, opinions and recommendations in a work written about servant leadership and its attributes, the focus environment where those contributions are respected and of this article is on Barbuto and Wheeler’s (2006) five servant utilised. In order for employees to work autonomously they leadership dimensions, namely altruistic calling, emotional need to feel empowered to do so; thus empowerment is healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational about giving employees the autonomy to make the necessary stewardship, and an exploration of how the aforementioned decisions as to how they go about their daily tasks (Haas, are related to employee commitment, trust and innovative 2010, as cited in Humborstad & Perry, 2011, p. 326). In light behaviour mediated through employee empowerment. A of the above, and with respect to the project sponsor as the brief description of each of the aforementioned constructs servant leader and the project team member as the employee, thus follows, resulting in the formulation of hypotheses to it is hypothesised that: explore the proposed relationships. • Hypothesis 1: Altruistic calling will be positively related to employee perceived empowerment. Empowerment In order for teams to be effective, the members should be Emotional healing and employee empowerment empowered and trusted, committed and given space to Barbuto and Wheeler (2006, p. 318) define emotional healing be innovative. The impact of empowered employees goes as a leader’s commitment and skill in helping others recover beyond the organisation, which ultimately results in a better spiritually from a trauma. They further expand and state that society (Patterson, as cited by Van Winkle, Allen, De Vore & leaders who are skilled in emotional healing are empathic Winston, 2014, p. 72), which confirms what Greenleaf (1970) individuals and great listeners, thereby facilitating the noted, namely, that a leader who uses power and authority healing process. Leaders with this emotional healing trait will to create a better society is defined as a servant leader (Van create a safe environment for employees to voice both their Winkle et al., 2014, p. 72). personal and professional issues. Some scholars have argued that the ability of a leader to provide emotional healing to The empowerment of individuals in a project team context employees goes beyond the individual and provides the has become an important area of study as there is increasing emotional stability for the organisation as a whole (Weymes, evidence that what holds true for empowering employees 2003, as cited in Barbuto & Gifford, 2010, p. 6). Emotional in a general organisational context does not necessarily healing has been associated with the leader’s ability to really translate to a project context (Nauman et al., 2010 as cited by listen to their followers and that the leader is empathetic to the Tuuli, Rowlinson, Fellows & Liu, 2012, p. 150). This research plight of others. An empathic leader has the ability to create endeavoured to investigate the influence servant leadership an environment that is safe for their followers to express has on empowering a project team utilising the employee both their professional and personal issues (Barbuto & empowerment assessment developed by Menon (2001, Wheeler, 2006, p. 318). In light of the above, specifically with p. 166). respect to the project sponsor (as servant leader) and project team members as employees, it may be hypothesised that: Altruistic calling and employee empowerment • Hypothesis 2: Emotional healing will be positively related Greenleaf (1977, as cited by Hayden, 2011, p. 23) describes to employee perceived empowerment. altruistic calling as the conscious choice of the leader to serve others. Fry (2003, p. 112) further describes altruism in Wisdom and employee empowerment a spiritual leadership setting as ‘unconditional, unselfish, loyal, and benevolent care, concern, and appreciation for Scholars have likened wisdom to notions of awareness both self and others’. Scott and Seglow (2007, as cited by and the astuteness of the leader to pick up cues in their Vaughn, 2014, p. 7) define altruism as a means to ‘promote environments (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006, p. 306). McKenna the interests of others’ with Smith et al. (1983, as cited by and Rooney (2005, p. 2) on the other hand summarise Chin, 2011, p. 4) expanding on this and describing altruism as wisdom as being the intellect of both rational (scientific) a ‘pro-social act’ towards individuals within an organisation. practices as well as transcendent (tacit) processes that include From the above it is apparent that altruism is the force that imagination, intuition and creativity. Wisdom in a leader http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 4 of 12 Original Research has also been defined as the ability of