Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the association of servant leadership with inclusive organizational practices and diversity outcomes (percentages of minority employees and managers) across public and private sector organizations. Using data from a survey of 151 Canadian DEI managers we find that sector moderates the mediating relationship between servant leadership and diversity outcomes through inclusive practices. In both sectors, inclusive practices mediated the relationship between servant leadership and diversity outcomes. However, this mediation was stronger for private versus public sector employers. We discuss the implications of these findings and future research in this area.

Keywords

servant leadership diversity management equal employment opportunity affirmative action public sector private sector

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adiguzel

Ozcinar

M. F.

Karadal

(2020). Does servant leadership moderate the link between strategic human resource management on rule breaking and job satisfaction? European Research on Management and Business Economics, 26(2), 103–110.

Avolio

B. J.

Sosik

J. J.

Berson

(2013). Leadership models methods and applications: Progress and remaining blind spots. In: I. B. Weiner, N. W. Schmitt, & S. Highhouse (Eds.), Handbook of Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Vol. 12, pp. 367–389). John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Backhaus

Vogel

(2022). Leadership in the public sector: A meta-analysis of styles, outcomes, contexts, and methods. Public Administration Review, 82(6), 986–1003.

Barling

(2000). Transformational leadership. What is it that wonderful leaders do that elevates us? And can we learn to do it, too? Retrieved from: https://smith.queensu.ca/insight/file/qsb_whitepaper_leadership.pdf

Benmira

Agboola

(2021). Evolution of leadership theory. BMJ Leader, 5, 3–5.

Bentein

Lapalme

Guerrero

Parent-Rocheleau

Simard

(2022). How can servant leaders foster public employees’ service-oriented behaviors? A multilevel multisource study in Canadian libraries. Public Administration Review, 82(2), 269–279.

Borry

Getha-Taylor

Holmes

(2021). Promoting diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce: Executive order 13583 and demographic trends. Korean Public Administration Quarterly, 45(4), 392–417.

Chemers

M. M.

(1997). Leadership, change, and organizational effectiveness (pp. 1–5). University of California.

Child

(1972). Organizational structure, environment and performance: The role of strategic choice. Sociology, 6(1), 1–22.

10.

Cox

T. H.

Blake

(1991). Managing cultural diversity: Implications for organizational competitiveness. Academy of Management Perspectives, 5(3), 45–56.

11.

Dobbin

Kalev

(2016). Why diversity programs fail. Harvard Business Review, 94(7), 14–22.

12.

Eva

Robin

Sendjaya

van Dierendonck

Liden

R. C.

(2019). Servant leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. Leadership Quarterly, 30, 111–132.

13.

Fields

D. L.

Goodman

J. S.

Blum

T. C.

(2005). Human resource dependence and organizational demography: A study of minority employment in private sector companies. Journal of Management, 31(2), 167–185.

14.

Frank

S. A.

Lewis

G. B.

(2004). Government employees: Working hard or hardly working? American Review of Public Administration, 34(1), 36–51.

15.

Gnankob

R. I.

Ansong

Issau

(2022). Servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour: The role of public service motivation and length of time spent with the leader. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 35(2), 236–253.

16.

Gotsis

Grimani

(2016). The role of servant leadership in fostering inclusive organizations. Journal of Management Development, 35(8), 985–1010.

17.

Greenleaf

R. K.

(1970). The servant as Leader. Jossey-Bass.

18.

Gregory Stone

Russell

R. F.

Patterson

. (2004). Transformational versus servant leadership: A difference in leader focus. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(4), 349–361.

19.

Guldiken

Mallon

M. R.

Fainshmidt

Judge

W. Q.

Clark

C. E.

(2019). Beyond tokenism: How strategic leaders influence more meaningful gender diversity on boards of directors. Strategic Management Journal, 40(12), 2024–2046.

20.

Hair

J. F.

Jr. Anderson

R. E.

Tatham

R. L.

Black

W. C.

(1995). Multivariate data analysis (3rd ed). New York: Macmillan.

21.

Hambrick

D. C.

Finkelstein

(1987). Managerial discretion: A bridge between polar views of organizational outcomes. Research in Organizational Behavior, 9, 369–406.

22.

Hambrick

D. C.

Mason

P. A.

(1984). Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Academy of Management Review, 9(2), 193–206.

23.

Hameduddin

Engbers

(2022). Leadership and public service motivation: A systematic synthesis. International Public Management Journal, 25(1), 86–119.

