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Drawing from the cognitive evaluation theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between student volunteers’ narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and commitment to university volunteer programmes through the mediating mechanisms of self-orientation and pro-social motivation. Further, it investigates the roll of servant leadership in mitigating these personality types and encouraging student volunteers to become more pro-socially motivated.

The study uses data collected via questionnaire from 156 student volunteers across Australia. Hypothesis testing was conducted using ordinary least squares regression with the path-analytic conditional process modelling (PROCESS) macro for SPSS.

The study’s analysis indicated that self-orientated motivation mediated the relationship between narcissism and normative commitment, and pro-social motivation mediated the relationship between both Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and affective commitment. Further, servant leadership was found to moderate the relationship between both Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and pro-social motivation, such that the negative relationship became weaker under a servant leader. These findings suggest that servant leaders play a significant role in encouraging “dark” personalities to see the light.

This research is the first to examine the use of the Dark Triad in a student volunteering context. It extends the cognitive evaluation theory by revealing that extrinsic (in contrast to intrinsic) motivations are “crowded out” as intrinsic (in contrast to extrinsic) motivations develop within individuals. The study also refines the social learning theory, by examining the influences of “positive” leadership attributes (servant leadership) on “darker” (Dark Triad) personalities.

Interest in servant leadership has grown exponentially over the past decade as evident in the surge of academic- and practitioner-oriented publications on the subject. While prior research has shown that servant leadership leads to citizenship behavior, no study has explored the ethical pathway as the underlying influence process despite the fact that servant leadership is an ethical approach to leadership. On the basis of social learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine psychological ethical climate as a key mediator between servant leadership and citizenship behavior.

Survey data were collected from 123 leader–follower dyads from eight high-performing firms listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, and analyzed using multiple regression analysis.

The results showed that the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) (both for OCBI and OCBO) is mediated by psychological ethical climate.

This study demonstrates the value of using a servant leadership approach in order to foster a psychological ethical climate and increase OCBs. As such, the authors highlight the importance of a systematic approach to develop servant leaders in organizations.

This research contributes to the understanding of the ethical mechanism that explains the relationship between servant leadership and follower outcomes. Drawing on social learning theory, the findings show that servant leaders are ethical climate architects through their role modeling behaviors and interactions with followers.

Community citizenship behaviors (CCBs) of employees help organizations to promote a socially conscious image. However, there is still a significant gap in the knowledge as to how to foster CCBs amongst employees. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether ethical leadership, as a prosocial leadership approach, fosters CCBs amongst employees, both at work and when they leave the office, through enhancing their prosocial motivation.

Data were collected from 160 employees across 48 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China. Multi-level modeling using maximum likelihood estimation in MPlus was utilized to analyze the two-level model simultaneously and the significance of the multi-level indirect effects was tested using the Monte Carlo method with 20,000 replications.

Counter to the expectations, the authors found that although ethical leadership increased employees’ prosocial motivation, this only translated to higher levels of employees’ CCBs at work, but not once they left the office.

The findings suggest that ethical leaders play a critical role in developing the prosocial motivation of employees and encouraging them to engage in CCBs that are supported by the organization. To that end, organizations should consider hiring leaders with high levels of ethical leadership and provide ethical leadership training to senior management.

The authors make a theoretical contribution by explaining the process by which ethical leaders influence employees to engage in CCBs, addressing calls to understand how social learning theory can be used to understand how people learn to become socially responsible.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction between personal values and the organizational context in influencing work behaviors. Specifically, it examines the relationships between two dimensions of personal values based on Schwartz’s value theory – self-direction and conformity; and two work behaviors – innovation and compliance.

Survey data were collected from 187 employees in Australia. Multiple regression method was used to test the hypotheses.

The results showed that organizational formalization moderated the relationship between self-direction values and innovative behaviors. As hypothesized, the positive effect of self-direction values on innovative behavior was strongest in less formalized organizations. the authors also found that conformity values predicted compliance behaviors, but no evidence of moderation by organizational formalization.

