chinyerere ernest dissertation chpt1-5
TRANSCRIPT
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Servant leadership and its influence on employee teamwork, workplace spirituality,
organizational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment in the
Zimbabwean retail sector.
Ernest Chinyerere (R093748J)
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment for the Requirement of Master Degree in Business Administration
February2016
Graduate School of Management
University of Zimbabwe
Supervisor: Dr. M. Sandada
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Dedication
To my late parents, Mr and Mrs Chinyerere. Although none of you could physically see
me accomplish this goal, I know you all are smiling down on me. Parents with more
fierce courage, radiant dignity, leadership and mentoring abilities than any other, I
dedicate this study to you. I am the man I am today because of the foundation you laid
many years ago. Lastly, to my parents in the Lord, Mr and Mrs Chipomho, your values,
morals and work ethics shined through your children and rubbed off on me. Thank you
for your incessant love and encouragement.
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Declaration
I, Chinyerere Ernest, do hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own
investigation and research, except to the extent indicated in the Acknowledgements,
References and by comments included in the body of the report, and that it has not been
submitted in part or in full for any other degree to any other university.
____________________________ _______________________
Student signature Date
_____________________________ _________________________
Supervisor signature Date
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Acknowledgements
Although only one name appears at the beginning of this study, numerous individuals
helped me through this process. First of all, thank you Dr. M. Sandada for allowing me to
complete this type of research work and answering my countless questions about
leadership, research design and research formatting. Mr Muzvare, I would like to thank
you for the time you offered in mentoring me on the information regarding the retail
sector, Fleximart staff, I thank you for the wonderful reception. Mr and Mrs Chipomho,
thank you for being wonderful parents in God and for the motivation. Lastly my wife,
Susan I thank you for giving me time, your love, sacrifice and encouragement which
helped me through this study.
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Abstract
The study examined the influence of servant leadership on employees’ team work
behaviour, workplace spirituality, citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment
in the Zimbabwean retail sector. The human resources issues, organisational behaviour
and leadership challenges have beenof major concern in the Zimbabwean retail sector.
The challenges indicated the need for a new leadership style which can recognise the
employees’ needs. Servant leadership is a concept that has garnered attention from the
researchers in the past decade,whilst itrequires leaders to rely on one to one
communication in order to understand the capabilities, requirements, wishes, longings,
desires, goals and their followers prospective that eventually bring the best from their
followers. It is noted from the extant literature that, with the knowledge of each
follower’s exceptional characteristics and interests, leaders can assist the followers in
achieving their potential. A research gap was identified in that the concept of servant
leadership was not researched and applied in the retail sector, whilst most studies were
carried out in the services sector and non-profit making organisations. Hence servant
leadership was researched in the Zimbabwean retail sector.
Four research hypotheses are postulated and empirically tested using a quantitative survey
approach with a sample data of 350 employees from the retail sector in Harare
Zimbabwe. The sample yielded a 63% response rate. The results indicated that servant
leadership positively influences employees’ team work behaviour, workplace spirituality,
citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector in
a significant way. Servant leadership implications of the findings are discussed and
limitations and future research directions are indicated.
The study recommended that interest should be increased towards the development of
leaders who have furtherance of followers and organisation as priority whilst setting aside
self-interest.Hence, servant leadership should be acknowledged as substantial antecedent
and instrument to nurture employee team work behaviour, workplace spirituality,
citizenship behaviour and commitment to the retail sector organisations. Moreover the
study recommended that further researches should be conducted in all industries and other
areas in the country and that subsequent research should envisage replicating this study in
other similar and developing countries in the Africa to allow for comparisons of results.
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Table of Contents
CONTENT PAGE
Dedication …………………………………………………………………………………i
Declaration ………………………………………………………………………………..ii
Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………........iii
Executive summary ………………………………………………………………………iv
Table of contents …………………………………….………………………………........v
List of tables ……………………………………….……………………………………..ix
List of figures …………………………….……………………………………………….x
List of Acronyms or abbreviations ……………………………………………………….xi
Chapter One: Introduction and Background...………..……………………………….1
1.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….1
1.2 Background ……………………………………………………………………….2
1.3 Problem statement ………………………………………………………...………4
1.4 Research objectives …………………………………………………...…………..5
1.4.1 Main objective ……………………………………………..…….………..5
1.4.2 Sub objectives …………………………………………….……….……...5
1.5 Research questions …………….……………………………….…………….…...5
1.5.1 Major research question ……………………………………….…….……5
1.5.2 Sub research questions ……..………………….……………….…………6
1.6 Hypothesis ……………………………………………………………..…….……6
1.7 Justification of the study ………………………………………………..………...6
1.8 Scope of the study …………………………………..…………………………….7
1.9 Dissertation outline …………………………….………….……………………...7
1.10 Chapter summary …………………………….…………….……………………..7
Chapter Two: Literature Review ………….……………………………….…..9
2.1 Introduction …………………………………….…………………………………9
2.2 Leader- Member Exchange Theory ……………………………………………….9
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2.3 Discussion of key variables …………………………………...…………..……..10
2.3.1 Servant leadership ………………………………...……………………………..10
2.3.1.1 Altruistic calling ……………......………………………………….…….12
2.3.1.2 Emotional healing.……………..……………………….………………..13
2.3.1.3 Wisdom ………………………………………………………...………..14
2.3.1.4 Persuasive mapping..……………………………………………………..14
2.3.1.5 Organisational stewardship ……………….………………………….….14
2.3.2 Employee team work …………………………………………………………….16
2.3.3 Employee workplace spirituality ……………………………………...…………17
2.3.4 Employee organisational citizenship behaviour …………………………………18
2.3.5 Employee organisational commitment ……………...…………………………...20
2.4 Relationships among variables …………………………...……………………...21
2.4.1 Servant leadership and team work ……………………………………….21
2.4.2 Servant leadership and workplace spirituality ………………...………...22
2.4.3 Servant leadership and citizenship behaviour ………...…………………23
2.4.4 Servant leadership and organisational commitment …………………….24
2.5 Previous models …………………………………………………………..……..26
2.6 Research gap …………………………………………………………………….28
2.7 Conceptual framework …………………………………………………………..28
2.8 Chapter summary ………………..……………………………………………... 29
Chapter Three: Research Methodology ……………………………………………....30
3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...30
3.2 Research design ……………………………………………………………….…31
3.3 Research philosophy.…………………………………………………………….31
3.4 Research approaches …………………………………………………………….33
3.5 Research strategy ………………………………………………………………...34
3.6 Data collection instruments ……………………………………………..……….35
3.6.1 Operational definitions of constructs ………………...………………….36
3.7 Population and sample ………………………………………………..…………37
3.7.1 Population ………………………………………………………………..37
3.7.2 Sample ………………………...…………………………………………37
3.8 Data analysis techniques ……………………………………...…………………39
3.9 Validity and reliability …………………………………………………………..39
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3.10 Normality test ……………………………………………………………………40
3.11 Cross tabulations …………………………………………………...……………40
3.12 Correlations test …………………………………………………………………40
3.13 Regression analysis ……………………………………………………………...41
3.14 Significance tests ……………………………………………………….………..41
3.15 Limitations …………………………………………………………….………...42
3.16 Ethical issues ………………………………………………………….…………42
3.1 Chapter summary ………………………………………………………………..43
Chapter Four: Data Analysis, Presentation and Interpretation …………….……...44
4.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………….……..44
4.2 Descriptive analysis ……………………………………………………….……..44
4.2.1 Response rate …………………………………………………………….44
4.2.2 Gender of respondents ………………………………………….………..45
4.2.3 Age of respondents ………………………………………………………46
4.2.4 Current position in organisation ………………………………………....47
4.2.5 Educational background of respondents …………………………………47
4.2.6 Years of experience with retailer ………………………………………...48
4.2.7 Ownership of the organisation.…………………………………………..48
4.2.8 Class of the retailer ………………………………………………………50
4.3 Normality test ……………………………………………………………………50
4.4 Reliability and validity …………………………………………………………..51
4.4.1 Reliability statistics ……………………………………………………...51
4.4.2 Validity …………………………………………………………………..52
4.5 Test of relationships ……………………………………………………………..53
4.5.1 Cross tabulations ………………………………………………………...53
4.5.1.1 Cross tabulation: ownership and servant leadership ………...………..…53
4.5.1.2 Cross tabulation: current position and organisational commitment……...55
4.5.2 Correlation analysis ……………………………………………………...58
4.5.2.1 Servant leadership and team work ……………………………………….59
4.5.2.2 Servant leadership and workplace spirituality …………………………...59
4.5.2.3 Servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour …………...59
4.5.2.4 Servant leadership and organisational commitment ……………………..60
4.5.3 Regression analysis ……………………………………………………...60
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4.6 Test of independence …………………………………………………………….63
4.7 Discussion of results ……………………………………………………………..65
4.8 Chapter summary ………………………………………………………………..67
Chapter Five: Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations ……………...………69
5.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………….…………..69
5.2 Evaluation of research objectives ……………………………….……………….70
5.3 Evaluation of research hypothesis ……………………………….………………73
5.4 Managerial Implications and Policy Recommendations ………………………...75
5.5 Limitations and directions for future research …………………………………..77
References ………………………………...…………………………………….78
Appendix 1: Questionnaire ………………………………………………….…87
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List of Tables
TABLE PAGE
2.1 Previous models ……………………………………………………………...….27
3.1 Operational definitions of constructs ………………………………………...….36
4.1 Current position of in the organisation ………………………………................47
4.2 Years of experience …………………………………………………………...…48
4.3 Normality test ………………………………………………………………...….50
4.4 Reliability analysis …………………………………………………………..…..51
4.5 Cross tabulation: ownership and servant leadership ……………………….……54
4.6 Chi-Square tests:ownership and servant leadership ……………………….……55
4.7 Symmetric measures: ownership and servant leadership ..................….…...….55
4.8 Cross tabulation: current position and organisational commitment……………...56
4.9 Chi-Square: current position and organisational commitment …………………..57
4.10 Symmetric Measures: current position and organisational commitment ………..57
4.11 Correlation analysis …………………………………………………………...…58
4.12 Multivariate tests ………………………………………………………………...61
4.13 Tests of Between-Subjects effects ……………………………………………….61
4.14 Parameter Estimates ……………………………………………………………..62
4.15 Test of Independence: between gender of respondents …………………………63
4.16 Test of Independence: Level of education ………………………………………64
5.1 Hypothesis testing and decision making ………………………………………...74
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List of Figures
FIGURE PAGE
2.1 Five factors of servant leadership …………………………………………....…..12
2.2 Conceptual framework ……………………………………………………....…..28
4.1 Response rate ………………………………………………………………....….45
4.2 Gender distribution …………………………………………………………....…45
4.3 Age of respondents ………………………………………………………....……46
4.4 Level of education ………………………………………………………….…....47
4.5 Ownership of the organisation …………………………………………………..49
4.6 Class of the retailer ………………………………………………………….…...50
5.1 Conceptual framework ……………………………………………………….….75
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List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
FMCG Fast Moving Consumer Goods
GDP Gross Domestic Product
IPC Industrial Psychology Consultancy
LMX Leader-Member Exchange
OC Organisational Commitment
OCB Organisational Citizenship Behaviour
SL Servant Leadership
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences
S-W (Test) Shapiro-Wilks Test
TW Team Work
WPS Workplace Spirituality
ZNCC Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce
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Chapter One
Introduction and Background
1.1 Introduction
The twenty-first century has seen an emergence of flatter organizations with
decentralizedstructures and with more collaborative workenvironments (Duff, 2011). This
has become a promoter for creation of new philosophiesthat will be key elements to
success and creation of productive work environments (Chen, Chen and Li, 2013).
Chegini and Nezhad (2012), for organisations to come up with such work environments it
takes inspired, creative and responsible leadership. On the other hand the assertions of
Harper (2012), Lemmon & Wayne (2014) and Mehta & Pillay (2011) are that servant
leadership will provide a different position to leadership that intends to craft an
environment that is creative, inspiring and dependable. To this end the studies carried out
by Dierendonck & Kool (2012), Ceri-Booms (2012), Cater & Greer (2013), and Parris &
Peachey (2013) conclude that servant leadership is mostly concerned with placing
individuality and self-esteem apart so as to initiate the change process.This will transform
the organization into exceeding performance with collaborative community of highly
skilled and capable characters who are enthusiastic in serving others and the organisation
at large.
This current study investigated servant leadership in the retail sector in Zimbabwe and its
influence on employee teamwork, employee workplace spirituality, and employee
citizenship behaviour and employee commitment. In light of this, the study sought to answer
the following research question; does servant leadership have an influence on employee
workplace spirituality, employee team work, and employeecitizenship behaviour and
employee organisational commitment? The rest of the chapter as presented in this paper is
organised as follows, background giving insights into background of the study, statement of
problem is provided that shows the problems to be investigated, research objectives and
research questions are discussed while providing the main and sub objectives to the study.
Hypothesis development is also discussed together with the justification of the study and the
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scope of the study. Lastly the chapter has provided the dissertation outline and chapter
summary.
1.2 Background
The retail sector businesses are very important to the economy as they provide essential
products and services to citizens and also offer employment to many people. As published
by the Ministry of Trade and Commerce publications (2013), the retail sector has
contributed a significant figure to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), thus making a total
contribution of about 26 percent in 2012 a peak from the average of 10.6 percent that was
recorded in the years between 2008 and 2010. The sector in Zimbabwe is comprised of
large organisations, medium organisations as well as small and micro enterprises, while it
is estimated that the informal businesses accounts for almost 20 percent of local economic
activity. The retail sector is estimated to employ about 52 percent of the country’s
employed population. National Trade Policy document (2012-2016) highlights that the
contribution of imports in the year 2012 shows that the retail and distribution sector
accounted for 38 percent of total imports making the sector a leader in imports. The
statistics provided by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) (2014), the
unemployment rate has increased to almost 90 percent despite the retail sector employing
more people while the living standards of many employees have plummeted.
The retail sector in Zimbabwe as is the case in most African countries has been faced with
numerous challenges. One of the challenges pertain to human resources management
issues. Raes, Bruch, and Jong (2013) there are numerous problem indicators which
include absenteeism from work, lateness, corruption, theft, a high rate of complaints, low
quality work output and high turn-over of professional staff. Bosco and Melchar (2010)
also notes that some employees do not attend to customers efficiently as it is still possible
to find long queues of people waiting to be served while there is no one in the office.
Parris and Peachey (2013) assert that most organisations in retail sector face challenges of
mismanagement, bureaucracy, wastage, incompetence and irresponsibility by
management and employees. The stated challengesare an indication of human factor
element which perhaps need a new leadershipstyle to manage (Bambale, 2014; Sabeen,
2012; Stoten, 2012 and Spears, 2010).
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Over the recent years, the impact of employee turnover in the retail sector in Zimbabwe
has been viewed by many analysts with considerable attention. Human resources
professionals, top management and other key stakeholders have therefore been
preoccupied with finding ways of minimising the impact of such turnover. This rate of
employee turnover in the retail sector has been proven to be of the most expensive
challenge affecting the human resources in the sector (Industrial Psychology Consultancy
(Pvt) Ltd, 2013).
Industrial Psychology Consultancy (Pvt) Ltd (2013) in their survey of 4000 employees in
different sectors measuring why employees would want to quit their jobs, they discovered
that 31.16 percent of the employees mentioned that their employers are not able to
distinguish between performers and non-performers, hence the two different groups are
treated the same in most organisations. The other reason which constituted about 5.08
percent of the respondents was from the fact that most organisations do not recognise the
employee work effort, yet most of the employees want to feel important though the
organisations make employees feel the downside. In the same report they discovered that
the greater part of the respondents of about 43.17 percent noted that they would leave
their current organisations because of poor person job fit in the employment structure and
nature of job. Thus they concluded that one in every three employees in Zimbabwe do not
find their employment fulfilling yet most employees remain on their jobs because they are
not able to find another employment in different organisations. On the other hand policies
and procedures in many organisations are selectively and inconsistently implemented yet
this frustrates employees. From the results of the survey it was concluded that most
organisations are pushing their employees to do more work with less employee
recognition, development and growth hence most employees are not committed to their
work. From the foregoing discussion, it can be noted that retail businesses in Zimbabwe
have struggled to ensure employee commitment, teamwork and work spirituality. The
failure to address these issues can be attributed to different factors and lack of a proper
leadership style could be one of the factors. The use of servant leadership could improve
the situation.
Chan & Mak (2013) in their study noted that few studies have examined the relationships
between servant leadership and its outcomes on employees and the commitment they will
have to the organisation. In light of this, this study seeks to examine the influence of
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servant leadership on employee teamwork, employee work spirituality, and employee
organizational citizenship behaviour and employee organisational commitment in the
Zimbabwean retail sector. Companies that adopt servant leadership are efficacious as a
result (Dirkse & Steenkamp, 2013; Early & Davenport, 2010; Ngambi, 2011). Thus
however this study has explored servant leadership in the Zimbabwean context and come
up with relevant contribution to the existing literature about servant leadership.