the leader to assess • Hypothesis 5: Organisational stewardship will be their environment and extract the necessary cues from the positively related to employee perceived empowerment. environment to make decisions based on an understanding of what the consequences would be as a result of their decisions Employee empowerment and commitment (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006, cited in Hayden, 2011, p. 23). Team commitment has three dimensions that can be Based on the above, and with respect to the project sponsor identified, namely affective commitment, which describes an and project team members, it is hypothesised that: employee’s commitment and willingness to remain with the a team because they want to, continuance commitment, which • Hypothesis 3: Wisdom will be positively related to describes the costs associated with leaving a team and results employee perceived empowerment. in an employee remaining with said team because they have to, and normative commitment, which refers to an employee Persuasive mapping and employee empowerment remaining with a team because they ought to as a result of Greenleaf (1980, as cited by Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 151) their feelings of obligation towards the team (Mahembe & highlights persuasion as a fundamental trait of the servant Engelbrecht, 2013, p. 1). leader. Persuasive mapping also enables the servant leader to identify their followers’ needs as well as be able to provide According to Seibert, Wang and Courtright (2011, p. 985), the necessary information so that their followers are able to when an employee has feelings of autonomy and perceive the importance of their work (Chin & Pan, 2011, empowerment, it is probable that these feelings will result as cited by Klein, 2014, p. 58). Another important aspect of in increased commitment to the organisation. Furthermore, persuasive mapping is that the leader’s influencing ability employee empowerment has also been associated with an stems from a place where they are not reliant on formal increase in continuance commitment as the employee would authority or legitimate power to influence their followers be reluctant to leave a work environment that is empowering, (Barbuto & Wheeler, 2006, p. 307). since the employee may view leaving the organisation as sacrificing something of value (Meyer & Allen, 1991, as cited In order to have a lasting and effective influence over their by Seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). Taking into consideration the followers, the servant leader needs to approach persuasion abovementioned, it is hypothesised that: from a rational perspective and have the ability to identify • Hypothesis 6: Project team member’s perceived their follower’s needs. Bennis and Nanus (1997, as cited by empowerment will be positively related to their Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 152) state that a ‘pull’ leadership commitment. style will result in employees being empowered. Thus, through influencing their followers, servant leaders are Employee empowerment and trust ultimately persuading their team to follow their lead Anantatmula (2010, p. 19) states that trust encourages project willingly and thus the employees are empowered to choose team members to work together in a collaborative manner, to follow. Greenleaf (1980, as cited in Russell & Stone, 2002, encourages networking amongst the team members and p. 151) argues that persuasion on the part of the leader is to enables the team to innovate. Leaders demonstrate their go out ahead of the team, to show them the way forward; trust in team members through their actions, such as how followers voluntarily and willingly follow as they are much the leader controls or checks up on the team’s work, empowered to do so. Considering the above, this study the level of delegation, as well as the amount of freedom the hypothesises that: team members are given in order to participate (Barry, 2002, • Hypothesis 4: Persuasive mapping will be positively as cited in Redick et al., 2014, p. 24). related to employee perceived empowerment. Trust is a key factor for leaders to establish as it enables the Organisational stewardship and employee empowerment leader to motivate the team to accomplish both the mission and vision of the project and allows the leader to manage Organisational stewardship is not only the servant leader’s any conflicts that may arise that, if unresolved, could impact ability to create a sense of community within the organisation, negatively on project performance and may prevent the team but also includes the leader’s passion for impacting positively from forming a cohesive unit (Anantatmula, 2010, p. 19). on society as a whole (Klein, 2014, p. 3). Due to the ever Leadership style has been noted as playing a significant growing demand on organisations to stay ahead of the