It is important for organizations seeking particular work behaviors to ensure they are hiring employees with corresponding values and structuring the degree of formalization in the organization accordingly.

This research contributes to the interactionist perspective, demonstrating that formalization interacts with employee values to influence work behaviors. Further, the authors extend previous studies on self-direction values and creative behaviors by understanding how personal values impact innovative behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to design and test an online team intervention for university students, focusing on communication, leadership and team processes, to influence team cohesion and subsequently team assignment performance. It was administered twice as a formative feedback measure and once as a summative evaluation measure across a semester.

Survey data were collected from 154 university students across four management modules in a large Australian university. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses and open-ended questions were used to understand why the team intervention was effective.

The results showed that the implementation of an effective team intervention leads to higher levels of team cohesion and subsequently team performance. Open-ended responses revealed that the team intervention caused students to develop team-based sills and increase regular contributions.

In order to develop positive team behaviours amongst students in group assignments and increase the effectiveness of team-based learning activities, educators should implement a regular and process focused team contribution intervention, like the one proposed in this study.

This research contributes to the team intervention literature by drawing on the social information processing perspective, to demonstrate how an intervention that is based on the students’ social processing, task focused, regular implementation and formative feedback has a salient effect over team cohesion.

While research and adoption of servant leadership are on the increase, little is known about the mechanisms through which it affects organizational performance. Drawing on the contingency theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which organizational strategy and structure affect the relationship between servant leadership and organizational performance.

Survey data were collected from 336 direct reports of CEOs/GM/MDs in Australian SMEs, and multiple regression analysis was used in the hypotheses testing.

The study found that the relationship between servant leadership and performance is moderated by the three-way interaction effects of differentiation and centralization as well as cost leadership and formalization.

This study shows that the positive effects of servant leadership on performance are more pronounced in organizations with minimal organizational structure that are not fixated on cost minimization. To that end, ensuring that there is a fit among organizational strategy, structure, and leadership is a key priority for senior executives.

This research is one of the first to examine the boundary conditions of servant leadership, demonstrating the effects organizational structure has on servant leadership’s influence. Further, this research extends the contingency theory by focusing on strategy and structure, rather than just structural impacts.

In light of the research‐practice gap in youth leadership development, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of youth leadership development in Australia, on the basis of a multidimensional and holistic framework of servant leadership.

In total, three separate studies were conducted to achieve the above purpose, namely 33 interviews with student leaders; ten interviews with secondary college teachers and principals, as well as youth leadership facilitators; and 97 survey responses from recent secondary college graduates.

There exists a significant gap between the perceptions of the students and those of the teachers/facilitators on what is being taught and what is required in youth leadership development programs. The study reveals that students have little exposure to ethics training throughout their leadership programs. The application of a holistic framework of servant leadership in youth leadership development programme is recommended and discussed.

A framework in which to develop holistic leadership concepts, characteristics and competencies within students was developed from the findings. This framework can be used as the basis for teaching and developing young leaders in particular, as well as in more general leadership programs.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Servant leadership is a concept that puts leadership in the position of focusing primarily on developing employees above and beyond seeking profit. In organizations that are geared in the right way, servant leadership can significantly improve long-term performance.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This paper aims to examine how psychological need satisfaction (PNS) relates to the display of servant leadership (SL) behavior through the motivation to serve (MTS) and non-calculative motivation to lead (MTL).

Data were collected using an electronic online questionnaire completed by 125 individuals from various organizations and industries. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and regression analysis.

PNS, MTS and non-calculative MTL were found to relate positively to the display of SL behavior. Moreover, both MTS and non-calculative MTL were found to mediate fully the relationship between PNS and SL.

This study is one of the first to investigate the motivational antecedents of SL. Moreover, it is the first to empirically study PNS as an antecedent of SL. The findings emphasize the importance of a leader's PNS in their motivation to display SL behavior, implying that a positive work environment is conducive to SL.