1.3 Problem statement
There is a high rate of employee turnover, absenteeism from work, lateness, corruption,
theft, complaints, and low quality work output, lack of team work and employee
commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector. These problems are catapulted by
mismanagement, bureaucracy, wastage, incompetence and irresponsibility by both
management and employees. The challenges being faced by these retail organisations in
Zimbabwe are an indication of human influence which possibly requires a new leadership
style. Servant leadership was researched in other countries as an alternative leadership
style to cater for these challenges, but this does not apply in the Zimbabwean setup
because it was done in different countries and in services sectors rather than profit making
organisations. Hence, the necessity to investigate if servant leadership can have an impact
on employee team works behaviour, workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship
behaviour and employee commitment to the organisation, in the Zimbabwean setup.
Servant leadership is a relatively new paradigm in leadership studies (Spears, 2010;
Schneider & George, 2011; Ngambi, 2011). Kazemipour & Amin (2012) a lot of what is
known of servant leadership is not the result of empirical study. Echols (2009) further
asserts that the literature concerning servant leadership is indeterminate, confusing and
somewhat uncertain. Research studies have indicated that servant leadership positively
leads to employee teamwork behaviour, employee commitment to the organisation and
employee organisational citizenship behaviour (Dixit & Bhati, 2012; Ghorbanhosseini,
2012; Odoch & Nangoli, 2013). However the majority of studies on this phenomenon
were done in developed countriesfor examplePawar (2009) India; Ghorbanhosseini
(2012) Iran; Bhunia & Das (2010) India; (Bosco & Melchar (2010) India; Barbuto (2011)
United States; Nasina & Doris (2011) Malaysia and Piryaei & Zare (2013) Iran. It would
be correct to assume that the results that were conducted in developed economies are
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applicable here given different conditions. In that regard research studies on this
relatively new concept is warranted in developing countries like Zimbabwe. It is against
this backdrop that this study sought to investigate the influence of servant leadership on
employee team work, employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour,
and employee commitment to the organisation in Zimbabwe. Servant leadership is very
important in enhancing employee teamwork, employee workplace spirituality, employee
organisational citizenship behaviour and employee organisational commitment, yet few
studies have been carried out on this phenomenon.
1.4 Research objectives
1.4.1 Main objective
The purpose of this study was to determine the outcomes of servant leadership on
employeesin the Zimbabwean retail sector.
1.4.2 Sub objectives were as follows:
1. To establish the effects of servant leadership on employee teamwork.
2. To determine the influence of servant leadership on employee workplace
spirituality.
3. To examine the impact of servant leadership on organisational citizenship
behaviour.
4. To assess the influence of servant leadership on organisational commitment.
5. To establish whether there are any significant and statistical differences among
respondents of different gender and level of education on servant leadership and
its outcomes.
1.5 Research questions
1.5.1 Major research question
The major question of the study was, “Does servant leadership influence employee
teamwork behaviour, employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour,
and employee organisational commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector?
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1.5.2 The following are sub questions that were formulated in this study:
1. Do servant leadership have an influence on employee teamwork behaviour?
2. Does servant leadership influence employee workplace spirituality?
3. Do servant leadership have an impact on organisational citizenship behaviour?
4. Does servant leadership have an influence on employee organisational
commitment?
5. Are there any significant and statistical differences among respondents of different
gender and level of education on servant leadership and its outcomes?
1.6 Hypothesis
The following hypothesis was used in the study;
H1: Servant leadership positively influences employee teamwork behaviour.
H2: Servant leadership is positively associated with employee workplace spirituality.
H3: Servant leadership has a positive influence on employee citizenship behaviour.
H4: Servant leadership has a positive effect on employee organisational commitment.
H5: There are no significant and statistical differences among respondents of different
gender and level of education on servant leadership and its outcomes.
1.7 Justification of the study
This study sought to represent the first known research to focus on the outcomes of
servant leadership and its influence on organisational commitment in a profit oriented
sector rather than the non-profit making and services sectors. Moreover the study can
provide a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge regarding leadership theories
and predominantly to the servant leadership theory (Ullah & Park, 2013), by providing
much-needed empirical evidence that will help leaders in employing servant leadership in
their organisations so as to improve business performance. On the other hand the
empirical data that came from undertaking this research will have a potential to contribute
in determining solutions to inadequate research in the area of servant leadership. Savage
& Honeycutt (2011) asserts that the area of servant leadership is imperative to all
categories of organisations as it offers the possibility to mend organisational leadership.
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Lastly the study will be published in order to help in contribution to both practitioners and
academicians through its contribution to the rationality of servant leadership as an
effective leadership style to be practiced in different sectors and various organisations
within Zimbabwe and other countries that may benefit from the outcomes of the research.
1.8 Scope of the study
This study has focused on the employees in the main retailers in Zimbabwe, biased
towards the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) group of retailers. The study
hasconcentrated on Harare retailers only and generalizations were made to other cities.
This enabled the researcher to be more realistic in terms of coverage and accessibility of
data.
1.9 Dissertation outline
The study is comprised of five main chapters.Chapter one focused on the background to
the study. Chapter twolooked into literature review and conceptual framework
development. These are followed by chapter three which explored research methodology
that provides the research philosophy, purpose, approaches and research strategy used in
the study. The data collection instruments and the population and sample to the study are
also discussed in chapter three.Chapter four is about data analysis and presentation of
results. Lastly chapter five provided the conclusion and recommendations to the study.
1.10 Chapter summary
Chapter one looked into the introduction and background of the retail sector in
Zimbabwe.Servant leadership was discussed as it can lead to the enhancement
ofemployee teamwork within the retail sector, whilst improving employee workplace
spirituality, citizenship behaviourand organisational commitment. Fiveobjectives were to
be achieved in line with the research questions provided. In order to come up with
appropriate results, the researcher has laid down some hypothesis to provide possible
answers to the research problem.
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Justification of the study has also been provided in that the successful completion of this
research work will provide new insights to the existing board of knowledge in the area of
servant leadership and how it can influence employee commitment in the a profit making
sector. Lastly the chapter provided the scope to which the research is going to be focused
in line with the population and the dissertation outline was provided. Chapter two
provides literature review and the development of the conceptual framework.
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Chapter Two
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
Chapter one brought out the introduction and background of the study whilst highlighting
the problem statement with emphasis on servant leadership and its influence on employee
teamwork, employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour, and
employee organisational commitment. In this chapter servant leadership will be discussed
to a greater extend as well as the outcomes of servant leadership such as employee
teamwork, employee workplace spirituality, employee organisational citizenship
behaviour, and employee organisational commitment. Lastly the discussion will focus on
the theory underpinning the study, key variables in the study and the development of the
conceptual framework.
The fundamental component of the study is servant leadership. The theory of servant
leadership was initially intellectualised and enunciated by Robert Greenleaf in 1977, who
suggested servant leadership as the ultimate channel for “value-shaping influence” in
various sectors, including organisations of an academic, business, government, health and
those of the social services (Muchiri, Cooksey & Walumbwa, 2012; Olesia, Namusonge
& Iravo, 2013; Chinomona, Mashiloane & Pooe, 2013). To provide adequate detail on
servant leadership, the study will look into the theory of Leader-Member Exchange
Theory and how it informs the study from literature, as well as how it informs the study in
line with the outcomes variables that includes employee teamwork, employee workplace
spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour, and employee organisational commitment.
2.2 Leader-Member Exchange Theory
The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), as stated by Lunenburg (2010) is a distinctive
perception among the leadership theories because it gives much of its attention on the
dyadic relationships among the leaders as supervisors and their followers as the
subordinates in organisations. This assertion was also in agreement with the studies
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carried out by Chinomona et al. (2013), Mapolisa & Kurasha (2013) and Jha & Jha
(2013). The basic assumption of the theory is that it can influence organisational
competitiveness in all sectors and can lead to the improvement of employee performance,
employee overall job satisfaction, employee commitment to the organisation, employee
citizenship behaviour, innovation within employees whilst fostering creativity, employees
team work and carrying out extra duties that will influence organisational efficiency and
effectiveness (Jha & Jha, 2013).
Chinomona et al. (2013) highlight that servant leadership is related to the Leader-Member
Exchange theory in that the outcomes of servant leadership leads to the creation and
nurturing of sustainable relationships between organisational leaders and their
subordinates. This will in turn help the followers to use their full potential when carrying
out their tasks whilst helping the followers to become self-motivated. It is against this
background of Leader-Member Exchange theory that it informs this study and submits
that employees in the retail sector in Zimbabwe will become more oriented to their
organisations through team work, individual workplace spirituality and employee
citizenship behaviour, and committed as they are influenced by servant leaders.
2.3 Discussion of key variables
2.3.1 Servant Leadership
Chinomona et al. (2013) assert that the term “servant” indicates an idea based on service
or serving. The servant leadership theory places its concentration on the followers and
their achievement, attitudes and performance, whilst servant leadership is said to be a
virtue rather than skills (Jaramillo, Grisaffe, Chonko & Roberts, 2009a). To assert to that
the researchers went on further to conclude that servant leaders comprise of the virtues
including; listening among others elements of servant leadership such as, empathy
followed by healing and awareness, in the list also includes persuasion and service, love
and humility, vision and empowerment (Jaramillo, Grisaffe, Chonko & Roberts, 2009b).
This also confirms the assertion of Han, Kakabadse & Kakabadse (2009) that leaders who
achieve servant leadership are individuals that have accomplished importance not through
their individual endeavours, but through mutual endeavours made by themselves and their
subordinates.
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As stated by Chatbury, Beaty & Kriek (2011) servant leaders assist and aid their
followers in order to boost their dignity in the organizations they are serving. On the
other hand Savage & Honeycutt (2011) also asserts that the model of servant leadership
entails a change in the approach of the leader that involves letting go the egos and assume
that followers will perform best in an environment of freedom and empowerment must
be embraced by all the leaders, whereas Voon, Lo, Ngui & Ayob (2011) concludes that
servant leadership is a long term model that is time consuming since the traits and
qualities are not developed over night and are in constant advancement.
Characteristics of servant leadership based on the founding of Greenleaf are as follows;
1. Listening: Embraces silencing of self to listen to followers as well as
consideration.
2. Empathy: Involves the endeavor to appreciate and identify with others.
3. Healing: Having the culture to heal the self and others to encourage change.
4. Awareness: Involves the understanding of mattersconcerning ethics and values.
5. Persuasion: Not relying on authority yet being a consensus builder in a team.
6. Conceptualization: Observing a problem and reasoning beyond daily realities.
7. Foresight: Understanding lessons from the past, anticipating the outcomes and
consequences of a decision.
8. Stewardship: Focuses on the assurance to serving the needs of others.
9. Commitment: Devoted to followers’ personal, professional and spiritual growth.
10. Building community:Involves recognizing the way for building a community
among employees.
In accordance to research carried out by Chinomona et al (2013) the servant leadership
model is comprised of eleven characteristics, with an added key element of calling that is
fundamental to servant leadership. Having done a research on the eleven characteristics a
factor analysis revealed the five (5) distinct factors which are derived from the original
eleven characteristics. The five factors are: altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom,
persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship. The definitions of these factors are:
altruistic calling involves the desire and ability to make an influential difference in the
lives of fellow employees; emotional healing is the assurance commitment to and
skilfulness in developing spiritual recovery from suffering and upset; wisdom involves
the combination of responsiveness and the expectations from consequences of decisions;
24
persuasive mapping encompasses persuading followers with comprehensive reasoning
and psychological models; and organisational stewardship involves an organisations
aspiration to leave a good legacy in the community they will be operating.
Five Factors of Servant Leadership
1. Altruistic calling –An embedded aspiration to make a positive influence in
others.
2. Emotional Healing - Anobligation to and ability in nurturing divine recovery
from adversity or distress in fellow workers.
3. Wisdom –Involves being aware of the environment and consequences of
decisions.
4. Persuasive Mapping –Is thecapacity to encourage followers on greater
prospects.
5. Organisational Stewardship –Is the principle of assuming responsibility for the
welfare of the organisation and the community.
Figure 2.1Five factors of servant leadership
Source: Beck C., D (2010)
2.3.1.1 Altruistic calling
Altruism is defined as behavior that is aimed at benefitting another person (Bambale,
2014). Chatbury, Beaty & Kriek (2011) identified nine key characteristics of servant
leadership, with service recognized as a key component. Savage & Honeycutt (2011)
propose that leaders must understand that their primary function is to serve others.
Altruistic behavior can be motivated by an empathic desire to benefit another person, or it
can be prompted by personal egotism. A servant leader is willing to sacrifice self-interests
for the sake of others (Carter & Greer, 2013). However, egotism is the motive to pursue
some sort of personal gain through targeted behavior and has been identified as one of the
most influential of all human motives (Chegini & Nezhad, 2012). Chan & Mak (2013)
suggests that one of the core issues differentiating the transformational leader from the
servant leader is intent. Naturally the transformational leader’s focus is the organization,
25
whereas the servant leader’s desire is to make a difference in an individual’s life.
Chinomona et al (2013) described this difference as manifesting itself in the care taken by
the servant leader to make sure that other people’s needs are being served. The
framework developed by Voon et al (2011) specified that calling is a key element that is
fundamental to the servant leadership philosophy.
2.3.1.2 Emotional healing
Servant leaders are empathetic with highly developed listening skills, making them
proficient at facilitating the healing process. Leaders rated high in emotional healing are
the ones followers turn to when they have a personal trauma because these leaders have
created an environment where employees are able to voice personal and professional
issues (Muchiri et al, 2012). Empathy is defined as an emotional response to the
perceived plight of another person (Jaramillo et al, 2009b). Given the conditions of the
economy in most countries today many people are in fear, are going through hardship and
many have broken dreams. Emotional healing is characterized by taking the opportunity
to see the world through the eyes of others. Servant leaders can “walk in the shoes of
others” (Chan & Mak, 2013). Servant leaders have the capacity to participate in the
circumstances of others and to recognize individuals for their uniqueness (Chatbury,
Beaty & Kriek, 2011). In accordance to Carter & Greer (2013), empathy means
thoughtfully considering employees’ feelings – along with other factors – in the process
of making intelligent decisions.
Empathy is particularly important today as a component of leadership for at least three
reasons: the increasing use of teams; the rapid pace of globalization; and the growing
need to retain talent. Servant leaders must listen to followers, learn about their needs and
aspirations, and be willing to share in their pain and frustration (Savage & Honeycutt,
2011). A leader must understand followers to determine how best to serve their needs.
Listening is the forgotten skill in communication and leading, and is a critical skill for
servant leaders (Muchiri et al, 2012). Listening is a skill that can be developed. Olesia et
al (2013) describe listening as essential for those desiring to be a servant leader for it is
through listening that many of the other characteristics of servant leadership are nurtured.
26
2.3.1.3 Wisdom
Servant leaders demonstrate a combination of an awareness of their surroundings and an
anticipation of consequences (Muchiri et al, 2012). As stated in Muchiri et al (2012)
Sternberg (1998) developed a model called the “balance theory of wisdom,” which
emphasizes the organization and application of pragmatic knowledge used in balancing
self-and-other interests within the environmental context to achieve a common
good.From Greenleaf’s concepts of awareness and foresight, Chinomona et al (2013)
defined wisdom as the combination of knowledge and utility. Servant leaders gain clues
from their environment to inform their opinions and decisions (Chatbury et al, 2011).
2.3.1.4 Persuasive mapping
A cornerstone of leadership is the ability to influence others (Voon et al, 2011). Carter &
Greer (2013) found that leaders utilizing persuasive mapping influence others with sound
reasoning and mental frameworks. Servant leaders have an ability to conceptualize
greater possibilities and encourage others to dream great futures. Leaders using
persuasion are able to influence others without relying on formal authority.
2.3.1.5 Organizational stewardship
Olesia et al (2013) defined organizational stewardship as preparing an organization to
leave a positive legacy, and that servant leaders take responsibility for the well-being of
the community. Servant leaders believe that organizations play a moral role in society and
make sure to give back to make things better than the way they were found. Chinomona
et al (2013) states that the most lasting tangible act of leadership is the creation of an
institution that continues to exert moral leadership and foster needed social change long
after the creative leaders are gone. Organizational stewardship is being involved with
something bigger than ourselves. Chatbury et al (2011) defines stewardship as the ability
to be responsible for the well-being of the larger organization through operating in
service, rather than in control, of our subordinates and those people around us. Stated
simply it can be said to be accountability without control or compliance.