game, indirect role in forming team cohesiveness and efficacy, via it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to trust amongst team members (Chuang et al., 2004, as cited evolve and adopt innovative approaches to organisational by Fung, 2014, p. 4). Employees perceive empowerment as a stewardship. Stewardship encompasses empowerment and sign that their leader trusts them and, in turn, the employee the individual ‘choosing partnership over patriarchy’ and trusts their leader, colleagues and organisation (Henkin & ‘distributing ownership and responsibility’ (Block, 1993, Moye, 2006, as cited in Berraies et al., 2014, p. 86). In light of as cited by Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 149). By sharing and the aforementioned arguments, this study hypothesises that: owning the responsibility for organisational stewardship, employees will feel empowered to act. In light of the above, • Hypothesis 7: Employees’ perceived empowerment will it is hypothesised that: be positively related to trust. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 5 of 12 Original Research Employee empowerment and innovative behaviour conceptual model were explored using the methodology explained below. Innovative behaviour, which includes creativity and servant leadership, has been cited as an important leadership construct that encourages creativity (Neubert et al., 2007, Method as cited by Yoshida, Sendjaya, Hirst & Cooper, 2014, p. 2). Research context The development of new services, which requires innovative This study was conducted in a medium sized organisation that behaviour by employees, is heavily dependent on leadership provides products and services within the fleet management (De Jong & Den Hartog, 2003, p. 7), and effective leadership industry in South Africa and surrounding African countries. has been credited for the presence of innovative behaviour in The organisation was in the process of implementing an an organisation (Khan, Aslam & Riaz, 2012, p. 18). According entirely new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to some researchers, leadership has been noted to stimulate that was to form the foundation for the organisation’s innovative behaviour (Kouzes & Posner, 2002; Mumford information technology (IT) solution. A critical part of the et al., 2010, as cited by Noor & Dzulkifli, 2013, p. 129). organisational strategy is to improve on and automate its business, remove redundant processes and implement key Research has identified a strong relationship between performance indicators (KPIs) set against each process in employee empowerment and innovation, which encompasses order to manage employee and supplier deliverables and both the encouragement to innovative and actual innovative service delivery to clients. The objective of the IT project behaviour (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). The is to empower its employees, clients and suppliers and empowering of employees is important for initiating the increase the organisation’s client base without having to process of innovation as it provides the employee with increase staff overheads. The ERP system will enable the the independence to act in new and creative ways that delivery of an additional six IT solutions which will utilise go against the normal organisational standard operating the ERP transactional data and processes to deliver the processes and procedures (Pierce & Delbecq, 1977, as cited by following: a client and supplier portal, mobility solutions, Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). In order to explore business intelligence reporting, output documentation and the relationship between employee empowerment and transactional reporting, system integration and enterprise innovative behaviour in a project management context, H8 content management. The unique organisational requirements was formulated: necessitated the need for the project sponsor to have an active • Hypothesis 8: The employee’s perceived empowerment hands-on approach and to personally engage and work with will be positively related to their innovative behaviour. all members of the project team in order to deliver the ERP and its additional six IT solutions to the organisation. The The various relationships hypothesised between the project project team was made up of the following sub-units that sponsor as the servant leader and the project team members as are interdependent: the project sponsor, the programme employees are depicted in the conceptual model in Figure 1. manager, four IT managers, the project manager, the business The above hypothesised relationships depicted in the analysts, the functional unit representatives comprising the PREDICTORS MEDIATOROUTCOME VARIABLE Project Sponsor – Altruisc Calling H1 Project Sponsor – Emoonal Employee – Commitment Healing H2 H6 H3 Employee Perceived H7 Project Sponsor – Wisdom Employee – Trust Empowerment H4 H8 Project Sponsor – Persuasive Employee – Innovave Mapping Behaviour H5 Project Sponsor – Organisaonal Stewardship Source: Compiled by the authors FIGURE 1: Hypothesised relationships and conceptual model. