Servant leadership, span of control and outcomes in a municipality context
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Accepted version
Date
2019-01-01Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- SAM - Handelshøyskolen [397]
Original version
Thompson G, Buch R, Glasø L. Servant leadership, span of control and outcomes in a municipality context. Journal of General Management. 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306307018810584Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to investigate the moderating role of span of
supervision in the association between servant leadership and multiple outcomes such as job
satisfaction and follower performance in a municipality context in Norway. Cross-sectional
research design was applied, where data was collected from 237 respondents where leaders
and their followers participated. Results showed how the positive relationship between
servant leadership and job satisfaction is attenuated by a larger span of supervision, resulting
in poorer follower performance. The present study contributes to the servant leadership
literature by showing that servant leaders do not operate in the same manner across different
degrees of span of supervision. Evidence suggests that span of supervision creates distance
between leaders and followers and moderates the types of leader behaviors that may emerge
or are viable, such that serving every follower’s highest priority needs becomes difficult to
execute.