27
However the criticism of servant leadership is the perception of service as a gentle value
more commonly associated with women than with men as highlighted by Carter & Greer
(2013) who went on and concluded that servant leadership can be viewed as solicitous
model for leadership with prominence on the emotional well-being of followers, whilst on
the other hand it is considered to be the soft style of leadership. Chan and Mak (2013)
notes that since the number of research studies on servant leadership is growing, there
must be extra empirical substantiation that can demonstrate how servant leadership
transmits to the result of organizational performance. On the other hand pseudo servant
leaders may practice aspects of servant leadership, only to abandon them when the level
of profits are not attained as some of these pseudo servant leaders do believe they are
acting in the best interest of people yet they are without morale compass (Bambale, 2014;
Chegini & Nezhad, 2012). The researchers went on to conclude that servant leadership
will be more likely to be effective in static environments compared to volatile
environments of which the transformational leadership is likely to be effective. To this
end servant leadership cannot be useful and is not focused on efficiency whilst it is not
useful in short term or where profits need to be realised in the short run (Chatburyet al.
2011; Chegini & Nezhad, 2012, and Bambale, 2014).
For servant leadership to be effective the leader must have had the motivation to rise
within the organisation and the need to serve (Kelly & Phipps, 2010). There are
characteristics that need to be exhibited by leaders and employees who are using servant
leadership which involves self-determination, moral cognitive development and cognitive
complexity whilst the development of an employee to become a servant leader is highly
influenced by the organisational culture that involves humane orientation and power
distance (Barbuto, 2011; Voon et al. 2011; and Bambale, 2014). Kelly & Phipps (2010)
further asserts that a servant leader must be able to recognize the intrinsic value of the
individual employee within the group and acknowledges such value. On the other hand
the leaders are able to show humility to their followers characterised by the leader’s
ability to show mutual trust, respect and obligation to the followers (Mahembe &
Engelbrecht, 2014). The servant leader will be more interested in the voluntary
participation and adhesion of employees are able to create and build relationships that are
of high quality with their employees and thereby allowing employees to become engaged
as they have a feeling trust and safety in the organisation.
28
2.3.2 Employee team work
A team is predominantly a clear working group that contains all the necessary conditions
required in a team and its members are entirely dedicated and committed to other
employee’s promotion and success (Chatbury et al. 2011; Chinomona et al. 2013). Hence
this will enhance and eventually results in team development, whereas teamwork is an
essential element for increasing work creativity, which will in turn results in job
satisfaction that will result in employees being committed to the organisation. The
assertions of Reed et al. (2011) are that team work culture has an impact on achievement
of stable essential capabilities in the competitive environment that employees are working
in. On the other hand the study carried out by Ullah & Park (2013) further asserts that in
organisation where team work conditions are prevalent, it results in their employees being
more committed to the organisation.
Bambale (2014), Chegini & Nezhad (2012) concurs that teamwork is a considerable
supportive process that allows ordinary people to achieve unexpected results. Also Chenet
al. (2013) states that a team has common goal or purpose that involves team members
which in turn help in the development of effective and mutual relationships to achieve
team goals. Teamwork relies upon individuals working together in a cooperative
environment to achieve common team goals through sharing knowledge and skills
(Muchiriet al. 2012; Olesiaet al. 2013; Chinomona et al. 2013). On the other hand
Schneider & George (2011) highlighted that, teams are a fundamental part of various
organisations which should be integrated to the process of achieving organisational
objectives, hence it relies upon synergism among teammates that aid in the achievement
of an encouraging team environment.
Ghorbanhosseini (2012) in his study claims that there are many studies that have provided
support to the claims that team work has positive impact in different work environments.
However, many researchers points out that the substantiation for a team and organisation
overall productivity remains questionable (Mahembe & Engelbrecht, 2014). To add to
this assertion Afolabi, Adesina & Aigbedion (2009), Shapira-Lishchinsky & Aziel (2010)
concurs that there are unconvincing linkages in organisations where teams have
diminutive autonomy whilst they are required to meet difficult tasks. On the other hand
29
the teams provide a way to increase performance and change of employee behaviour
though not all teams are able to yield positive outcomes as expected by the leaders.
Synergy among all the team members is the key to effective teams whilst the members
are working toward a common goal (Afolabi et al. 2009; Ghorbanhosseini, 2012;
Mahembe & Engelbrecht, 2014). The studies went on to indicate that members in the
team must be flexible and should not be pursuing some personal goals at the time they
should be performing the team objectives.
2.3.3 Employee workplace spirituality
Kazemipour & Amin (2012) assertions are that workplace spirituality has to do with the
ability of an individual to develop a sense of purpose in life, establishing a strong
relationship with workmates whilst achieving uniformity between the individual core
beliefs and the organisation’s core values. It is noted that workplace spirituality in
practise has an effect that positively influences an individual employee’s organisational
commitment and organisational outcome in turn (Sabeen, 2012; Chegini & Nezhad, 2012,
and Bambale, 2014). On the other hand researchers such as Kazemipour & Amin (2012)
came up with a theoretical framework that analysed workplace spirituality involving the
sense of community, the association with organisational values which empirically tested
how work place spirituality influences organisational citizenship behaviour and
organisational commitment.
However other studies that indicated the benefits of workplace spirituality on
organisational outcome have indicated that spirituality improves human wholeness,
leading to employee happiness and satisfaction (Chatburyet al. 2011; Chinomonaet
al.2013; Sabeen, 2012; Chegini & Nezhad, 2012, and Bambale, 2014). To this extend,
workplace spirituality is seen as an important factor that encourages employees to be
happy (Kazemipour & Amin, 2012). A study by Bhunia & Das (2012) provides that
workplace spirituality as a factor it reveals employee capabilities that involves, the sense
of meaning, tenacity, openness and greatness at workplace. Other researchers, such as,
Pawar (2009), Khanifar & Jandaghi (2010), Bhunia & Mukhuti (2011), and Roberts
(2013) highlighted the effects of workplace spirituality which involves work attitudes,
organisational productivity and work unit performance.
30
The literature has been exploring various factors that nurture employee spirituality in the
workplace. Karakas (2010) asserts that age, educational background and experience
within the organisation has much bearing on employee spiritual behaviours. Adawiyah,
Shariff, Saud & Mokhtar (2011) in their study found that female employees in different
organisations are more spiritual than their male counterparts. Bhunia & Das (2012) found
employee spirituality to have some different impacts within various occupational groups
whilst Geigle (2012) has ascertained that employee spirituality has different meaning
across generations. On the other hand Beheshitifar & Zare (2013) found that in
organisations were spirituality is in existence, it is highly related to ethical behaviour of
individuals within the organisation. However Wahid & Mustamil (2014) highlighted an
important warning, their study eludes that employees or individuals who are more
inclined to their organisations are more likely to be involved in other behaviour which
may be unethical.
2.3.4 Employee organisational citizenship behaviour
Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as claimed by Odoch & Nangoli (2013) is
the bundle of optional behaviours that an employee can display and these behaviours will
ultimately exceed employee job requirements. Moreover the behaviour can be expected
to go beyond the call of duty. Naqshbandi & Kaur (2011) notes that such behaviour as
organisational citizenship by employees contributes significantly to the smooth
functioning of the organisations in which the employees are working. In their study
Mohammad, Habib & Alias (2011) asserts that it will be difficult for organisations to
survive and prosper if their employees are not behaving as good citizens. Organisational
citizenship behaviour is the mostly valuable resource for the survival of the organisation
(Ahmed, Rasheed & Jehanzed, 2012). The authors went on further to assert that
organisational citizenship behaviour by employees will result in efficiency and
productivity of the employee while the organisation will ultimately benefit from that
maximisation of efficiency and productivity hence the organisation will result in its
operations functioning properly.
There are five categories of employee organisational citizenship behaviours that were
modelled by Organ in 1988 that provides the employee behaviours and how these
31
behaviours affect positively the performance of their organisations. In his theories he
came up with behaviours such as; Altruism, Conscientiousness, Sportsmanship, Courtesy
and Civic Virtue. In the altruism behaviour an employee will be inclined towards other
workmates that involves helping new employees and having enough time to help others
on the other hand contributing to group efficiency whilst improving the employee’s
performance ( Alias, 2011; Ahmed et al., 2012, and Odoch & Nangoli, 2013). The
authors went on to asserts that conscientiousness encompasses the proficient us of time
and an employee ability to do what is expected and go beyond it while this behaviour
helps in the improvement of efficiency of both the group and the employee. Tsai & Wu
(2011) assets that, an employee who exhibits the sportsmanship behaviour is the one who
can take much of the time in productive activities at the workplace while such an
employee will circumvent complaining. On the other hand those employees who are able
to avoid problems by giving notices in advance and issuing out appropriate information
during communication while assisting in the constructive use of time are said be
exhibiting the courtesy behaviour (Naqshbandi & Kaur, 2011). The civic virtue behaviour
of employees involves an individual being able to use the voluntary ability in serving the
committees and attending organisation or other employees’ gatherings that will support
the interests of the organisation (Naqshbandi & Kaur, 2011, and Odoch & Nangoli,
2013).
In a perfect management system, it is nearly impossible to obtain a high level of
organisational effectiveness with employees performing only their daily job (Tsai & Wu
2011). Therefore, most management systems encourage some extra behaviour that is
called organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) to increase organisational effectiveness
(Zehiri, Akyuz, Eren, & Turhan, 2013). In other words, OCB is represented as the
workforce’s extra attempt the organisation needs in order to be successful, hence the
success of organisations depend on employees who do more than their usual duties whilst
performing beyond expectations (Podsakoff, Whiting & Podsakoff, 2009,and Zheng,
Zhang, & Li, 2012).
32
2.3.5 Employee organisational commitment
Ghorbanhosseini (2012) in his study claims that employee commitment to the
organisation is a significant aspect to those organisations that would like to be acquainted
with the real commitment that their employees have towards their organisation. Employee
organisational commitment has been well defined as the power that an employee is
identified with an association in the organisation (Wahid & Mustamil, 2014; Nasina &
Doris, 2011; Porshariah, Dousti & Moosavi, 2014). The literature has provided that
approaches for understanding the concept of organisational commitment as highlighted by
Nasina & Doris (2011), Bosco & Melchar (2010), and Chinomona et al. (2013) are that
organisational commitment is involved with three basic components. These components
are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment.
Affective commitment comprises an emotional attachment and affection to the
organisation whilst continuance commitment involves recognising the costs related with
an employee leaving the organisation and normative commitment concerns feelings of
commitment towards the organisation (Nasina & Doris, 2011; Dixit & Bhati, 2012; Sola,
Femi & Kolapo, 2012; Nguyen, Mai & Nguyen, 2014, and Khuong & Vu, 2014). The
researchers went on to highlight that employees with a strong affective commitment will
remain with the organisation because they are willing to stay, whilst those employees that
exudes high levels of continuance commitment will remain within the organisation
mostly because they have a feeling that they have to be with that organisation. Lastly
employee that has a high level of normative commitment will remain because they have a
feeling that they ought to be with the organisation (Sola et al. 2012, and Nasina & Doris,
2011).
These relationships between leadership and commitment bring to light the importance of
having strong managers and the need to examine their roles in enhancing organizational
commitment (Bosco & Melchar, 2010). The leader who serves the needs of the staff will
develop their desires to bring out the best in them and this in turn will build a sense of
community, affective attachment and belonging to public agency or the organization they
are serving (Chinomona et al. 2013).
Employee commitment is important because high levels of commitment lead to several
favorable organizational outcomes (Chegini & Nezhad, 2012). On the other hand highly
33
committed employee has a weak intention to quit the organisation (Schneider & George,
2011). Employee organizational commitment is an individual's psychological bond to the
organization, including a sense of job involvement, loyalty and belief in the values of the
organization (Vondey, 2010). Organizational commitment from this point of view is
characterized by employee's acceptance of organizational goals and their willingness to
exert effort on behalf of the organization. This suggests that there is a mental and
emotional affiliation to a particular organization. The psychological bond exist when one
feel valued by the organization (Chatbury etal. 2011; Chegini & Nezhad, 2012, and
Bambale, 2014).Other studies have concluded that organisational commitment is affected
by low morale in employees, which in turn affects the quality of product or service they
offer adversely (Duff, 2011; Mehta & Pillay 2011).
2.4 Relationships among Variables
The use of relevant theoretical frameworks in research studies increases the capacity for
meaningful construction of data interpretation (George, 2010). In quantitative studies, a
theory offers a prediction and explication of relationships between the independent and
dependent variables (Creswell, 2012). In this section, the study will provide adequate and
detailed relationships among the key variables in the study. In order to empirically test the
influence of servant leadership on employees in the retail sector in Zimbabwe, a
conceptual model is developed based on the literature reviewed as shown in figure 2.2.
The conceptual model is grounded on the leader-member exchange theory which offers a
strong underpinning for the current study. The conceptualised model provides one
predictor variable which is servant leadership with four resulting variables which are
(employee teamwork, employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour,
and employee organisational commitment).
2.4.1 Servant leadership and employee team work
Servant leadership enables employees to work towards a shared vision and respect
collective commitments in the workplace and has great potential to improve the entire
organisation operations (Mahembe & Engelbrecht, 2014). On the other hand servant
leadership has the prospective to bring up an environment that is favourable to effective
organisational team functioning. Since servant leadership involves the development and
34
empowerment of subordinates and junior employees it is evident from the literature that
servant leadership is highly influential on employee team work behaviour within an
organisation (Afolabi et al. 2009, Ghorbanhosseini, 2012, and Mahembe & Engelbrecht,
2014).
The servant leader behaviour is an important factor in the achievement of the
organisational team effectiveness. The organisation leaders’ values and personal
competencies are of critical importance to the overall success of the organisation’s team
work (Kelly & Phipps, 2010). The servant leader as well as any team leader in an
organisation has to be goal directed whilst being able to create commitment for other
employees, give recognition and must have the impetus to deal with various behaviours
within the team that will improve on team cohesiveness while contributing to the overall
team performance (Ghorbanhosseini, 2012). Servant leader behaviour will outspread
beyond the desires of self-ego thereby creating an organisational climate that generates a
feeling of empowerment among employees. This inspirational behaviour, together with
the motivating and moral part of servant leadership is crucial for the enhancement of the
teams in an organisation, hence employees are more likely to be involved collaborative
work for the achievement of organisational team goals if they find inspirational behaviour
together with moral confidence in their leader (Mahembe & Engelbrecht, 2014).
From the conclusions drawn in the literature, servant leadership can influence team
effectiveness as the team and its members are entirely committed to each other’s
promotion and success (Chatbury et al. 2011; Chinomona etal. 2013). In various
organisations where servant leadership has been empirically tested it was proved that, the
leaders are able to enhance team effectiveness and eventually results in team
development, whilst servant leaders will increase work creativity, which will in turn
results in teamwork (Cohen & Colwell, 2011). On the other hand the study carried out by
Ullah & Park (2013) further asserts that in organisation where servant leadership has been
implemented, team work conditions are prevalent, hence it results in their employees
being able to consult each other and help workmates in difficult tasks.
2.4.2 Servant leadership and employee workplace spirituality
The theory of servant leadership and its relevance on employee workplace spirituality has
been associated with the outcomes that involve calling and membership of an employee
35
within an organisation (Roberts, 2013). These outcomes are in agreement with the study
carried out by Pawar (2009) who asserts that individual spirituality and workplace
spiritualty are more significantly influenced by the type of leadership within the
organisation as such servant leadership has more impact in predicting the behaviour that
will lead to employee workplace spirituality. The benefits of workplace spirituality on
employee and organisational outcome have indicated that spirituality improves human
wholeness, leading to employee happiness and satisfaction (Chatbury et al. 2011;
Chinomona et al. 2013; Sabeen, 2012; Chegini & Nezhad, 2012, and Bambale, 2014).
Servant leaders have a greater ability to trigger their followers’ workplace spirituality
which is an important factor that encourages employees to be happy (Kazemipour &
Amin, 2012).
Piryaei & Zare (2013) found that females in most organisations with high level of
spirituality have fewer conflicts within their workplaces. Whilst Karakas (2010)
concludes that spirituality within an employee helps them to handle work related stress.
Chatbury et al. (2011) provides that the outcomes of servant leadership on employee
workplace spirituality have proved to be of great significance as they improve employee
wholeness which in turn drives the employee into happiness and satisfaction at the
workplace. These results are also in consistent with the findings of Kazemipour & Amin
(2012), Roberts (2013), and Wahid & Mustamil (2014) who proves that employees that
are spiritually committed to their work place are more likely to be committed to the
organisation and trust their leaders.
From the empirical evidence, it is noted that workplace spirituality is highly influenced by
Servant leadership practices is various organisations (Sabeen, 2012; Chegini & Nezhad,
2012, and Bambale, 2014). On the other hand researchers such as Kazemipour & Amin
(2012) came up with a theoretical framework that analysed the drivers to workplace
spirituality involving the sense of community, the association with organisational values
and empirically tested how work place spirituality is influenced by servant leadership,
hence concluded that servant leadership can trigger workplace spirituality in employees.