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 6 of 12 Original Research general managers, external consultants representing third (2001) was used to measure organisational commitment, party suppliers and developers, all of whom are required since it was deemed reliable (0.93 alpha coefficient on the to collaborate in order to achieve the project objectives. full scale, with the subscales ranging between 0.89 and 0.95). However, only a select number of questions were included in The outcomes of empowerment, commitment, trust and the combined questionnaire used for this study’s purposes, innovative behaviour will be measured at these sub-unit namely those that could be reasonably modified to represent levels, with the servant leadership traits being measured at accurate scenarios that the project team member could face in the project sponsor’s level. a project environment and those aligned to the purpose of the study and the proposed hypotheses. Sample Non-probability sampling, specifically purposive or Innovative behaviour judgement sampling, was used (Ivankova, Creswell & Plano Dobni (2008) developed a questionnaire to measure innovative Clark, 2011, p. 178), as it ensured that the ‘sample selected behaviour which was associated with unidimensionality for the study was representative of the population in terms and activities and elements of innovation. Certain questions of the context of the study based on the researcher’s specific were selected from Dobni’s questionnaire from amongst purpose, and expert opinion regarding the population those that appeared under the subheading of ‘organizational being studied’. The sample comprised third party ‘supplier’ constituency’ because they resonated with situations that employees fulfilling the role of consultants on the ERP could be contextualised by a project team member within the project and project managers, as well as internal employees setting of the project environment. fulfilling the role of business analysts, general managers, IT managers, project managers and developers. The survey was Data collection procedure conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 48 project For the purposes of this study, the group administration team members from amongst a population of 257, comprising method was adopted, which entailed arranging an project managers, business analysts and IT staff of the fleet appropriate date, time and location for the respondents to management organisation. complete the questionnaire. However, in instances when the respondent was not available, an electronic version of Research instruments the questionnaire was emailed for completion and returned Servant leadership measurement electronically. The traits of servant leadership were measured by means Ethical considerations of the Servant Leadership Questionnaire developed by Barbuto and Wheeler (2006, as cited in Hayden, 2011, p. 22). Written permission was obtained from the organisation The aforementioned authors derived five conceptually and implementing the ERP system. Further, written permission empirically distinct servant leadership factors, namely altruistic was received from the project sponsor, who is the calling, emotional healing, persuasive mapping, wisdom and independent variable in this study; finally, each questionnaire organisational stewardship, analysed the five-factor construct incorporated a covering letter addressed to the respondents and confirmed the revised 23-item instrument’s internal which explained the research process. Furthermore, the consistency whose Cronbach’s coefficient alphas ranged from researcher was cognisant of the sensitivities regarding the 0.82 to 0.92 (Freeman, 2011, p. 127). research and the resultant impact that the research may have on the participants. Employee empowerment Menon’s (2001) Employee Empowerment Questionnaire Data analysis was used to measure employee empowerment, since it is The Smart PLS software for structural equation modelling both valid and reliable. Menon’s approach to employee was used to explore the relationships in the proposed empowerment was an integrative psychological approach conceptual model and assess the measurement instruments. and was developed on the basis that the psychological Smart PLS is a regression based technique that has emerged experience of power forms the basis for feeling empowered as a powerful approach to test causal relationships amongst (Menon, 2001, p. 153). Although the questionnaire had variables (Chinomona & Surujlal, 2012), even under three sub-categories, namely perceived control, perceived conditions of non-normality. In