24.

Hannah

S. T.

Sumanth

J. J.

Lester

Cavarretta

(2014). Debunking the false dichotomy of leadership idealism and pragmatism: Critical evaluation and support of newer genre leadership theories. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(5), 598–621.

25.

Haq

E. S.

(2010). Employment equity and workplace diversity in Canada. In A. Klarsfeld (Ed.), International Handbook on Diversity Management at Work. Edward Elgar Publishing.

26.

Harel

G. H.

Tzafrir

S. S.

(2001). HRM practices in the public and private sectors: Differences and similarities. Korean Public Administration Quarterly, 25, 316–355.

27.

Hayes

(Ed.). (2022). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (3rd ed.). Guildford Press.

28.

Hoang

Suh

Sabharwal

(2022). Beyond a numbers game? Impact of diversity and inclusion on the perception of Organizational Justice. Public Administration Review, 82(3), 537–555.

29.

Hoch

J. E.

Bommer

W. H.

Dulebohn

J. H.

(2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501–529.

30.

Hooijberg

Choi

(2001). The impact of organizational characteristics on leadership effectiveness models: An examination of leadership in a private and a public sector organization. Administration & Society, 33(4), 403–431.

31.

Jiang

DeHart-Davis

Borry

E. L.

(2022). Managerial Practice and diversity climate: The roles of workplace voice, centralization, and teamwork. Public Administration Review, 82(3), 459–472.

32.

Kaufmann

Borry

E. L.

DeHart-Davis

(2019). More than pathological formalization: Understanding organizational structure and red tape. Public Administration Review, 79(2), 236–245.

33.

Konrad

A. M.

Linnehan

(1995). Formalized HRM structures: Coordinating equal employment opportunity or concealing organizational practices? Academy of Management Journal, 38(3), 787–820.

34.

Lachman

(1985). Public and private sector differences: Ceos' perceptions of their role environments. Academy of Management Journal, 28(3), 671–680.

35.

Lam

E. S.

(2021). Representative Bureaucracy in Canada: Multiculturalism in the public service. In H. Sullivan, H. Dickinson, & H. Henderson (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant (pp. 103–124).

36.

Lee

Lyubovnikova

Tian

A. W.

Knight

(2020). Servant leadership: A meta-analytic examination of incremental contribution, moderation, and mediation. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 93(1), 1–44.

37.

Lewis

G. B.

Frank

S. A.

(2002). Who wants to work for the government? Public Administration Review, 62(4), 395–404.

38.

Liden

R. C.

Wayne

S. J.

Liao

Meuser

J. D.

(2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434–1452.

39.

Liden

R. C.

Wayne

S. J.

Meuser

J. D.

Liao

(2015). Servant leadership: Validation of a short form of the SL-28. Leadership Quarterly, 26(2), 254–269.

40.

Liden

R. C.

Wayne

S. J.

Zhao

Henderson

(2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. Leadership Quarterly, 19(2), 161–177.

41.

McKay

P. F.

Avery

D. R.

Morris

M. A.

(2008). Mean racial-ethnic differences in employee sales performance: The moderating role of diversity climate. Personnel Psychology, 61, 349–374.

42.

Mcquade

K. E.

Harrison

Tarbert

(2021). Systematically reviewing servant leadership. European Business Review, 33(3), 465–490.

43.

Mintzberg

(1989). The structuring of organizations. In D. Asch & C. Bowman (Eds.), Readings in Strategic Management (pp. 322–352). Palgrave.

44.

Mor Barak

M. E.

Cherin

D. A.

Berkman

. (1998). Organizational and personal dimensions in diversity climate. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 34, 82–104.

45.

Morris

(2020). Managerial Agency: Social and psychological power in Leadership. Mark Morris.

46.

E. S.

Sears

G. J.

(2012). CEO leadership styles and the implementation of organizational diversity practices: Moderating effects of social values and age. Journal of Business Ethics, 105, 41–52.

47.

E. S.

Sears

G. J.

(2015). Toward representative bureaucracy: Predicting public service attraction among underrepresented groups in Canada. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 35(4), 367–385.

48.

E. S.

Sears

G. J.

(2020). Walking the talk on diversity: CEO beliefs, moral values, and the implementation of workplace diversity practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 164, 437–450.

49.

E. S.

Sears

G. J.

Arnold

K. A.

(2021). Exploring the influence of CEO and chief diversity officers' relational demography on organizational diversity management: An identity-based perspective. Management Decision, 59(11), 2583–2605.