2.4.3 Servant leadership and employee citizenship behaviour
Lee et al. (2013) provides that servant leadership is a crucial determinant of
organisational citizenship behaviour by employees. Other studies have asserted that there
36
is a positive relationship between servant leadership and employee organisational
citizenship behaviour (Ahmed et al. 2012, Lee et al. 2013, and Barbuto, 2011). These
results are in consistent with the findings of Mohammad et al. (2011) who found that a
servant leader has the potential to influence other employees that can create behaviour
which reciprocate that of their leader. On the other hand it has been established that
servant leaders are effective as they consider the needs of their employees which helps in
employees being able to perform beyond the expected behaviour (Naqshbandi & Kaur
2011, and Odoch & Nangoli, 2013).
Theoretically and empirically, organizational citizenship behaviour appears to be likely
impacted by servant leaders. For example, Tsai & Wu (2011) found one of the strong
components of servant leadership characteristic attributes such as consideration behavior
to be positively correlated with employee organisational behaviour and involvement of
employees in the organizational activities. Strengthening the same notion, Zehiri etal.
(2013) argues that organizations are now evolving toward structures in which rank entails
responsibility but not authority, and where the supervisor’s job is not to command, but to
persuade. This means that the influential role played by leaders through upholding values
such as humbleness, empathy and empowerment is critically important in ensuring
employee organisational citizenship behaviour to their organization. Thus, servant leaders
assist and support their employees’ growth, needs, and motivate them to carry out their
duties beyond the expectation of the organization (Ullah & Park, 2013).
2.4.4 Servant leadership and employee organisational commitment
Organisational commitment reveals how an individual is psychologically identified and
participates within the organisation activities in line with the goals of the organisation
(Mat, Romli, Mat & Noor, 2012). Geigle (2012), the accomplishment and recognition of
employee spiritual needs by the leaders is certainly associated with the employee
commitment to the organisation. In line with the above argument, in literature it is evident
that employee spirituality leads to organisational commitment (Petchsawanga, 2012).
Consistent with this is Piryaei & Zare (2013) who suggests that employee spiritual values
that may include the organisation’s ability to assist employees is likely to be positively
associated with how an employee approaches the work. Servant leadership has a positive
correlation with employee commitment to the organisation (Roberts, 2013).
37
An employee that has worked under the leadership of a servant leader has been found to
be positively committed to the organisation, whilst this will have a significant impact on
employee turnover from one organisation to another, followed by absenteeism and the
employee psychological distress (Odoch & Nangoli, 2013). Employees with high levels
of organisational commitment behaviour are more likely to be committed at their
workplaces (Mohammad et al. 2011). Naqshbandi & Kaur (2011) asserts that those
employees with higher levels of organisational commitment will exhibit deceased
propensity to leave their organisations and the need to search for another employment,
whilst servant leadership behaviour is mostly referred to as the predictor of affective
commitment. Servant leadership will help employees in maintaining a behavioural
direction in the organisation even if there is less anticipation for rewards from the
organisation (Ahmed et al. 2012).
Servant leaders can be categorised as the kind of leader that helps employees that usually
perform below average to achieve extraordinary performance, whilst Shapira-Lishchinsky
& Aziel (2010) asserts that a servant leader has to build a mutual goal or purpose with the
employees where all employees are able to cultivate and develop effective mutual
relationships that helps in the overall achievement of organisational goals (Afolabi et al.
2009, and Dixit & Bhati, 2012). The ability of the leader to share knowledge and skills
helps in the achievement of organisational commitment by individual employees whereas
the servant leaders are fundamental component in many organisations as much of the
operations involve work that is carried out in teams and require commitment to the
processes (Khuong & Vu, 2014). The researchers are almost constantly highlighting that
the major and most fundamental element of employees to be committed to their
organisations is the ability of the leaders to work and influence workers to work towards a
common goal and clear purpose (Sola et al. 2012, Ghorbanhosseini, 2012, and Nguyen et
al. 2014). These results are consistent with those of the studies carried out by Khanifar et
al. (2010), Bhunia & Mukhuti (2011), Mat et al. (2012), and Mahembe & Engelbrecht
(2014) who asserts that servant leadership positively influences organisational
commitment.
Perceptions of social support from the leader in the workplace have also been shown to be
positively associated with organizational commitment (Chatbury etal. 2011, and
Chinomona etal. 2013). Work relationships which exist in the workplace between a leader
38
and the follower have an impact on employee organizational commitment (Chegini &
Nezhad, 2012). Work relationships that reflect mutual respect to individuals, will help in
enabling individuals to commit themselves to the organization. Employees who report
more positive social relations on work teams will report higher levels of commitment to
their organization (Muchiri etal. 2012; Olesia etal. 2013; Chinomona etal. 2013).On the
other hand Khanifar et al. (2010) found that if a leader exudes higher levels of servant
leadership it will not necessarily produce higher levels of employee organisational
commitment.
There is growing empirical evidence indicating that employees’ happiness is positively
and significantly affected by trust and identification with one's ability to be emotional
attached with the organisation (Bosco and Melchar, 2010). Moreover, greater levels of
purpose that one attributes to his or her work correlates to a greater employee
commitment to the organization (Vondey, 2010).
2.5 Previous models, Research gap and Conceptual framework
The previous models have been considered in order to identify the research gap that was
covered and the one to be fulfilled by the current study. Table 2.1 below show the
selected three conceptual models from the literature review and the sources of the models.
From these conceptual models, the identified research gap was then postulated. Hence,
the conceptual framework for this current study was developed with all the factors and
key variables that affect each factor. In this current study servant leadership was
measured by the key variables such as; altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom,
persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship from the leader. On the other hand
team work was measured by synergy, creativity and common goal among employees.
Workplace spirituality was measured by the employee sense of meaning, openness,
wholeness and sense of tenacity. Citizenship behaviour was measured by altruism,
conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue. Whilst commitment was
measured by the employee’s affective commitment, continuance commitment and
normative commitment.
39
Table 2.1 Previous models
Conceptual Model Source
Chinomona, R., Mashiloane, M.,
and Pooe, D. (2013). The Influence
of Servant Leadership on Employee
Trust in a Leader and Commitment
to the Organization. Mediterranean
Journal of Social Sciences, 4(14),
405-414.
Chan, S. C. H., and Mak, W.
(2013). The impact of servant
leadership and subordinates’
organizational tenure on trust in
leader and attitudes. International
Journal of Human Resources
Management, 43(2), 272-287.
Dierendonck, D., and Kool, M.
(2012). Servant leadership and
commitment to change, the
mediating role of justice and
optimism. Journal of
Organizational Change
Management, 25(3), 422-433.
40
2.6 Research gap identified
The research will contribute to the body of knowledge by providing empirical solutions to
the conceptual framework provided in this study. The theoretical framework is the first
one to be modelled in the area of servant leadership as it contains one predictor and many
outcome variables which are; teamwork, organisational citizenship behaviour and
workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. Moreover the research will be the
first to be applied in the retail sector since most of the studies were done in the services
sector and non-profit making organisations. To this end this study will also be the
keystone for future researches to be conducted in the retail sector in area of organisational
behaviour.
2.7 Conceptual framework
Independent Variable Dependent Variables
Figure 2.2: Conceptual framework model
Servant Leadership
• Altruistic Calling
• Emotional Healing
• Wisdom
• Persuasive Mapping
• Organisational Stewardship
Team Work
• Synergy
• Creativity
Workplace Spirituality
• Openness
• Sense of meaning
• Tenacity
Organisational Citizenship Behaviour
• Altruism
• Conscientiousness
• Sportsmanship
• Courtesy
Organisational Commitment
• Affective commitment
• Continuance commitment
• Normative commitment
41
2.8 Chapter summary
The chapter explored literature regarding servant leadership from the theory of Leader
member exchange Theory which looks at the dyadic relationships between the leader and
the subordinate. In detail servant leadership has been discussed in dimensions such as its
key characteristics and the key factors (altruism, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive
mapping and organisational stewardship) were discussed to depth highlighting the
benefits and there detriments to the employee and the organisation. Other factors in the
study were also reviewed in this chapter; these are teamwork, employee workplace
spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment giving
major highlights to key variables that affects the organisation and the employee. In the
chapter a conceptual framework was developed in line with the identified research gap.
Chapter three provides the methodologies that were used in exploring the outcomes of
servant leadership on employees in the Zimbabwean retail sector.
42
Chapter Three
Research Methodology
3.5 Introduction
Chapter twoexplored the outcomes of servant leadership with emphasis on its influence
on employee teamwork, employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship
behaviour, and employee organisational commitment. This chapter discusses the
methodology that was used in exploring the outcomes of servant leadership.
Methodologies are considered to be systems of explicit rules upon which research is
based and against which claims of knowledge are evaluated (Chegini & Nezhad, 2012).
In the chapter a reminder of the of the research questions together with the research
objectives has been presented. Further the chapter outlines the research design and
methodology used. Population and sampling techniques, the data collection instruments
and data analysis techniques were also presented. The techniques to ensure that the
instrument was valid and reliable are discussed. Finally the limitations and ethical
consideration encountered in the study are presented together with the chapter summary.
The major question of the study was, “Does servant leadership influence employee
teamwork behaviour, employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour,
and employee organisational commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector?The following
are sub questions that were formulated in this study:
1. Do servant leadership have an influence on employee teamwork behaviour?
2. Does servant leadership influence employee workplace spirituality?
3. Do servant leadership have an impact on organisational citizenship behaviour?
4. Does servant leadership have an influence on employee organisational
commitment?
5. Are there any significant and statistical differences among respondents of different
gender and level of education on servant leadership and its outcomes?
43
3.2 Research design
The research design is the way the researcher goes about in answering the research
questions and objectives by considering the necessary research strategies and that the
information collected will be a true representation of the reality(Savage & Honeycutt,
2011). On the other hand, research design is concerned about time horizons and how the
research will be conducted to specifications and within budget (Carter & Greer,
2013).Hence, the research design for this study is explanatory research purpose. The
research design that was adopted for this study is the explanatory research purpose since
it is useful in explaining the relationships between the variables under study. Carter &
Greer (2013) noted that an explanatory design is useful in explaining why things are the
way they are and why some variables affect others. This study sought to explain the
relationships between servant leadership, teamwork, workplace spirituality, organisational
citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment within the retail sector in
Zimbabwe.
The purpose of the research is generally threefold; exploratory, descriptive and
explanatory (Sabeen, 2012). The exploratory research purpose seeks new insights that are
useful in clarifying the understanding of the research problem. The descriptive research
purpose is mainly concerned with describing things, whilst the researcher has ideas of
what is to be studied and where to look for the solution. On the other hand explanatory
seeks to establish that causal relationship between variables that involves the independent
and dependent variables (Savage & Honeycutt, 2011; Carter & Greer, 2013).
3.3 Research philosophy
This is a view of beliefs and assumptions about the way in which the researcher views the
world whilst it is useful in determining the research strategy and methods to be used when
conducting the research (Schneider & George, 2011). There are three broad philosophies
available to the researcher, which are namely, positivism, realism and interpretivism (Tsai
& Wu, 2011). The positivism believes that knowledge is valid if it is developed by testing
hypothesis that is derived from theory whilst it focuses on facts that are gathered and
measured using quantitative methods. The interpretivism philosophy is derived from
44
social sciences based on individual experience, memory and expectations whilst they
believe that reality is contextual or relative and therefore it cannot be generalised. The
realism philosophy on the other hand does not agree with the positivists of a structured
and less room for choice due to the causal and effect relationship. They also do not agree
with the interpretivism view though this approach takes the aspects of both the positivism
and interpretivism approaches (Chatbury et al. 2011; Chegini & Nezhad, 2012, and
Bambale, 2014).
In this study the positivism philosophy was used because it is associated with the
quantitative approaches to the research whilst on the other hand the positivism philosophy
emphasises on numerical analysis and objectivity whilst it produces reliable and
replication of results is possible (Muchiri et al., 2012). This philosophy was more
favourable to researcher because it is economical in collection of large amount of data
and it also easy in facilitating the ability for comparability data to be collected (Creswell,
2012). From the positivism, the world works with regard to fixed laws of cause and
effect. Scientific thinking is used to test theories about these laws, and either reject or
provisionally accept them. In this way, we will finally get to understand the truth about
how the world works (Dierendonck & Kool, 2012; Ceri-Booms 2012; Cater & Greer,
2013; Parris & Peachey, 2013).
The study on servant leadership and its influence on employee teamwork behaviour,
employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour, and employee
organisational commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sectorin Harare, adopted the
positivist philosophy. The positivist philosophy was more appropriate to this study which
sought to assess the cause and effect relationship of servant leadership and its influence
on employee teamwork behaviour, employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship
behaviour, and employee organisational commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector,
mainly the FMCG.Cater & Greer (2013) note that a positivist philosophy believes that
knowledge is best described by cause and effect relationships. The positivist philosophy
was also the best method to use because of the large sample used; hence this helped in
ensuring credibility of the results obtained from the sample of employees in the FMCG
retail sector in Harare Zimbabwe. The positivist philosophy was more applicable to the
study because the data collected from the selected retail sector employees was statistically
45
analysed to obtain results that would be generalised on all retail sector employees in the
FMCG sector in Zimbabwe.
3.4 Research approaches
Research approaches are divided into two main types quantitative and qualitative research
approaches (Savage & Honeycutt, 2011). Quantitative research provide answers to
questions of who, where, how many, how much and relationships between variables,
whilst qualitative research provides answers of why and how questions (Tsai & Wu,
2011). However, Chen et al. (2013) argues that qualitative research has as its strength the
effective obtaining of a complex specific description of how people experience a given
research issue regarding values, opinions, behaviours, emotions and relationships of
individuals. Savage & Honeycutt (2011); Carter & Greer (2013) highlighted that
measurement is the strong point of quantitative research. Whilst its advantages bring
consistency to the work which is influenced neither by the timing of its administration nor
by the person who administers it and it allows the researcher to describe the difference
among the samples towards the characteristic or characteristics in question (Schneider &
George, 2011).
This research has used quantitative methodology, this was necessitated by the fact that the
researcher wanted to study the influence of servant leadership onemployees’ teamwork,
workplace spirituality, organizational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment.Quantitative method was to be preferred over qualitative because the study
focused on the outcomes of servant leadership and its influence on employees to be
committed and be identified with the firm. This type of method will help measure the
variables and express the relationship between variables using effect statistics such as
correlations, relative frequencies, or differences between means (Dierendonck & Kool,
2012; Ceri-Booms 2012; Cater & Greer, 2013; Parris & Peachey, 2013). Focus was also
on the testing of theory hence quantitative method was preferred over the qualitative
approach (Carter & Greer, 2013). The quantitative approach has also helped in the
establishment of the relationship between the variables whilst the method was chosen
because the researcher intended to test hypotheses. Moreover the method was preferred
over the qualitative because it allows for objectivity hence the researcher was not a
participant but just an observer (Chinomona et al. 2013). The quantitative methodology
46
will also allow for universal context free generalisations (Muchiri et al. 2012; Olesia et al.
2013; Chinomona et al. 2013).
The researcher has preferred to adopt the quantitative research approach for assessing the
influence of servant leadership onemployees’ teamwork, workplace spirituality,
organizational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment because hypothesis
that were derived from the literature on servant leadership had to be tested. The
antecedents of servant leadership and its influence on other variables were revealed in the
literature, whilst the researcher was obliged to find and gather empirical data from the
employees in the retails sector in Zimbabwe in order to test the formulated hypothesis,
hence the need to adopt the quantitative research approach to the study.
3.5 Research strategy
Research strategy provides the overall direction of the research including the process by
which the research is conducted (Muchiri et al. 2012). Case study, experiment, survey,
action research, grounded theory and ethnography are examples for such research
strategies (Olesia et al. 2013). Given the explanatory position adopted in this research and
the nature of the research question, the survey methodology was considered to be the
most appropriate approach to employ because it provides a systematic way to collect
data, analyse information, and report the results, thus understand a particular problem or
situation in great depth (Chegini & Nezhad, 2012; Muchiri et al. 2012; Parris and
Peachey, 2013; Olesia et al. 2013; Zehiri et al. 2013; Chinomona et al. 2013).
Chegini & Nezhad (2012) has defined research strategy as a method that enables the
researcher to commence the study. The researcher used structured surveys during data
collection in the study because these surveys are cost effective when collecting large
amounts of data from a significant number of employees in the FMCG in retail sector in
Zimbabwe. The structured surveys used standardised questions which made it easy to
make comparisons of data collected from the sample of employees in the FMCG retail
sector in Harare Zimbabwe.