addition, Smart PLS can competence and goal internalisation, the researchers selected handle complex predictive models in small to medium specific questions from each sub-category on the basis that sample sizes and therefore fits the purpose of this study they were aligned to the purpose of this study and the since the current study sample size is relatively small (44). hypotheses proposed. PLS also generates path coefficients for the relationships modelled amongst the constructs. The significance of these Commitment coefficients was assessed using the bootstrap procedure The Organizational Commitment Questionnaire adapted (with 100 sub-samples), which provided the t-values for from the questionnaire developed by Tayyab and Tariq each path estimate. http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 7 of 12 Original Research TABLE 1: Accuracy analysis statistics. Research constructs Mean value Factor loading R-squared value Cronbach’s alpha value CR value Average variance extracted AC AC1 0.864 AC2 0.946 2.977 - 0.927 0.948 0.821 AC3 0.922 AC4 0.89 EH EH1 0.767 EH2 0.954 3.841 - 0.936 0.946 0.816 EH3 0.966 EH4 0.913 W1 0.797 W2 0.849 W3 0.89 3.545 - 0.904 0.927 0.718 W4 0.863 W5 0.831 PM PM1 0.836 PM2 0.817 PM3 0.784 3.75 - 0.894 0.918 0.691 PM4 0.877 PM5 0.839 OS OS1 0.652 OS2 0.795 OS3 0.577 3.636 - 0.793 0.853 0.541 OS4 0.861 OS5 0.759 EPE EPE1 0.611 EPE2 0.75 EPE3 0.745 3.568 0.091 0.74 0.828 0.503 EPE4 0.777 EPE5 0.614 EC EC1 0.702 EC2 0.814 EC3 0.738 3.841 0.419 0.833 0.882 0.6 EC4 0.813 EC5 0.799 ET ET1 0.71 ET2 0.803 ET3 0.888 3.227 0.128 0.853 0.89 0.621 ET4 0.834 ET5 0.693 EIB EIB1 0.814 EIB2 0.76 EIB3 0.833 3.591 0.464 0.755 0.832 0.508 EIB4 0.592 EIB5 0.502 AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. acceptable. Discriminant validity was checked by ensuring Results that there was no significant inter-research variable Table 1 shows the measurement reliability, validity, mean cross-loadings (Chin, 1998). As reflected in Table 1, values and the item loadings of the variables. Convergent all items have loadings greater than 0.5, with no cross- validity was determined by assessing the values of items loadings greater than 0.750, whilst the t-statistics were that loaded on their respective variables. The item loadings derived from bootstrapping (100 resamples). As such, this are expected to reach a threshold of 0.5 or higher to be confirms that all the measurement items converged well http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 8 of 12 Original Research TABLE 2: Correlation between research constructs. Research construct AC EC EH EIB EPE ET OS PM W AC 1.000 - - - - - - - - EC 0.549 1.000 - - - - - - - EH 0.637 0.389 1.000 - - - - - - EIB 0.386 0.669 0.260 1.000 - - - - - EPE 0.280 0.658 0.225 0.690 1.000 - - - - ET 0.297 0.238 0.161 0.525 0.385 1.000 - - - OS 0.660 0.387 0.605 0.175 0.205 0.169 1.000 - - PM 0.542 0.529 0.526 0.275 0.386 0.086 0.750 1.000 - W 0.515 0.479 0.428 0.370 0.228 0.285 0.673 0.747 1.000 AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. TABLE 3: Results of structural equation model analysis. Hypothesised relationship Hypothesis Path coefficients T-statistics Hypothesis rejected or supported AC à EPE H1 0.217 2.029 Supported (Significant) EH à EPE H2 0.016 0.065 Supported (Insignificant) W à EPE H3 -0.0.117 0.590 Rejected (Insignificant) PM à EPE H4 0.570 2.209 Supported (Significant) OSà EPE H5 -0.297 2.058 Rejected (Significant) EPE à EC H6 0.658 8.765 Supported (Significant) H7 0.385 2.259 Supported (Significant) EPE à ET EPE à EIB H8 0.690 10.537 Supported (Significant) AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. on their respective constructs and therefore are acceptable [Eqn 1] GoF = AVE× R measures. The calculated global GoF is 0.38, which exceeds the According to Chin (1998), research variables should have threshold of 0.36 suggested by Wetzels, Odekerken- an average variance extracted (AVE) of more than 0.5 Schröder and Van Oppen (2009); this led the researchers to and inter-construct correlations should be less than 0.850 conclude that the research model has a good overall fit. for discriminant validity to exist. Table 1 reflects that all constructs exceeded these criteria, with the AVE being In summary, this study reveals that persuasive mapping has greater than 0.503 and the highest inter-construct correlation strongest influence on employee perceived empowerment value being 0.750 (Table 2). The aforementioned confirms the compared to altruistic caring, emotional healing, wisdom existence of discriminant validity of the measurement used and organisational sponsorship. However, wisdom and in this study. organisational sponsorship have a negative effect on employee perceived empowerment, whilst at the same time, Table 3 and Figure 2 present the results of the PLS analysis the relationships between wisdom and employee