50.

E. S. W.

Burke

R. J.

(2010). A comparison of the legislated employment equity program, federal contractors program, and financial post 500 firms. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, 27(3), 224–235.

51.

E. S. W.

Schweitzer

Lyons

S. T.

(2012). Anticipated discrimination and a career choice in nonprofit: A study of early career lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered (LGBT) job seekers. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 32(4), 332–352.

52.

Nguyen

T. T.

Berman

E. M.

Plimmer

Samartini

Sabharwal

Taylor

(2022). Enriching transactional leadership with public values. Public Administration Review, 82(6), 1058–1076.

53.

Oliver

(1997). Sustainable competitive advantage: Combining institutional and resource-based views. Strategic Management Journal, 18(9), 697–713.

54.

Palmer

(1998). Arts managers and managerialism: A cross-sector analysis of ceos' orientations and skills. Public Productivity & Management Review, 21, 433–452.

55.

Pandey

S. K.

Newcomer

DeHart-Davis

McGinnis Johnson

Riccucci

N. M.

(2022). Reckoning with race and Gender in Public Administration and Public Policy: A substantive social equity turn. Public Administration Review, 82(3), 386–395.

56.

Perry

J. L.

Rainey

H. G.

(1988). The public-private distinction in organization theory: A critique and research strategy. Academy of Management Review, 13(2), 182–201.

57.

Peterson

S. J.

Galvin

B. M.

Lange

(2012). CEO servant leadership: Exploring executive characteristics and firm performance. Personnel Psychology, 65(3), 565–596.

58.

Polden

D. J.

Teague

L. J.

(2019). More diversity requires more inclusive leaders leading by example in law organizations. Hofstra Law Review, 48, 681.

59.

Ray

(2019). A theory of racialized organizations. American Sociological Review, 84(1), 26–53.

60.

Reed

L. L.

Vidaver-Cohen

Colwell

S. R.

(2011). A new scale to measure executive servant leadership: Development, analysis, and implications for research. Journal of Business Ethics, 101(3), 415–434.

61.

Reitzug

U. C.

(2010). Educational leaders or compliant bureaucrats? Reflections on. Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly, 4(4), 319–322.

62.

Roberson

Q. M.

(2006). Disentangling the meanings of diversity and inclusion in organizations. Group & Organization Management, 31, 212–236.

63.

Samimi

Cortes

A. F.

Anderson

M. H.

Herrmann

(2022). What is strategic leadership? Developing a framework for future research. Leadership Quarterly, 33(3), 1–22.

64.

Schwarz

Newman

Cooper

Eva

(2016). Servant leadership and follower job performance: The mediating effect of public service motivation. Public Administration, 94(4), 1025–1041.

65.

Shamir

(1995). Social distance and charisma: Theoretical notes and an exploratory study. Leadership Quarterly, 6(1), 19–47.

66.

Slack

Hinings

(1994). Institutional pressures and isomorphic change: An empirical test. Organization Studies, 15(6), 803–827.

67.

Smith

A. N.

Morgan

W. B.

King

E. B.

Hebl

M. R.

Peddie

C. I.

(2012). The ins and outs of diversity management: The effect of authenticity on outsider perceptions and insider behaviors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42, E21–E55.

68.

Sowa

J. E.

Selden

S. C.

(2003). Administrative discretion and active representation: An expansion of the theory of representative bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 63(6), 700–710.

69.

Tina Dacin

Goodstein

Richard Scott

. (2002). Institutional theory and institutional change: Introduction to the special research forum. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 45–56.

70.

Tuan

L. T.

(2016). How servant leadership nurtures knowledge sharing: The mediating role of public service motivation. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 29(1), 91–108.

71.

Tummers

Knives

(2016). Measuring public leadership: Developing scales for four key public leadership roles. Public Administration, 94(2), 433–451.

72.

van Dierendonck

. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1228–1261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310380462

73.

van Dierendonck

Stam

Boersma

de Windt

Alkema

. (2014). Same difference? Exploring the differential mechanisms linking servant leadership and transformational leadership to follower outcomes. Leadership Quarterly, 25(3), 544–562.

74.

Wart

M. V.

(2003). Public-sector leadership theory: An assessment. Public Administration Review, 63, 214–228.

Who Does Diversity Better? The Role of Servant Leaders in Promoting Diversity Management Across Public and Private Sector Organizations

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References