47
3.6 Data collection instruments
The questionnaire is the most frequently used method in the social science field (Zehiri et
al. 2013) whilst it is a highly structured method of collecting specific information as a
response to highly directed questions (Chegini & Nezhad, 2012; Muchiri et al. 2012;
Parris and Peachey, 2013; Olesia et al. 2013; Zehiri et al. 2013). Questionnaires tend to be
used to explore attitudes and opinions about certain issues, objectives and situations
(Chinomona et al. 2013). In this study a questionnaire survey was used since it is cheaper
and less time-consuming than conducting interviews and very large samples can easily be
taken (Olesia et al. 2013). Other researchers such as Parris and Peachey (2013); Cater &
Greer, (2013) pointed out that a questionnaire has the advantages of increasing the
generalization of data while at the same time giving the respondents freedom to express
their points of view. Moreover, since the study is explanatory, like many other
explanatory studies, to collect information in hypothesis testing, questionnaire will be
used. This is because there is confidence in its standard, its answers have uniformity,
saves time, it is easier compared to other methods of data collection and opinions
expressed in it are closer to reality.
The questionnaire was preferred in this study because they are standardised data
collecting and recording instruments for a targeted group of respondents (Parris and
Peachey, 2013). The questionnaire was the ultimate data collecting instrument for the
study, since large amounts of data were collected cheaply from a sample of employees in
the FMCG retail sector in Harare, Zimbabwe. The results were generalised to the
population. Zehiri et al. (2013) asserts that questionnaires can be opened ended or closed
ended. The open ended questionnaires will have sections were respondents are asked to
write their opinions with regard to the structure of the questions, whilst the closed ended
are structured research questions which restricts the respondents to a prearranged
questions (Olesia et al. 2013). The researcher used closed ended questionnaires, where
respondents were asked to provide responses on a Lickert scale. Three major sections
were used, comprised of the introduction, general administrative section and the sections
specific to the servant leadership and its factors. All the constructs of the questionnaire
were tested for reliability and validity through the use of subject experts and pilot study.
Primary data was collected using the questionnaire, whilst secondary data was found from
research publications such as peer reviewed academic journals, text books and
48
publications. Primary data is necessary to the research as it is collected for investigating
the research problem under study (Olesia et al. 2013). Moreover primary data is more
reliable and can be tested for accuracy before the conclusions can be drawn by the
researcher. On the other hand secondary data involves the use of already existing data that
was collected to answer and solve specific research questions other than the one at hand
(Cater & Greer, 2013).
3.6.1 Operational definitions of constructs
Table 3.1 Operational Definition of constructs
Constructs Operational Definition
Servant
Leadership
Is a leadership approach that aims to satisfy the needs of followers, their
achievement, attitudes and performance (Jaramilloet al.
2009a;Chinomona et al.2013 and Mehta & Pillay, 2011).Measured by
listening, empathy, healing, calling, persuasion and stewardship.
Team Work Is a working group which has a common goal that is dedicated and
committed to promotion and success of all the employees through
increasing team work creativity (Chatburyet al. 2011;Ullah & Park, 2013
and Chinomonaet al. 2013). Synergy is key to effectiveness.
Workplace
Spirituality
Is the ability of an individual to develop a sense of purpose in life,
establishing strong relationship with workmates whilst achieving
uniformity between the individual beliefs and the organisation core
values (Sabeen, 2012; Pawar, 2009; and Bambale, 2014). Key measures
are; meaning, tenacity, openness and greatness.
Organisational
Citizenship
Behaviour
Is a bundle of optimal behaviours such as altruism, courtesy,
sportsmanship, civic virtue and conscientiousness that employees can
display and can exceed employee job requirements (Odoch & Nangoli,
2013; Naqshbandi & Kaur, 2011 and Tsai & Wu, 2011).
Organisational
Commitment
Involves an individual employee’s emotional affection, attachment,
identification with and involvement in the organisation
(Ghorbanhosseini, 2012; Wahid & Mustamil, 2014 and Bambale, 2014).
The operational measures being affective commitment, continuance
commitment and normative commitment,
49
3.7 Population and sample
3.7.1 Population
Population is defined as the totality of all elements which can be classified as principal
focus of study whereby conclusions can be drawn for generalisations (Zehiri et al. 2013).
The statistical population of this study was covering all employees in retail sector in
Harare, Zimbabwe; this enabled the coverage of main players in the retail sector in the
country while also being realistic in terms of accessibility of data. Conducting research to
such a large number would be cumbersome, costly and time consuming (Chegini &
Nezhad, 2012). The researcher implemented sampling techniques in dealing with the
cross functional groups within the retail sector and as a way to deal with costs and time.
3.7.2 Sampling
Sabeen (2012) asserts that a sample is referred to as the segment of the population used
for investigation and inference purposes. There are two sampling techniques that are
widely used, probability sampling and non-probability or judgmental sampling (Chegini
& Nezhad, 2012). For this study, the researcher used probability sampling techniques
because of less bias and they are more reliable when collecting large amount of data. The
sampling frame was considered to be involved of all the employees in the FMCG retail
sector in Zimbabwe.
A probabilistic sampling method was preferred because it is the most appropriate method
for making strong inferences regarding the target population (Sabeen, 2012). In order to
select the sample, the researcher used stratified random sampling. This involves dividing
the population into identical groups, each group comprised of the elements with similar
characteristics(Muchiri et al. 2012; Parris and Peachey, 2013). The main strata were huge
retailers, medium retailers and small retailers. These were further sub divided into
functional departments from where the respondents were randomly selected using the
simple random sampling method from all the employees. Stratified random sampling
method was preferred over other sampling techniques because of the need to ensure
representation of all the crucial functional departments in the retail sector such as the
Sales and Distribution, Marketing, Finance and Administration, Operations, Information
50
Technology and Risk and Compliance departments. On the other hand simple random
sampling was a compliment to the stratified random sampling method because is easy to
apply, hence the population has an equal chance of being selected (Chegini & Nezhad,
2012; Muchiri et al. 2012; Parris and Peachey, 2013; Olesia et al. 2013; Zehiri et al.
2013).
The Retail Association of Zimbabwe in Harare has availed information that there are
eleven (11) major FMCG retailers operating in and around town, these includes; TM Pick
n Pay, Ok, Bonmarche, Spar, Choppies, Meikles Mega Market, Food world, Fleximart,
Speedmart and Ivato supermarket among others. These retailers have an employment
capacity of approximately two thousand and five hundred employees (2500), which the
researcher has used as the sampling frame. When determining the sample size, the
researcher used the following statistical formula:
Where N = Population size (2500)
n = Sample size
e = Sampling error or precision level (5%)
The sample size from the population was calculated as follows:
n = 2500
1 + 2500 ( 0.05 ) 2
= 345
A sample of three hundred and fifty (350) employees was selected from the population
for assessing the influence of servant leadership on employee teamwork behaviour,
employee workplace spirituality, employee citizenship behaviour, and employee
organisational commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector. Allthe three hundred and
fifty selected employees for the study were from the Harare FMCG retail sector of which
the researcher distributed the questionnaires randomly with regards to the size of the
respondents’ organisation. The selected sample size of 350 employees in the FMCG was
a mere discretion of the researcher to use a number that is rounded to the nearest whole
number.
n = N
1 + N( e )2
51
3.8 Data analysis techniques
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 21) software with the aid of other Microsoft
Office packages such as excel were used for data processing (Kincaid, 2012; Barnabas &
Clifford, 2012; Mahembe & Engelbrecht, 2013). Descriptive statistics that involves the
calculation of frequencies, mean, median and the mode were also used to analyse
demographic variables as well as other variables. In order to assess the hypothesis and to
investigate the relationships and rate and the quality of variables, correlation coefficient
test were done to assess the strength and direction of relationships whilst regression
analysis was carried out to assess servant leadership and its influence on employees’
teamwork, workplace spirituality, organizational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector.For more comprehensive data analysis, the
descriptive data was imported to Microsoft excel (spread sheet), as it allows easier
interpretation of data (Duff, 2011). On the other hand graphs and charts were used in the
descriptive data analysis and presentation of results. The specific quantitative data
analysis techniques used by the researcher are as given below.
3.9 Validity and Reliability of instrument
Content and face validity were ensured through pilot study and consultation of subjects
experts (Schneider & George, 2011). This was done to make sure that the instrument has
captured all the necessary variables and if it was measuring what it has to measure (Duff,
2011). Pilot study was done with participants so as generate ideas into areas that the
questionnaire must be corrected. Subject experts were also be consulted to make sure that
all important aspects of the subject were sufficiently covered. Duff (2011) asserts that a
pilot study is a process by which the researcher administers questionnaires to a few
respondents prior to conducting the actual survey. This process will help in ensuring
whether the questions are worded correctly, also checking for the reliability and validity
of the instrument (Schneider & George, 2011).
A random selection was made to the respondents who were surveyed for the pilot study
and were all chosen from different FMCG retail stores. The results of the pilot study were
not included into the final study as the researcher was trying to avoid contamination of
the results from the study (Kincaid, 2012). After the pilot study, the researcher went on to
52
verify the actual instrument used in the study for its internal consistency using the
Cronbach’s alpha coefficients (Mahembe & Engelbrecht, 2013).
3.10 Normality test
Normality of the sample was conducted from the research data in order to determine if the
parametric or non-parametric analysis models could be used to test the data (Kincaid,
2012). In this research, Shapiro-Wilk (s-w) test which is the measurement that can be
used to test a sample size of less than 2000 in terms of its distribution to find out if the
sample fits the normal distribution was used. The non-parametric tests were conducted
because the results from the normality test had proved that the sample was not normal,
hence the non-parametric tests were preferred.
3.11 Cross tabulations
To test for the association between the ownership structure of the organisation and
servant leadership from the organisation’s leaders, as well as the association between
position of the respondent and his or her commitment to the organisation, the researcher
selected the crosstabulation analysis to come up with the associations and determining if
these relationships are no due to chance. The cross tabulation tables are used for the
analysis of the association together with the Chi-square test results that are used to check
the statistical significance of the results in order to come up with a decision as to whether
the association between the variables is not due to chance because the Chi-Square is
almost appropriate for any kind of data. On the other hand the symmetric measures
information is used to find how strong the relationship between the variables is.
3.12 Correlation test
The researcher further tests the variables results for their linear association using the
Spearman’s rank correlation “rho”, this was necessitated by the ascertainment that the
sample data was non parametric. The Spearman’s correlation is a non-parametric rank-
based statistical test for unevenly distributed data (Bambale, 2014). The Spearman’s
correlation was therefore used because the data was ranked and not normally distributed.
The correlation takes a range from -1.0 for a perfect negative relationship to +1.0 for a
53
perfect positive relationship, whilst a zero (0) indicates no relationship among the
variables (Chinomona et al. 2013).
3.13 Regression analysis
After analysing the results from the correlation analysis between the variables, the
researcher went on further to carry out the regression analysis since the correlations
analysis simply measures the strength of a relationship whilst it does not determine the
predictive relationship between the variables(Mapolisa & Kurasha, 2013). In order to
determine how servant leadership as the independent variable predict the influence on
employee teamwork, employee workplace spirituality, employee organisational
citizenship behaviour and employee organisational commitment which are the dependent
variables, a regression analysis model was computed using the linear regression analysis.
This model was necessitated by the fact that there was no more than one variable
affecting the outcomes(Zehiri et al. 2013). On the other hand regression analysis was
important to the research because it bring out the cause and effect between servant
leadership and the outcome variables namely; employee teamwork, employee workplace
spirituality, employee organisational citizenship behaviour and employee organisational
commitment.
3.14 Significance tests
Significance tests were carried out in order to verify if the random sample taken from the
FMCG retail sector was a true representation of the population. The p-value was used
throughout the study since it is the probability of type 1 error, that is, the probability of
rejecting the null hypothesis (H0) when it is true (Jha & Jha, 2013). Mapolisa & Kurasha
(2013) asserts that the significance level that is mostly acceptable in educational
researches is within the range 0.01 and 0.05. This suggests that when a p-value is as low
as 0.01, a sample can be drawn from the population ninety nine times and the results from
the samples will remain the same. For this study the researcher however adopted a
significance value of statistical p<0.05.
54
3.15 Limitations
The study faced challenges such as denial by some organisations and access barrier. In
some organisations the participants were not willing to provide information concerning
the leadership behaviour of the leaders of their organisations, as they feared victimisation.
Access to information was also deterred by some managers as they were reluctant to let
their subordinates participate in the research study due to problems of understaffing.
However a through explanation on the contributions of the study to their organisations
was done to the mangers who eventually released their subordinates to participate in the
study.
Time limitations was another major constraint to the researcher, hence the study was only
conducted in the FMCG retail shops in Harare with inferences being made to all the
retailers in Zimbabwe. The researcher was also concerned with the fact that the research
is focused on Harare retailers only whilst generalisation is going to be made for the sector
given that the leadership styles are dynamic in different organisations and such
generalisation of the responses may not be appropriate in some occasions.
3.16 Ethical issues
The researcher must be committed to respect the rights, needs, values and desires of the
informants (Chinomona et al. 2013). Jha & Jha (2013) also asserts that ethics involves the
appropriateness of the researcher’s behaviour to the subjects under the study and all those
who may be affected by that study. During the study, the researcher observed the
following ethical considerations; Informed consent from the senior management and
organisations in which the study was conducted then proceeded to seek consent of the
participants whilst highlighting to them that their participation was voluntary. Moreover
information about the research and its benefits to the organisation and participants was
availed to all the stakeholders in the study. Assurance was also given to the participants
without fear and victimisation that they were free to withdraw from the study at any point
in time they feel to do so.
The participants’ rights to privacy were also respected, whilst anonymity and
confidentiality were warranted. Indications were made to the organisation and employees
55
that the research was only for academic purposes and the results of the study will only be
available to them when requested. The researcher also ensured on the questionnaire no
name of either the organisation or respondent was going to be requested and when
analysis information collected the researcher would not at any time match the responses
to a particular organisation or respondent. On the other hand the researcher has ensured
that all work and ideas that were going to be incorporated into this study are fully and
well acknowledged so as to remove the room for plagiarism and copying. Data
manipulation from the respondents’ information was ensured in that the results will not be
manipulated from the actual findings.
3.17 Chapter summary
The explanatory research design was chosen for this study because of its ability to explain
the relationships between variables under the study; hence the researcher adopted the
positivism philosophy because it is economical in collecting large amounts of data whilst
it allows comparing variables and deducing the cause and effect relationships. The
quantitative research methodology was chosen to investigate the influence of servant
leadership on the outcome variables and to test the hypothesis developed from the
literature. Structured surveys which are made up of closed ended questionnaires were
used to collect data from sample of three hundred (300) employees in the retail sector,
which was chosen from a population of all the employees in the retail sector in Harare,
Zimbabwe. The sampling methods chosen were all probabilistic as a way of reducing bias
and to have all elements given an equal chance of being selected. Data collected from the
sample was analysed using statistical packages such as SPSS whilst being complimented
by Microsoft excel, hence descriptive statistics, reliability and validity tests, normality
test, factor analysis, correlation test, regression analysis and significance tests were the
data analysis techniques used in the research. On the other hand, the research limitations
faced by the researcher throughout the study were highlighted together with the ethical
concerns that were necessary for the research. Chapter four provides the presentation,
analysis and interpretation of data in answering the research questions and the objectives.
56
Chapter Four
Data Analysis, Presentation and Interpretation
4.1 Introduction
In order to statistically analyse the impact of servant leadership on employee teamwork,
workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment, this study used Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS) for
processing of data (Mehta and Pillay, 2011). The researcher captured raw data from the
returned questionnaires and processed through SPSS, then consolidated into Microsoft
excel sheets for easy extraction and manipulation, hence easy interpretation. Data was
collected from employees in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) retail sector in
Harare Zimbabwe. From the processed data, results are presented in this chapter in the
following sections, descriptive analysis which contains the response rate and the
frequencies. This section is followed by detailed statistical analysis of results in areas of
normality, validity, reliability, correlations, regression and test of independence. Lastly
the chapter discussed the results in relation to literature, hypothesis testing and
managerial implications.
4.2 Descriptive analysis
The section covers the response rate from the respondents as well as their demographic
characteristics as indicated in the questionnaire. Respondents were requested to indicate
the general information about themselves and their organisations such as gender, age,
current position, highest qualification, and years of service with the retailer, the
ownership type of the retail business and the class of the retailer. The results from the
collected data was processed and presented as follows:
4.2.1 Response rate
The researcher sent questionnaires to three hundred and fifty (350) employees in the
FMCG retail sector in Harare, Zimbabwe. Within 28 days, the researcher managed to
collect back 221 questionnaires which were completely filled up and usable, yielding a
63% response rate. The overwhelming response rate was necessitated by the self
distribution of the questionnaire and the collection method since most of the employees in
the retail sector will be confined to one shop. Below is an illustration of the response rate
as given by figure 4.1
Figure 4.1 Response rate
4.2.2 Gender of respondents
The sample consists of 81 (37%) males and 140 (63%) female respondents. Figure 4.2
below illustrates the distribution of gender from the respondents.