perceived procedure on the structural model, along with the path empowerment and emotional healing and employee estimates and t-values. Support for the study hypotheses, perceived empowerment relationships are insignificant. which are labelled on their corresponding paths in Figure 2, On the other hand, employee perceived empowerment has could be ascertained by examining the directionality (positive a stronger effect on employee innovative behaviour, when or negative) of the path coefficients and the significance of compared to employee trust and employee commitment. the t-values. The standardised path coefficients are expected to be at least 0.2 and preferably greater than 0.3 (Chin, 1998). The results also show that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact on employee innovative behaviour, Although the results provide support for the proposed followed by employee commitment and lastly, employee positive relationships between the hypotheses, Table 3 trust via employee perceived empowerment. By implication, indicates that only three (H3, H4 and H5) of the posited the findings indicate that the more the employers or sponsors relationships are statistically significant ( t-statistics value use a persuasive approach in their leadership, the more the is greater than 2). Figure 2 and Table 3 provide the path employees will feel empowered and consequently the more coefficients for H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7 and H8 (0.217, willing they are to adopt innovative behaviour. 0.016, -0.117, 0.570, -0.297, 0.658, 0.385 and 0.690 respectively). By following the formulae provided by Tenehaus, Vinzi, Discussion of the findings Chatelin and Lauro (2005), the global goodness-of-fit (GoF) statistic for the research model was calculated using the Haas (2010, as cited in Humborstad & Perry, 2011, p. 326) equation: argues that autonomy comes about when employees are http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 9 of 12 Original Research AC1 0.864 AC2 0.946 0.922 AC3 0.890 AC AC4 EC1 0.702 EH1 EC2 0.814 0.767 0.738 EH2 0.433 EC3 0.954 0.813 0.966 EH3 EC EC4 0.913 0.799 EH EH4 EC5 0.217 W1 0.797 W2 0.849 0.658 0.016 W3 0.890 0.868 ET1 W4 0.831 W 0.701 ET2 W5 17 EPE1 0.803 0.148 ET3 0.611 0.888 EPE2 0.834 0.385 0.750 ET ET4 0.693 EPE3 0.745 0.197 ET5 0.777 EPE EPE4 0.614 EPE5 0.570 0.690 PM1 0.836 EIB1 PM2 0.817 0.841 EIB2 PM3 0.784 -0.297 0.760 0.877 0.883 EIB3 0.476 PM4 PM 0.839 0.592 EIB4 EIB PM5 0.459 EIB5 OS1 0.652 OS2 0.795 OS3 0.577 0.861 OS4 OS 0.759 OS5 Source: Compiled by the authors AC, Altruistic caring; EC, Employee commitment; EH, Emotional healing; EIB, Employee innovative behaviour; EPE, Employee perceived empowerment; ET, Employee trust; OS, Organisational sponsorship; PM, Persuasive mapping; W, Wisdom. FIGURE 2: Measurement and structural model results. empowered, by their leader, to be self-sufficient in conducting would empower employees to express their personal and their day-to-day activities as they see fit. This study supports professional issues, this study did not support the postulation that the aforementioned assertion is equally applicable in made by the researcher, and the results were insignificant a project environment as well, since the altruistic calling in (H2). Furthermore, although Manz (1998, as cited in Russell a project sponsor is positively related to the project team’s & Stone, 2002, p. 152) states that if a leader is wise, they will sense of employee perceived empowerment (H1). guide and support their followers by empowering them to lead themselves, this view was also not supported in this Although Barbuto and Wheeler (2006, p. 318) highlight study, since the servant leadership trait of ‘wisdom’ did that the servant leadership trait of emotional healing not result in an empowered project team (H3). According http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 10 of 12 Original Research to Hannay (2009, p. 5), if employees feel that their leader is members (H7). Recent studies have acknowledged the strong omnipotent and unquestioningly correct in all matters, it is relationship that exists between employee empowerment unlikely then that they will feel empowered to provide an and employee innovativeness (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, opinion or challenge their leader’s position. This could be 2013, p. 492), and empowerment has been identified as a the case in this study, where the project team members are key initiator of the innovation process within employees, since through empowerment, employees have autonomy intimidated by the project sponsor’s wisdom and therefore to act in ways that are novel and unique and which go do not feel empowered to offer their opinion or object to or challenge the project sponsor. The project environment against the existing status quo (Pierce & Delbecq, 1977, as may also