Servant Leadership Effects on Salesperson Self-Efficacy, Performance, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intentions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose Servant leadership has been tested as having a positive impact on employee self-efficacy which has been tested in the marketing literature within a service-delivery context. To date, there are no studies testing the Servant Leadership → Self-Efficacy path leading to salesperson job satisfaction, sales performance, and turnover intentions within a B2B context. The purpose of this study is to assess whether servant leadership has a direct relationship on salesperson self-efficacy (positive), job satisfaction (positive), performance (positive) and turnover intentions (negative). Second, the intent is to test whether servant leadership indirectly affects turnover intentions through self-efficacy, job satisfaction and performance as single and serial mediated paths. Finally, the study tests whether gender, firm size and job demands as challenge and hindrance stressors serve to moderate these hypothesized paths. Method Data was gathered over a 10-day period using an online survey from a survey panel of U.S. sales professionals who sell products and services to businesses within their sales role. The data was approximately evenly split between females and males and between smaller firms (less than 250 employees) and larger companies (more than 250 employees). The authors used Hayes Process Model 4 to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings Key results in this study suggest that servant leadership has a direct impact on salesperson job satisfaction (positive), self-efficacy (positive), and turnover intentions (negative), but fails to influence salesperson performance directly. Further, salesperson job satisfaction directly decreases turnover intentions; performance directly increases turnover intentions; but self-efficacy fails to have a direct impact on turnover intentions. Servant leadership has a direct impact on turnover intentions and indirect influence through job satisfaction (single mediator) and through self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and performance as serially mediated paths (Self-Efficacy → Job Satisfaction and Self-Efficacy → Performance). One significant finding is that servant leadership fails to directly influence salesperson performance suggesting that self-efficacy may exhibit suppressing the effects on Servant Leadership → Salesperson Performance path. Finally, the results indicate that gender (binary) and firm size (< 250 employees and > 250 employees) fail to serve as moderators on the proposed paths. However, servant leadership behaviors buffer the effects of challenge and hindrance stressors at low and moderate levels, but fail to have a buffering effect at high levels of challenge and hindrance stressors. Implications This study confirms that sales managers should consider adopting servant leadership to raise salesperson job satisfaction to aid in retaining sales talent (lower turnover intentions). Furthermore, sales managers who adopt servant leadership behaviors raise salesperson self-efficacy, which is a new finding that has not been tested to date in the marketing literature. Further, self-efficacy seems to suppress the direct link between servant leadership and salesperson performance indicating that servant leadership positively influences salesperson self-efficacy leading to higher salesperson performance as a mediated path. Also, salespeople who are high performers experience higher turnover intentions, possibly suggesting that high sales producers may perceive they should leave for better compensation or growth opportunities elsewhere. These relationships seem to hold regardless of gender and firm size. Finally, servant leadership seems to buffer the effects of low and moderate levels of challenge and hindrance stressors on job satisfaction, performance and turnover intentions. Originality This study provides further clarity as to whether servant leadership has a direct, partially mediated, or fully mediated influence on salesperson job satisfaction, performance and turnover intentions. The results support that servant leadership fails to directly influence salesperson performance; however, servant leadership increases self-efficacy, which in turn increases salesperson performance. This is a new finding within a business-to-business sales context. Another contribution to the nomological net is that servant leadership indirectly lowers salesperson turnover intentions through serial mediated paths consisting of self-efficacy, job satisfaction and performance as mediators.