Figure 4.2 Gender distributions of respondents
Unreturned 37%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%Percentage
collect back 221 questionnaires which were completely filled up and usable, yielding a
63% response rate. The overwhelming response rate was necessitated by the self
distribution of the questionnaire and the collection method since most of the employees in
the retail sector will be confined to one shop. Below is an illustration of the response rate
Figure 4.1 Response rate
Gender of respondents
The sample consists of 81 (37%) males and 140 (63%) female respondents. Figure 4.2
illustrates the distribution of gender from the respondents.
Figure 4.2 Gender distributions of respondents
Useful responses63%
Unreturned 37%
37%
63%
Male Female
57
collect back 221 questionnaires which were completely filled up and usable, yielding a
63% response rate. The overwhelming response rate was necessitated by the self-
distribution of the questionnaire and the collection method since most of the employees in
the retail sector will be confined to one shop. Below is an illustration of the response rate
The sample consists of 81 (37%) males and 140 (63%) female respondents. Figure 4.2
63%
FemaleGender
58
From the results it is noted that gender distribution is skewed towards female respondents,
a results which is considered to be reasonable representative of the sample given that
most of the retail organisations employee more females than males as females understand
the needs of families whilst they not considered to be part of the old boys network when it
comes to service and decision making. The results are more useful to the study as they
will not show bias in opinions about leadership since most of those in leadership positions
are males.
3.2.3 Age profile of respondents
The results from the collected data about age of respondents indicates that most of the
employees are aged between 25 and 30 years (n=93; 42%), followed by those aged
between 31 and 35 years (n=50; 23%) whilst 19% of the employees are less than 25 years
with the least number of employees aged between 36 and 40 years (n=35; 16%). The
results of the age distribution clearly shows the working in most retail organisations in
Zimbabwe as most of these employees are students who have just completed their
undergraduate studies and some from colleges as indicated in figure 4.3 below.
Figure 4.3 Age of respondents
59
4.2.4 Current position in the organisation
Table 4.1 Current position of the respondent
Current Position Frequency Percentage Non managerial 81 37% Junior management 78 35% Middle management 48 22% Senior Management 8 4% Non Response 6 3% Total 221 100%
From the above analysis as indicated in table 4.1, it is clear that the non-managerial
employees (n=81; 37%) are more than all other employment categories, followed by
those who are junior managers (n=78; 35%). On the other hand middle managers
constituted (n48; 22%) of the employees, whilst the least proportion was comprised of
those in the senior management (n=8; 4%). However 6% of the respondents did not
disclose their positions in the organisations they are working and this did not discriminate
them from the research as the researcher considered their response to the main constructs
of the study.
4.2.5 Educational background of respondents
Figure 4.4 Level of education
3%
29%
46%
13% 10%0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Secondary Certificate Diploma Degree Masters
Per
cent
age
Level of education
60
The researcher further asked the respondents to indicate their educational background
from secondary level up to post graduate qualification of which the results were
processed and presented in figure 4.4 for further analysis. From the data it is evident that
most of the respondents had attained diploma level (46%), followed by those with
certificates (29%), degree (13%), masters (10%) and the least being those who attained
secondary education (3%). These results are somehow a representative of the employees
in the retail sector as most of the employees will have attained certificates and diplomas
in areas such as purchasing and supply, marketing and accountancy. Most of the shop
floor workers are employees with certificates in retail operations and merchandising
which gives the result of educational background to be highly concentrated towards
employees with diploma or less qualification.
4.2.6 Years of experience with the retailer
Table 4.2 Experience with the retailers
Experience in years Frequency Percentage Less than 1 year 36 16% 1 to less than 5years 106 48% 5 to less than 10 years 71 32% 10 years and above 8 4% Total 221 100%
The results in table 4.2 reveal that most employees are within the range of 1 -5 years of
experience (48%), followed by those with experience between 5-10 years with the same
retailer, this is followed by those who are less than a year with the retailer (16%) and
lastly those employees who have more than 10 years with the same employer. The results
support the researcher’s view that the more years an employee has spent with the same
employer indicates the reliability of the result and information about the variables under
study and servant leadership knowledge within the organisation.
4.2.7 Ownership of the organisation
Ownership of the organisations was processed as shown in figure 4.5 below. The
information from the results indicates that of the respondents are employed in private
limited companies (62%), followed by the sole proprietors (21%) and lastly those
employed in the public limited organisations constituted (17%). This information was
necessary to the study since leadership styles and the way leadership executes their duties
differs from organisation to organisation and as well as the ownership. In the public
limited organisations, the owners are shareholders and are not involved in the day to day
running of the business a situation which the assigned managers would like to please the
owners rather than the employee. In private limited companies there is a balanc
management behaviour and profit orientation in that the management will comprise part
of the owners and those who also considers employees. Lastly the sole proprietors are
easy to rate as they are involved in day to day running of the business an
will easily notice there management styles compared to the private and public limited
companies.
Figure 4.5 Ownership of the organisation
62%
limited companies (62%), followed by the sole proprietors (21%) and lastly those
in the public limited organisations constituted (17%). This information was
necessary to the study since leadership styles and the way leadership executes their duties
differs from organisation to organisation and as well as the ownership. In the public
mited organisations, the owners are shareholders and are not involved in the day to day
running of the business a situation which the assigned managers would like to please the
owners rather than the employee. In private limited companies there is a balanc
management behaviour and profit orientation in that the management will comprise part
of the owners and those who also considers employees. Lastly the sole proprietors are
easy to rate as they are involved in day to day running of the business an
will easily notice there management styles compared to the private and public limited
Figure 4.5 Ownership of the organisation
21%
17% Sole Owner
Public Limited Company
Private Limited Company
61
limited companies (62%), followed by the sole proprietors (21%) and lastly those
in the public limited organisations constituted (17%). This information was
necessary to the study since leadership styles and the way leadership executes their duties
differs from organisation to organisation and as well as the ownership. In the public
mited organisations, the owners are shareholders and are not involved in the day to day
running of the business a situation which the assigned managers would like to please the
owners rather than the employee. In private limited companies there is a balance between
management behaviour and profit orientation in that the management will comprise part
of the owners and those who also considers employees. Lastly the sole proprietors are
easy to rate as they are involved in day to day running of the business and the employees
will easily notice there management styles compared to the private and public limited
Sole Owner
Public Limited Company
Private Limited Company
62
4.2.8 Classification of the retailer
Figure 4.6 Classification of retailer
The classification of the retailers business into the three categories yielded that 55% of
the respondents are from the medium sized retailers which represents the greater
proportion of the respondents. This is followed by large/group retailers with 26% of the
respondents and small retailers were represented by a proportion of 19%, as illustrated by
figure 4.6 above. The information about the classification of retailer was useful in
checking whether the respondents to the study are not from large organisations only and
also to have an equal chance of all classes of respondents to participate.
4.3 Normality test
Table 4.3 Normality test of the sample
Tests of Normality Shapiro-Wilk Statistic df Sig. Servant Leadership 0.959 221 0.000 Team work 0.733 221 0.000 Workplace spirituality 0.626 221 0.000 Organisational citizenship behaviour 0.634 221 0.000 Organisational commitment 0.731 221 0.000
In order to validate the normality of the sample, the researcher further tested the
normality to determine if the parametric or non-parametric analysis methods could be
used to test the association and influence of the variables (Mehta and Pillay, 2011). The
19%
55%
26%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Small retailers Medium retailers Large/Group retailers
Per
cent
age
Classification of retailer
63
study based its analysis on Shapiro-Wilk (s-w) test, a measure that can be used to test
normality for a sample of less than 2000 in terms of its distribution. With reference to
results in table 4.3 above, all variables under the study were tested for normality with
servant leadership (0.959), having a higher statistic of followed by team work (0.733),
organisational commitment (0.731), organisational citizenship behaviour (0.634) and
lastly workplace spirituality (0.626) all variables with a significance value of (p<0.05).
These results indicate that the sample is not normally distributed hence the non-
parametric tests were conducted for further process and analysis of the data.
4.4 Reliability and validity
The validity and reliability of the research instrument was evaluated by computing the
coefficient of alpha (Cronbach’s alpha) that measures the internal consistency of the
sample variables and to check if the sample was adequately reliable and if the sample data
can be used to perform correlation, regression and independent tests.
4.4.1 Reliability statistics
A coefficient of alpha that is above 0.7 is considered to be acceptable and it indicates that
there is a good consistency among variables within each dimension of servant leadership
and the outcomes variables, the results are indicated in table 4.4 below.
Table 4.4 Reliability analysis
Variables Number of Items Cronbach's Alpha value Servant Leadership 13 0.900 Team work 10 0.904 Workplace spirituality 10 0.913 Organisational citizenship behaviour 10 0.857 Organisational commitment 7 0.784 Total scale of reliability 50 0.960
As indicated by results in table 4.4 above, the total scale of reliability is 0.960 which is
way above the acceptable benchmark of 0.7 (Schneider & George, 2011). The variables in
the study were checked for reliability and to confirm if the items loaded were sufficient to
64
the instrument to make it reliable (Duff, 2011), all the variables yields a coefficient of
alpha greater than 0.6, servant leadership (0.900), team work (0.904), workplace
spirituality (0.913), organisational citizenship behaviour (0.857) and organisational
commitment (0.784), an indication that all the variables under study are valid and reliable
to the instrument.
4.4.2 Validity
The validity of the instrument was further analysed using content validity as it is also
related to face validity which refers to the extent to which a measurement instrument
represents all the features required on a given construct (Schneider & George, 2011). As a
way assess the content validity, the questionnaire constructed in this study was shown to
employees in the FMCG retail sector through a pilot study, in which they were required to
express their view on the questionnaire, as to whether the questions were attending to
detail on servant leaderships and the impact it has to employee team work, workplace
spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment. Any
disparity with the questionnaire from the selected respondents would warrant
amendments to the measurement scale (Mehta and Pillay, 2011), however, there was no
disparity from the respondents with the constructed instrument. Hence, this parity helped
in the justification of the scale, which established the content validity. On the other hand
subject experts were consulted as a way of establishing face and content validity. The
researcher further checked convergent validity of the variables by checking the results of
the correlation statistics on whether they were converging towards the same direction, in
this instance the results are all positive as indicated by table 4.11 of the correlation
analysis. Discriminant validity of the sample variables was analysed from the correlation
results by checking the multi-collinearity of the variables, the results which ranges from
0.289 to 0.617, which are below 1 or -1, indicating the variables are different and there is
absence of perfect multi-collinearity within the sample data set. Lastly the predictive
validity was checked from the regression analysis table 4.14 which indicates that the
predictive power of the variables is significant and the instrument is valid in all aspects.
65
4.5 Test of relationships
In order to answer the research objective, questions and hypothesis formulated in the
study, this section provides analysis and solution to the major research objective which is
to determine the outcomes of servant leadership on employee teamwork, workplace
spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment in the
Zimbabwean retail sector. Results of the analysis are presented in sections of cross
tabulations, correlation analysis and regression analysis as provided below.
4.5.1 Cross tabulations
To test for the association between the ownership structure of the organisation and
servant leadership from the organisation’s leaders, as well as the association between
position of the respondent and his or her commitment to the organisation, the researcher
selected the crosstabulation analysis to come up with the associations and determining if
these relationships are no due to chance. The cross tabulation tables are used for the
analysis of the association together with the Chi-square test results that are used to check
the statistical significance of the results in order to come up with a decision as to whether
the association between the variables is not due to chance because the Chi-Square is
almost appropriate for any kind of data. On the other hand the symmetric measures
information is used to find how strong the relationship between the variables is.
4.5.1.1 Cross tabulation between ownership and servant leadership
With regard to information in table 4.5 below, it is clear that of those respondents who are
from the sole owned organisations, 100% agreed that servant leadership is being practiced
in their respective organisations. Of those who are in the public limited companies 52.6%
agreed and 42.1% strongly agreed resulting in 94.7% combined assenting that servant
leadership is being well practised in the organisations they are employed. However, for
those who are in the private limited companies 35.3% agreed and 36.8% strongly agreed
resulting in 72.1% combined confirming that servant leadership is being practiced in the
private limited companies. The information from the table confirms that there is an
association between ownership type of the retail organisation and servant leadership.
66
Table 4.5 Cross tabulation between ownership and servant leadership
Ownership of the retailer
Total
Sole Owner
Public Limited
Private Limited
SL Neutral Count 0 2 38 40
% within SL .0% 5.0% 95.0% 100.0%
% within Ownership .0% 5.3% 27.9% 18.1%
% of Total .0% .9% 17.2% 18.1%
Agree Count 47 20 48 115
% within SL 40.9% 17.4% 41.7% 100.0%
% within Ownership 100.0% 52.6% 35.3% 52.0%
% of Total 21.3% 9.0% 21.7% 52.0%
Strongly Agree
Count 0 16 50 66
% within SL .0% 24.2% 75.8% 100.0%
% within Ownership .0% 42.1% 36.8% 29.9%
% of Total .0% 7.2% 22.6% 29.9%
Total Count 47 38 136 221
% within SL 21.3% 17.2% 61.5% 100.0%
% within Ownership 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
% of Total 21.3% 17.2% 61.5% 100.0% SL= Servant Leadership
Moreover the researcher checked for the significance of the results serendipity if there
was a possibility that the relationship between ownership type of the retailer and servant
leadership is due to chance, meaning there is a possibility that we have no statistical
significance reason to believe these variables are related to one another. The Chi-Square
test from table 4.6 below shows the significance value of (p<0.05) for which we can say
the relationship between ownership of the retail organisation and servant leadership is
significantly related and the results about the association is not due to chance and really
exists. Therefore servant leadership is definitely related to the ownership of the retail
organisation.
67
Table 4.6 Chi-Square tests
Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 65.462 4 .000
Likelihood Ratio 84.429 4 .000
Linear-by-Linear Association .337 1 .562
N of Valid Cases 221
The symmetric measures were analysed using the Cramer’s V, which is a measure of
association that is calculated based on the Chi-Square for nominal data. Table 4.7 below
shows the details of the results from symmetric measures between ownership of the retail
organisation and servant leadership.
Table 4.7 Symmetric Measures
Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig.
Nominal by Nominal Phi .544 .000
Cramer's V .385 .000
N of Valid Cases 221
There is a moderate association between the ownership type of the organisation and
servant leadership, Cramer’s V (0.385) and we can accept the relationship between the
two variables at every significant (p<0.05).
4.5.1.2 Cross tabulation between current position and organisational commitment
Of those respondents who are non-managers, 80.3% of the non-managerial respondents
are committed to their organisations. Whilstof those who are in the junior management
positions, 70.5% are committed to their organisations. Moreover the middle managers
confirmed that they are committed to their organisations with 72.9% of them being
committed. However the senior management commitment to the organisation is
68
overwhelming at 100%, confirming all those in the senior management are committed to
their various organisations, as indicated by table 4.8 below.
Table 4.8 Crosstabulation between current position and organisational commitment
Current Position
Total NM JM MM SM
OC Disagree Count 0 2 0 0 2
% within OC .0% 100.0% .0% .0% 100.0%
% within Current Position
.0% 2.6% .0% .0% .9%
% of Total .0% .9% .0% .0% .9%
Neutral Count 16 21 13 0 56
% within OC 28.6% 37.5% 23.2% .0% 100.0%
% within Current Position
19.8% 26.9% 27.1% .0% 25.3%
% of Total 7.2% 9.5% 5.9% .0% 25.3%
Agree Count 54 41 27 0 122
% within OC 44.3% 33.6% 22.1% .0% 100.0%
% within Current Position
66.7% 52.6% 56.2% .0% 55.2%
% of Total 24.4% 18.6% 12.2% .0% 55.2%
Strongly Agree
Count 11 14 8 8 41
% within OC 26.8% 34.1% 19.5% 19.5% 100.0%
% within Current Position
13.6% 17.9% 16.7% 100.0% 18.6%
% of Total 5.0% 6.3% 3.6% 3.6% 18.6%
Total Count 81 78 48 8 221
% within OC 36.7% 35.3% 21.7% 3.6% 100.0%
% within Current Position
100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
% of Total 36.7% 35.3% 21.7% 3.6% 100.0%
OC = Organisational Commitment; NM= Non Managerial; JM= Junior Management;
MM= Middle Managers; SM = Senior Managers.
69
The information and results of the crosstabulation as presented in table 4.8 above
confirms that there is a relationship between current position and organisational
commitment. In addition to the association, the significance of the relationships so as to
determine if none of the relationship was due to serendipity. This was confirmed by
checking the Chi-Square test of the results as presented in table 4.9 below.