not lend itself to the project team members feeling cited by Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). This study empowered, due to the circumstances of the project; the also supports the aforementioned views in that there is a project sponsor may be taking unilateral decisions, as a result strong relationship between the project team’s perception of of their assumed wisdom, which sees them not consulting empowerment and their innovative behaviour (H8). with or getting feedback from the project team members, which may create a sense of disempowerment amongst the Practical implications project team members. These unilateral decisions maybe as a The findings provide fruitful implications to both practitioners result of the constraints and pressures experienced within a and academicians. On the academic side, this study project environment where time is of the essence. contributes to the leadership literature by systematically exploring the impact of altruistic caring, emotional According to some existing research, persuasive mapping healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational involves empowering employees to make their own sponsorship on employee commitment, employee trust and decisions; thus, when employees follow, they do so willingly employee innovative behaviour through the mediating role of (Bennis & Nanus, 1997, as cited in Russell & Stone, 2002, employee perceived empowerment in a project management p. 152). This study supports the aforementioned, in that the context in South Africa. In particular, the findings provide results show that persuasive mapping of the project sponsor tentative support for the proposition that altruistic caring, results in the project team feeling empowered (H4). emotional healing and persuasive mapping should be recognised as significant ‘instruments’ to influence employee In order for organisational stewardship to be adopted, a innovative behaviour, commitment and trust via employee leader needs to empower their followers so that they freely empowerment. On the practitioners’ side, the important choose to become stewards themselves (Fairholm, 1997, influential role of persuasive mapping and altruistic caring 1998, as cited in Russell & Stone, 2002, p. 149). The leader on employee empowerment and consequently on employee empowers followers by creating a partnership with them innovative behaviour, commitment and trust is highlighted. so that organisational stewardship is a responsibility that is This study points out that project leaders should adopt and jointly owned by all parties (Block, 1993, as cited in Russell & exhibit persuasive mapping and altruistic caring leadership Stone, 2002, p. 149). The results of this study do not support qualities, in order to make their employees feel empowered the aforementioned views, in that it was evident that and consequently stimulate their innovative behaviour, organisational stewardship in the project sponsor did not commitment and trust. result in the project team members being empowered (H5). Research shows that when employees experience a sense of Limitations empowerment it translates into an increase in the employee’s This study, albeit exploratory, was conducted in one commitment to the organisation (Seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). organisation and one project. For greater generalisation, Additionally, an increase in continuance commitment a repeated study in different organisational contexts is ensues when employees feel empowered; this continuance necessary. A further limitation is the geographic spread of commitment is accounted for by the employee experiencing the study, which only concentrated on a single province (out a sense of loss of something they hold as valuable should of nine) in South Africa. Moreover, the study was limited to they leave the organisation (Meyer & Allen, 1991, as cited by only 44 participants in one organisation. Seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). This study further supports the aforementioned views, in that the project team members felt Recommendations empowered, which translated into them being committed to the project (H6). Some studies have also argued that when The limitations of this research can also be viewed as employees feel empowered they perceive it as a sign that avenues for future studies. An important limitation is the their leader trusts them, which translates into the employees geographic spread of the study since it only concentrated on then trusting their leader, their colleagues, as well as the a single province (out of the nine South African provinces). organisation (Henkin & Moye, 2006, as cited in Berraies et al., Subsequent research should contemplate replicating this 2014, p. 86). The aforementioned seems to true in a project study in other provinces of South Africa or even other management