How Servant Leadership Influences Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Work Engagement: The Mediating Roles of Motivating Language and Perceived Organizational Support

Abstract

The present study seeks to expand our understanding of leadership in the public sector by examining the link between servant leadership and work engagement of street-level bureaucrats through the mediating roles of leader motivating language and perceived organizational support. Drawing on theories of social exchange, social learning, motivating language, and job demands-resources, the research proposed that servant leaders can enhance employee work engagement by utilizing motivating language and boosting perceptions of organizational support. Using a survey of 553 police officers and first-line supervisors in Turkey, the results of structural equation modeling reveal that officers’ perceptions of their supervisors’ servant leadership are related to work engagement both directly and indirectly through motivating language and perceived organizational support. This study is the first to investigate the role of leader motivating language as a mediator between servant leadership and work engagement in public sector organizations.