Table 4.9 Chi-Square Tests
Chi-Square Tests Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 60.695 12 .000
Likelihood Ratio 51.770 12 .000
Linear-by-Linear Association .036 1 .849
N of Valid Cases 221
The Chi-Square test as presented in table 4.9 above shows the significance value of
(p<0.05), confirming that the relationships that exists between current position constructs
and organisational commitment are statistically significant. A conclusion was drawn that
the relationship between current position and organisational commitment really exists and
is not by serendipity. A further analysis to the results of crosstabulation was done by
checking the results of the symmetric measures using the Cramer’s V, as it measures the
association that is calculated centred on the Chi-Square for nominal data. Table 4.10
below provides information about the symmetric measures between current position and
organisational commitment.
Table 4.10 Symmetric Measures
Symmetric Measures Value Approx. Sig.
Nominal by Nominal Phi .524 .000
Cramer's V .303 .000
N of Valid Cases 221
The symmetric measures as presented by Cramer’s V (0.303) with a significance of
p<0.05 shows that the association between current position and organisational
70
commitment is weak to moderate, therefore the relationship between current position and
organisational commitment can be accepted at every significant level.
4.5.2 Correlation analysis
A correlation is deemed to be the most powerful way to determine the association
between two interval level variables (Bambale, 2014). The researcher conducted the
analysis using the bivariate correlations since to estimate the correlation coefficients
between two variables at a time whilst ignoring the effect of all other variables. This
analysis helps checking if two variables have a tendency to increase together or to change
in the opposite directions and if they do so, a coefficient of how much they change is
calculated. Since the results of the normality test proved that the sample data was non
parametric, the variables were subjected to Spearman’s rank correlation “rho” to test the
linear association between the variables. A correlation coefficient takes a range from -1.0
(perfect negative relationship) to +1.0 (perfect positive relationship), whilst a zero (0)
indicates no relationship between the variables (Chinomona et al. 2013). The level of
association between servant leadership and team work, workplace spirituality,
organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment are presented in
table 4.11 below.
Table 4.11 Correlation analysis
Factors Correlation Coefficient SL TW WPS OCB OC SL Correlation Coefficient 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 TW Correlation Coefficient .624** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 WPS Correlation Coefficient .465** .617** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 . OCB Correlation Coefficient .386** .365** .268** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 OC Correlation Coefficient .631** .621** .315** .289** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
SL = Servant leadership, TW = Team work, WPS = Workplace spirituality, OCB =
Organisational citizenship behaviour, OC = Organisational commitment.
71
4.5.2.1 Servant leadership and Team work
The correlation results according to table 4.11 indicates that there is a strong positive
relationship between servant leadership and team work (r=0.624**, p<0.01) supporting
H1, which states that servant leadership positively influences team work behaviour. The
results of the correlation can be accepted at every significance level as they have been
proved to be statistically significant. This implies that servant leadership can lead to
improved employee team work behaviour and these results are in consistent with those of
Mahembe & Engelbrecht (2014), Afolabi et al (2009) and Ghorbanhosseini (2012), who
observed that servant leadership enables employees to work towards a shared vision and
improving the organisation’s team effectiveness.
4.5.2.2 Servant leadership and Workplace spirituality
Servant leadership is significantly positive related to workplace spiritualty (r=0.465**,
p<0.01) as indicated by table 4.11 above. These results are in line with H2 which states
that servant leadership is positively associated with employee workplace spirituality,
whilst the relationship can be accepted at any level of significance because it was
significant beyond doubt. The correlation results implies that if leaders in the retail
organisations practice servant leadership to their subordinates, in turn the subordinates
will become spiritually committed to their organisations by being innovative and carry
out their tasks in honesty and love. These results are in consistence with the studies
carried out by Roberts (2013), Pawar (2009) and Kazemipour & Amin (2012) who found
out that servant leadership has a greater ability to trigger followers’ workplace spirituality
that helps in inspiring the subordinates to be happy.
4.5.2.3 Servant leadership and Organisational citizenship behaviour
As indicated in table 4.11 above there is a moderate relationship between servant
leadership and the employee organisational citizenship behaviour (r=0.386**, p<0.01)
which supports H3 that servant leadership has a positive influence on employee
organisational citizenship behaviour. The result confirms the accession that, if leaders in
the retail organisations exude servant leadership to their followers, they have a potential
to influence other employees that can create behaviour which reciprocate that of their
72
leader Mohammad et al. 2011, Naqshbandi & Kaur 2011and Lee et al. 2013). Moreover
these results are consistent with those of Tsai & Wu (2011), Zehiri etal. (2013) and (Ullah
& Park, 2013) who asserts that servant leadership attributes such as consideration
behaviour are positively correlated with employee organisational citizenship behaviour
because the leaders are not in commanding positions but persuasive to their subordinates.
4.5.2.4 Servant leadership and Organisational commitment
Servant leadership and employee organisational commitment have a strong positive
correlation (r=0.631**, p<0.01) supporting H4, which states that servant leadership has a
positive effect on employee organisational commitment. These results are in consistent
with those of Petchsawanga (2012), Piryaei & Zare (2013), Odoch & Nangoli (2013) and
Khuong& Vu(2014) who concurred to the notion that servant leaders are able to share
knowledge and skills which helps in the achievement of organisational commitment by
individual employees. Hence servant leadership behaviour by management is the greatest
predictor of affective commitment by followers.
4.5.3 Regression analysis
Having done the correlation analysis between the variables, the researcher went on further
to carry out the regression analysis since the correlations analysis simply measures the
strength of a relationship whilst it does not determine the predictive relationship between
the variables(Mapolisa & Kurasha, 2013). In order to determine how servant leadership as
the independent variable predict the influence on employee teamwork, employee
workplace spirituality, employee organisational citizenship behaviour and employee
organisational commitment which are the dependent variables, a regression analysis
model was computed using the multivariate linear regression analysis. This model was
necessitated by the fact that there are more than two dependent variables being affected
by one independent variable (Zehiri et al. 2013). On the other hand regression analysis
was important to the research because it bring out the cause and effect relationship
between servant leadership and the outcome variables namely; employee teamwork,
employee workplace spirituality, employee organisational citizenship behaviour and
73
employee organisational commitment, hence the results from the regression analysis
were summarised and presented in table 4.12 below.
Table 4.12 Multivariate Tests
Effect Value F Hypothesis df Error df Sig.
Servant Leadership
Pillai's Trace .605 23.409 8.000 432.000 .000
Wilks' Lambda .424 28.795 8.000 430.000 .000
Hotelling's Trace 1.291 34.521 8.000 428.000 .000
Roy's Largest Root 1.236 66.718 4.000 216.000 .000
The multivariate tests results indicate if there is a significant effect of the independent
variable (servant leadership) on all the dependent variables as indicated above. The
results proved that the entire four multivariate tests are significant with moderate
goodness of fit (F) on all variables being positive and ranging from 23.409 to 66.718 with
a p-value of (p=0.000) meaning these results can be accepted at any level of significance.
To further check the effect of servant leadership on each variable, the Univariate tests
were used as shown by the results of table 4.13 below.
Table 4.13 Tests of Between- Subjects Effects
Source Dependent Variable
Type III Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
SL TW 30.933 2 15.466 76.708 .000
WPS 26.122 2 13.061 43.108 .000
OCB 15.222 2 7.611 32.785 .000
OC 41.454 2 20.727 72.982 .000
Error TW 43.954 218 .202
WPS 66.050 218 .303
OCB 50.606 218 .232
OC 61.913 218 .284
SL = Servant leadership, TW = Team work, WPS = Workplace spirituality, OCB =
Organisational citizenship behaviour, OC = Organisational commitment.
74
The servant leadership results from the highlighted section indicate that servant
leadership has a significant effect on the results of team work: F (2.218) = 76.708,
p=0.000, workplace spirituality: F (2.218) = 43.108, p=0.000, organisational citizenship
behaviour: F (2.218) = 32.758, p=0.000 and organisational commitment: F (2.218) =
72.982, p=0.000. These results are accepted at any level of significance because servant
leadership is significantly affecting each dependent variable in the study. Type III Sum of
Squares also indicates that servant leadership predicts team work (30.93%), workplace
spirituality (26.12%), organisational citizenship behaviour (50.61%) and organisational
commitment (61.91%) of the variance in these factors as shown by its predictive power
coefficient and thus the difference of these variances remain unexplained and can be
attributed to other latent variables.
The parameter estimates results was used to ascertain the predictive power of servant
leadership on employee team work, workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship
behaviour and organisational commitment as presented in table 4.14 below.
Table 4.14 Parameter Estimates
Dependent Variable Parameter B Std. Error t Sig.
95% Confidence Interval
Lower Bound
Upper Bound
TW Intercept 1.806 .187 9.679 .000 1.438 2.174
SL .538 .045 12.040 .000 .450 .626
WPS Intercept 2.431 .232 10.463 .000 1.973 2.889
SL .466 .056 8.367 .000 .356 .575
OCB Intercept 3.006 .205 14.656 .000 2.602 3.410
SL .333 .049 6.768 .000 .236 .429
OC Intercept 1.305 .219 5.959 .000 .873 1.736
SL .634 .052 12.082 .000 .530 .737
TW = Team work, WPS = Workplace spirituality, OCB = Organisational citizenship
behaviour, OC = Organisational commitment.
75
The beta coefficients as shown in table 4.14 in sections for servant leadership reveal that
organisational commitment is generally more powerful in explaining the effects of
servant leadership to employees in the retail sector (β=0.634, p=0.000), followed by team
work (β=0.538, p=0.000) then employee workplace spirituality (β=0.466, p=0.000) and
lastly employee organisational citizenship behaviour (β=0.333, p=0.000) with all the
results being highly significant as indicated by a p-value of p<0.01 and positive t-values.
These results are in consistent with the research that servant leadership has a positive
impact on employee team work, workplace spiritualty, organisational citizenship
behaviour and organisational commitment as evidenced by the results of the regression
analysis. Therefore servant leadership is an important contributor to employee team work
behaviour, workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment.
4.6 Test of independence
The fifth objective was formulated to establish whether there are any significant and
statistical differences among respondents of different gender and level of education on
servant leadership and its outcomes. In order to come up solution to this objective the test
of differences in mean was carried out using the Independent T-Test on the sample
demographic characteristics to measure if the results from the sample can be inferred to
the population which has different characteristics. Considering that the sample was non
parametric in terms of its distribution, Mann-Whitney U Test and the Kruskal Wallis tests
were considered for the study. The Mann-Whitney test is most suitable for testing the
differences between two (2) samples, whilst Kruskal Wallis test is most suitable for
testing differences on more than two samples.
Table 4.15 Test for Independence between genders of respondents
Test Statistics SL TW WPS OCB OC
Mann-Whitney U 4.796E3 4.552E3 4.364E3 3.682E3 5.125E3
Wilcoxon W 1.467E4 1.442E4 1.423E4 1.355E4 1.500E4
Z -2.100 -2.989 -3.276 -4.994 -1.323
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .036 .003 .001 .000 .186
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The results in table 4.15 above in the last row of the assumption significance (2-tailed)
show p-values of servant leadership (p=0.036), team work (p=0.003), workplace
spiritualty (p=0.001), organisational citizenship behaviour (p=0.000) and organisational
commitment (p=0.186). Because the p-values of servant leadership, team work,
workplace spirituality and organisational citizenship behaviour are less than alpha=0.05
there is no statistical evidence that males and females have equal mean in predicting the
aforementioned variables. However, both males and females have the same mean for
organisational commitment p>0.05.
To test for the equal variance assumed across the level of education and if there is
statistical significance to support to support the hypothesis, the researcher used Kruskal
Wallis Test to analyse the results as presented in table 4.16 below. Since all the values of
alpha as represented by the significance are equal to (p=0.000) and being less than 0.05,
this implies that the variance for the variables cannot be assumed to be equal, hence we
reject the null hypothesis that there is no statistical difference across the level of
education when it comes to the prediction of servant leadership, employee team work,
workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment in the retail sector.
Table 4.16 Independent sample test: Level of education
Test Statistics SL TW WPS OCB OC
Chi-Square 63.417 107.516 60.083 49.741 35.734
df 4 4 4 4 4
Asymp. Sig. .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
a. Kruskal Wallis Test
b. Grouping Variable: Level of Education
SL = Servant leadership, TW = Team work, WPS = Workplace spirituality, OCB =
Organisational citizenship behaviour, OC = Organisational commitment.
77
4.7 Discussion of results
The purpose of the study was to examine the influence servant leadership on employee
team work, workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment and to test for relationships between servant leadership and the outcome
variables on employees. In particular, four hypotheses were postulated. To test the
hypotheses, data were collected from the FMCG retailers in Harare Zimbabwe. The
results from the empirical study supported all the four posited research hypotheses in a
highly significant way.
Thefirst hypothesis (H1) predicted a positive relationship between servant leadership
and employees’ team work behaviour. When the influence of servant leadership on
employee team work behaviour was tested, the findings indicated a significant positive
influence (β=0.538, t=12.040, p=0.000). The result was supported by a positive and
significant correlation (r=0.624**, p<0.01). Thus, accordingly, as supervisors and leaders
in the organisation continue to serve their followers and team members without assuming
authority whilst performing their responsibilities, trust and satisfaction for the team leader
is stimulated among the followers. These results are consistent with those of Mahembe &
Engelbrecht (2014),Chinomona etal.(2013), Afolabi et al (2009) and Ghorbanhosseini
(2012) who concluded that servant leadership have an influence on team effectiveness as
the leaders will increase work creativity which in turn improves team work. Therefore,
this study concludes that servant leadership has a significant and strong positive influence
on employee team work behaviour.
The second hypothesis (H2) forecasted a positive association between servant leadership
and employee workplace spirituality. The influence of servant leadership on employee
workplace spirituality was tested as using the correlation and regression analysis which
supported the hypothesis. The findings indicated a positive and significant influence
between the variables (β=0.466, t= 8.367, p=0.000), supported by a positive correlation
(r=0.386**, p<0.01). It is evident that servant leadership has proved to be of great
significance in improving employee wholeness at workplace and results in the sense of
community. The findings confirm the previous works of Chatbury et
al.(2011),Sabeen(2012), Chegini & Nezhad(2012), and Bambale(2014) who qualified that
individual employee spirituality and workplace spirituality are significantly influenced by
78
the type of leadership within each organisation, hence servant leaders have the ability to
activate followers’ workplace spirituality which in turn makes the followers happy. As
such, this study submits that servant leadership has a strong and significant positive
influence on employee workplace spirituality.
The third hypothesis (H3) predicted a positive relationship between servant leadership
and employee organisational citizenship behaviour. This hypothesis was supported
(β=0.333, t=6.768, p=0.000). The results were supported by a significant and positive
correlation (r=0.386**, p<0.01). It is understood that attributes such as consideration
behaviour by the leaders will make followers to be involved in the organisational
activities(Tsai & Wu, 2011). These findings are also in line with those of Ullah &
Park(2013), Zehiri etal. (2013), Lee et al. (2013), and Odoch & Nangoli (2013) who
assert that leadership in various organisations is now evolving towards responsibility
rather than authority as the leader’s work is not about commanding, but persuasion.
Moreover the role of influence played by leaders through humbleness, empathy and
empowerment is an important in affirming employee organisational citizenship
behaviour. Hence, based on these findings, this study confirms that servant leadership has
an impact on employee organisational citizenship behaviour.
The fourth hypothesis (H4) assumed that servant leadership has a positive influence on
employee organisational commitment. The influence of servant leadership on employee
commitment to the organisation was tested, the findings indicated a strong positive and
significant influence (β=0.634, t=12.082, p=0.000). This result was supported by a
positive correlation (r=0.631**, p<0.01). From the results it can be drawn that for
employees to be more committed to their organisations, leaders must be available to
influence and provide support rather than authority. These results are consistent with
those of the studies carried out by Khanifar et al. (2010), Bhunia & Mukhuti (2011), Mat
et al. (2012), and Mahembe & Engelbrecht (2014) who asserts thatperceptions of social
support from the leader in the workplace have also been shown to be positively associated
with organizational commitment.Moreover employees’ happiness is positively and
significantly affected by trust and identification with one's ability to be emotionally
attached with the organisation (Bosco and Melchar, 2010). Also, based on these findings,
this study deduces that servant leadership has a strong and significant influence on
employee commitment to the organisation. Conceivably this could be a result of the fact
79
that employees in the retail sector are highly committed when they are supported by
suitable styles of leadership within their organisations.
The fifth hypothesis (H5) predicted that there is no statistical difference among
respondents according to gender and level of education. The findings as indicated by the
p-values, according to gender the respondents are statistically different in their perception
towards team work (p=0.036), workplace spirituality (p=0.003), organisational
citizenship behaviour (p=0.001), whilst they have no difference when it comes to
organisational commitment (p=0.186). With regard to the level of education among
employees, the p-values for variables are below 0.05 (table 4.16) indicating that there is a
statically difference among respondents when it comes to servant leadership and its
outcomes. Therefore the null hypothesis which states that there is no statistical difference
among respondents according to gender and level of education was rejected. Based on
these findings, this study concludes that the perceptions of employees concerning servant
leadership, team work, workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and
organisational commitment cannot be inferred to the population on the basis of gender
and level of education.