environment, since, in this study, the project African countries for comparison. Moreover, since the study team members felt empowered and this translated into a was limited to only 44 participants in one organisation in positive relationship with trust amongst the project team South Africa, future studies should consider expanding http://www.sajhrm.org.za doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 Page 11 of 12 Original Research De Jong, J., & Den Hartog, D. (2003). Leadership as a determinant of innovative the data collection to include a larger, more representative behaviour: A conceptual framework, The Hague, The Netherlands: Scientific sample. Finally, further research could also investigate the Analysis of Entrepreneurship and SMEs. effects of other servant leadership dimensions on employee Dobni, C.B. (2008). Measuring innovation culture in organizations: The development of a generalized innovation culture construct using exploratory factor analysis. empowerment. Such an expanded model may likely yield European Journal of Innovation Management , 11, 539–559. http://dx.doi. org/10.1108/14601060810911156 more interesting research findings and insights of value to Fernandez, S., & Moldogaziev, T. (2013). Employee empowerment, employee both academics and practitioners alike. attitudes, and performance: Testing a causal model. Public Administration Review, 73, 490–506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/puar.12049 Freeman, G.T. (2011). Spiritual and servant leadership: A conceptual model and Conclusion research proposal. Emerging Leadership Journeys, 4(1), 120–140. Fry, L.W. (2003). Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, The purpose of this study was to determine the influence 14(6), 693–727. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.001 of altruistic caring, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive Fung, H.-P. (2014). Relationships among team trust, team cohesion, team satisfaction and project team eectiv ff eness as perceived by project managers mapping and organisational sponsorship on employee in Malaysia. International Journal of Business, Economics and Management , commitment, employee trust and employee innovative 1(1), 1–15. behaviour through the mediating role of employee Greenleaf, R.K. (1970). Who is the servant leader? In The servant as leader. Retrieved September 4, 2015, from https://greenleaf.org . perceived empowerment. In particular, eight hypotheses Hannay, M. (2009). The cross-cultural leader: The application of servant leadership were postulated and tested using data from 44 respondents theory in the international context. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 1, 1–12. in South Africa. The empirical results supported three of Hayden, R.W. (2011). Greenleaf’s ‘best test’ of servant leadership: A multilevel the research hypotheses and five in a significant way. The analysis. Lincoln, NE: Faculty Publications: Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication Department. findings indicate that persuasive mapping has the strongest Humborstad, S.I.W., & Perry, C. (2011). Employee empowerment, job impact on employee innovative behaviour followed by satisfaction and organizational commitment: An in-depth empirical employee commitment and lastly employee trust via investigation. Chinese Management Studies, 5, 325–344. http://dx.doi. org/10.1108/17506141111163390 employee perceived empowerment when compared to the Ivankova, N.V., Creswell, J.W., & Plano Clark, V.L. (2011). First steps in research. (9th influence of altruistic caring, wisdom, emotional healing and edn.). Pretoria, South Africa: Van Schaik. organisational sponsorship on the same. Khan, M.J., Aslam, N., & Riaz, M.N. (2012). Leadership styles as predictors of innovative work behaviour. Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 10(1), 17–22. Acknowledgements Kilkelly, E. (2011). Using training and development to recover failing projects. Human Resource Management International Digest , 19(4), 3–6. http://dx.doi. org/10.1108/09670731111140649 Competing interests Klein, N.D. (2014). The relationship between servant leadership and employee The authors declare that they have no financial or personal engagement: The mediating roles of trust and fit . Omaha, NE: Creighton University. relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z. (2002). The leadership practices inventory: Theory and in writing this article. evidence behind the five practices of exemplary leaders . Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http:// www.Leadershipchallenge.com Leyva, J.A.M., & Matović, V. (2011). Project management practices at the front-end Authors’ contributions of management consulting projects . Umeå, Sweden: Umeå School of Business. Mahembe, B., & Engelbrecht, A.S. (2013). 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