4.8 Chapter summary
The chapter on data analysis, presentation and interpretation was presented out in sections
that includes; introduction, descriptive analysis were the demographic characteristics of
the respondents was analysed and discussed including the response rate from the sample.
Normality test of the sample was as well as the validity and the reliability of the
instrument was done and presented, the sample data was found not to follow a normal
distribution, hence the no parametric analysis models were chosen for the tests of
relationships, regression and independence testing. The test of relationships among
variables which analysed the correlations and cross tabulations among the variables was
done, Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was used and the Chi-Square results from the
cross tabulations were discussed in line with the alpha values for the significance testing.
In order to determine the predictive power of servant leadership on the outcome variables,
multivariate regression analysis was conducted because of its ability to analyse multiple
variables in an integrated and powerful way. The results of the regression analysis proved
to be significant and positive influence on all the dependent variables. The tests of
80
independence among variables was carried out by testing for variance in sample mean
across gender, level of education and class of the retailer. Lastly, the results from the
study were discussed in relation to literature, hypothesis testing and the managerial
implications. Chapter five provided the discussion, conclusion and recommendations to
the study.
81
Chapter Five
Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Introduction
Chapter four presented the study results, analysis and discussion of the empirical findings
from the study. The outcomes of servant leadership on employee teamwork behaviour,
workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment were extracted. The test of relationships using correlations and regression
analyses were conducted to establish the associations and to come up with the predictive
power of servant leadership on the outcome variables(employee teamwork behaviour,
workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment). This chapter presents the discussion of the results, research objectives and
the hypothesis of the study. The conclusions, recommendations, policy implications and
limitations of the study are presented and the directions for future research are provided.
The problem statement as presented in Chapter 1 indicated that servant leadership is
relatively a new paradigm in the leadership studies, whilst a lot of what is known
concerning servant leadership is not as a result of empirical studies (Spears, 2010;
Schneider & George, 2011; Ngambi, 2011 and Kazemipour & Amin, 2012). On the other
hand the studies on servant leadership indicated that servant leadership leads to increased
employee teamwork behaviour, organisational citizenship behaviour, workplace
spirituality and employee commitment to the organisation (Dixit & Bhati, 2012;
Ghorbanhosseini, 2012; Odoch & Nangoli, 2013 and Barbuto, 2011). It was against this
background that the research sought to investigate the influence of servant leadership on
employee team work behaviour, organisational citizenship behaviour; workplace
spirituality and employee commitment to the organisation in Zimbabwe. Hence, the
primary objective of the study was to determine the outcomes of servant leadership on
employees in the Zimbabwean retail sector.
82
5.2 Evaluation of the research objectives
As indicated by section 1.3 of this study, the following research objectives were
formulated:
1. To establish the effects of servant leadership on employee teamwork.
2. To determine the influence of servant leadership on employee workplace
spirituality.
3. To examine the impact of servant leadership on organisational citizenship
behaviour.
4. To assess the influence of servant leadership on organisational commitment.
5. To establish whether there are any significant and statistical differences among
respondents of different gender and level of education on servant leadership and
its outcomes.
In order to achieve the objectives correlation analysis and regression analysis were carried
out as depicted by section 4.5 of this study with special reference to tables 4.11, 4.12,
4.13 and 4.14. Hence, the following conclusions were drawn against each objective:
Objective 1:
To establish the effects of servant leadership on employee teamwork
The findings from the current study proved that there is a significant positive influence
(β=0.538, t=12.040, p=0.000). The result from the correlation analysis supported the
regression with a positive and significant correlation (r=0.624**, p<0.01). The results
proved that 30.93% of the variation of in employee team work is as a result of servant
leadership. Departmental supervisors and leaders in the organisations if they continue to
serve their followers and team members depriving the issue of power in execution of their
duties and responsibilities the followers will develop reliance and contentment for the
team leader. These results are consistent with those of Mahembe & Engelbrecht
(2014),Chinomona etal.(2013), Afolabi et al (2009) and Ghorbanhosseini (2012) who
concluded that servant leadership have an influence on team effectiveness as the leaders
will increase work creativity which in turn improves team work. In the Zimbabwean retail
sector, it is evident from the results that employees are influenced by their leaders to
perform more as a team and to achieve greater result together as they will be willing to
83
express their opinions honestly and openly to each other, whilst there is a good
interdepartmental alignment as triggered by servant leaders. Therefore, this study
concludes that the research objective was satisfied in that servant leadership has a
significant and strong positive influence on employee team work behaviour.
Objective 2:
To determine the influence of servant leadership on employee workplace spirituality
In order to achieve the second objective in line with research questions and hypothesis,
the influence of servant leadership on employee workplace spirituality was tested as using
the correlation and regression analysis which proved there is positive and significant
influence between the variables (β=0.466, t= 8.367, p=0.000), supported by a positive
correlation (r=0.386**, p<0.01). The analysis proved that 26.12% of variance in
employee workplace spirituality is explained by servant leadership only, with other
variables sharing the remainder of about 74% of the variance. It is evident in the
Zimbabwean retail sector that servant leaders will improve the followers wholeness at
their workplace thereby they result in sense of community. The findings confirm the
previous work of Chatbury et al.(2011),Sabeen(2012), Chegini & Nezhad(2012), and
Bambale(2014) who qualified that individual employee spirituality and workplace
spirituality are significantly influenced by the type of leadership within each organisation.
Hence, servant leaders have the ability to trigger their followers in identifying themselves
with others at work while they can be able to recognise their growth and be inspired to
achieve more results within the same organisation. In this regard, this study concludes
that servant leaders in the retail sector positively influence employee workplace
spirituality.
Objective 3:
To examine the impact of servant leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour
The third objective in the current study together with the research question and hypothesis
seek to examine the impact of servant leadership on employee organisational citizenship
behaviour. The results proved there is a significant positive relationship as supported by
(β=0.333, t=6.768, p=0.000). To further validate the results was a significant and positive
correlation (r=0.386**, p<0.01). In addition, the results showed that servant leadership
84
can explain 15.22% of variance in employee organisational citizenship behaviour.
Leaders who exude characteristics such as consideration of followers’ interests and
helping will make are able to influence their followers to be involved in the organisation
activities, whilst keeping abreast to changes in the organisation (Tsai & Wu, 2011).
Assertion to the results was found in studies carried out by Ullah & Park(2013), Zehiri
etal. (2013), Lee et al. (2013), and Odoch & Nangoli (2013) who assert that leadership is
now evolving towards responsibility, persuasion, healing and awareness rather than
authority and commanding. Moreover in the Zimbabwean retail sector it can be deduced
that the role of influence played by leaders through humbleness, empathy and
empowerment is an important in affirming employee organisational citizenship
behaviour. Hence, based on these findings, this study confirms that servant leadership has
an impact on employee organisational citizenship behaviour.
Objective 4:
To assess the influence of servant leadership on organisational commitment
The study assumed that servant leadership has a positive influence on employee
organisational commitment, in order to answer the fourth objective together with the
research question and hypothesis. The findings proved that there is strong positive and
significant influence between servant leadership and organisational commitment
(β=0.634, t=12.082, p=0.000). This result was supported by a positive correlation found
between servant leadership and employee commitment (r=0.631**, p<0.01). From the
results it can be drawn that servant leaders have a great role of improving their followers’
commitment as shown by the 41.45% of variance that can be explained by servant
leadership on organisational commitment. These results are confirmed by the assertions
of Khanifar et al. (2010), Bhunia & Mukhuti (2011), Mat et al. (2012), and Mahembe &
Engelbrecht (2014) who asserts thatperceptions of social support from the leader in the
workplace have also been shown to be positively associated with organizational
commitment.On the other hand, happiness of followers at workplace is positively and
significantly influenced by trust in the leader. Hence, it can be identified with the
employees’ ability to be passionately attached to the organisation (Bosco and Melchar,
2010). With regards to the Zimbabwean retail sector, it is evident that employees are
more committed to their organisations as a result of the leader influence. Based on these
85
findings of the fourth objective, this study concludes that servant leadership has a strong
and significant influence on employee commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector.
Objective 5:
To establish whether there are any significant and statistical differences among
respondents of different gender and level of education on servant leadership and its
outcomes
The fifth objective sought to establish whether there were any differences among
respondents of different gender and level of education on servant leadership and its
outcomes. The results of independence testing as presented in section 4.6 of this study
indicated that there are statistical and significant differences among respondents as
measured by gender and level of education in the Zimbabwean retail sector. This proves
that in the retail sector, if information about servant leadership, employee team work,
workplace spirituality, citizenship behaviour and organisational commitment is to be
sought with regards to gender and level of education different results will be achieved.
Therefore the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant and statistical
difference among respondents of different gender and level of education was rejected.
5.3 Evaluation of the hypothesis
The hypotheses which were proposed in section 1.5 of this study are as follows:
H1: Servant leadership positively influences employee teamwork behaviour.
H2: Servant leadership is positively associated with employee workplace spirituality.
H3: Servant leadership has a positive influence on employee citizenship behaviour.
H4: Servant leadership has a positive effect on employee organisational commitment.
H5: There are no significant and statistical differences among respondents of different
gender and level of education on servant leadership and its outcomes.
86
Table 5.1 Hypothesis testing and decision making
Hypothesis Decision
H1: Servant leadership positively influences employee
teamwork behaviour.
Hypothesis accepted
H2: Servant leadership is positively associated with employee
workplace spirituality.
Hypothesis accepted
H3: Servant leadership has a positive influence on employee
citizenship behaviour.
Hypothesis accepted
H4: Servant leadership has a positive effect on employee
organisational commitment.
Hypothesis accepted
H5: There are no significant and statistical differences among
respondents of different gender and level of education on
servant leadership and its outcomes.
Hypothesis rejected
Main Hypothesis
H0: Servant leadership has a positive influence on employee team work behaviour,
workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and organisational
commitment is fully accepted because of the statistically significant results that were
achieved in the study. This assertion is supported by the results in table 5.1 as analysed
using the correlation and regression analyses.
The resultant conceptual framework can be analysed as servant leadership will influence
commitment of employees, team work behaviour among employees, will trigger
employee workplace spirituality and citizenship behaviour. Hence, the conceptual frame
is accepted as shown by figure 5.1 below.
87
Independent Variable Dependent Variables
Figure 5.1 Conceptual framework
5.4 Managerial Implications and Policy Recommendations
The cumulative significance of servant leadership on employees’ teamwork behaviour,
workplace spirituality, citizenship behaviour and commitment in Zimbabwean retail
sector cannot be overstressed. For instance, the effectiveness of the retail sector might be
difficult to accomplish without the right leadership style. The current study was an
endeavour to undertake a servant leadership research in a profit making setting which is
often neglected as the aspect of servant leadership is mostly associated with non-profit
making organisations. Consequently, the outcomes of this empirical study are anticipated
to offer rewarding implications to both practitioners and academicians.
To the practitioners, the significant influential role of servant leadership on employee
team work behaviour, workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship behaviour and
Servant Leadership
Team Work
Workplace Spirituality
Organisational Citizenship Behaviour
Organisational Commitment
88
employee commitment to the retail sector organisation is highlighted. The study therefore
postulates that leaders in organisations should contemplate implementing servant
leadership style when managing employees in order to obtain increased team work
behaviour, employee workplace spirituality, citizenship behaviour and increased
employees’ commitment to the organisations. The position is that, leaders are the ones
who set the impetus that influences the way their followers feel about their fellow
workmates and consequently, the way the followers will execute their duties. Servant
leadership is about the leader integrity and serving which includes fellow workmates,
customers and the community around your organisation. Whilst, not taking away
confidence from other leadership styles, interest should be increased towards the
development of leaders who have furtherance of followers and organisation as priority
whilst setting aside self-interest.
On the academic side, this study provides a substantial input to the leadership and
organisational behaviour literature by methodically exploring servant leadership and its
impact on employee team work behaviour, workplace spirituality, organisational
citizenship behaviour and commitment to the organisation in a profit oriented setup. In
particular, the current study findings offer a cautious backing to the proposition that
servant leadership should be acknowledged as substantial antecedent and instrument to
nurture employee team work behaviour, workplace spirituality, citizenship behaviour and
commitment to the retail sector organisations.
The conceptual framework in the current study contributes to the retail sector in
Zimbabwe by providing to the body of knowledge on organisational behaviour and
leadership style that must be followed for the success of the organisations. The conceptual
framework also stands as a guide to the retail sector and other sectors across the country
which are profit oriented. To the academic side, the conceptual frame has closed the
identified gap which is mainly the application of servant leadership in the profit making
organisations and no services sector. This research has managed to model the influence of
servant leadership to employee teamwork behaviour, organisational citizenship behaviour
and workplace spirituality and organisational commitment in the profit making setup.
Moreover the research gap was closed by modelling the keystone for future researches to
be conducted in the retail sector in area of organisational behaviour.
89
5.5 Limitations and directions for future research
Though the current study makes substantial contributions to the academicians and the
practitioners, it has limitations in several ways; hence, some directions for the future
research are postulated. First, the data were collected from only retailers in Harare
Zimbabwe, possibly, the results would be more enlightening if data from all industries
and other areas of the country are encompassed in the study. For further development of
this current conceptual framework, more study is needed in a large data set for all
employees in different sectors in order to carry out industry wide analysis. Hence, future
studies may be done by using data from all provinces and different industries across the
country. Second, the current study was restricted to the retail sector in Zimbabwe.
Subsequent research should envisage replicating this study in other similar and
developing countries in the Africa to allow for comparisons of results. Future studies can
also extend the current conceptual framework studying the outcomes of servant
leadership on a larger set of variables other than intrinsic variables only. Above and
beyond, the study will immensely contribute substantial knowledge to the existing body
of servant leadership literature on different sectors and organisations in other developing
countries, an area which occurs to be snubbed in research perspectives in the academics.
90
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6. Appendix 1 Questionnaire
UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
Dear Respondent
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DISSERTATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
The researcher is a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree final year student
with University of Zimbabwe. The research topic is “Servant leadership and its
influence on employee teamwork, workplace spirituality, organisational citizenship
behaviour and organisational commitment in the Zimbabwean retail sector.” The
objective of this research is to help expand the board of knowledge about this leadership
trait in the retail sector.
Please take a few minutes to answer the questionnaire below by marking appropriate box
using a tick (�) or cross(x). All the information you provide will be treated in strict
confidence and will be available to the researcher for scholarly purposes only. No names
of companies or individuals are going to be collected on this questionnaire.
Your assistance will be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance for taking your
valuable time to complete this questionnaire.For further information contact the
researcher on +263712392021 / +263774057459, [email protected] or the
supervisor Dr M. Sandada on [email protected]
Yours sincerely
Ernest Chinyerere
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A: DEMOGRAPHICS
General information about the respondent and organisation
1. Please Indicate your gender Male [ ] Female [ ]
2. Indicate your age range Less than 25 years
25 – 30 years 31 – 35 years 36 – 40 years Above 40 years
3. What is your current position in the organisation? Non Managerial Junior Management Middle Management Senior Management
4. What is your highest level of education? Secondary Certificate Diploma Degree Masters Other specify……………………………………………………………...
5. How long have you been with the retailer? Less than 1 year
1 to less than 5 years
5 to less than 10 years
10 years and above
6. Which best describes your organisation? Sole Proprietor Partnership Public Limited Company Private Limited
Company
7. In which class is your organisation?
Small retailers Medium retailers Large / Group retailers
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For the questions to follow, may you rank your opinion on a Lickert scale of 1-5 as guided below:
Strongly disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
1 2 3 4 5
B: SERVANT LEADERSHIP
1 2 3 4 5
B1. Leader puts my best interests ahead of his/her own.
B2. My leader is one I would turn to if I had a personal trauma
B3. Leader is good at helping me with my emotional issues
B4. Leader is talented at helping me heal emotionally
B5. The leader has great awareness of what is going on
B6. Leader is good at anticipating the consequences of decisions
B7. Leaders offers compelling reasons to get me to do things
B8. Leader is good at convincing me to do things
B9. Our leaders believes that our organisation needs to function in the community
B10. Leader is willing to have his / her ideas challenged
B11. Leader is able to learn from subordinates whom he / she serves
B12. He / she is always leading by example
B13.He / she is very focused and disciplined at work
The sections to follow are as a result of servant leadership.May you rank your opinion on a Lickert scale of 1-5 as guided below:
C: TEAM WORK As a result of servant leadership:
1 2 3 4 5
C1. My department encourages teamwork
C2. Team members are held accountable for the decisions they make
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C3. Work assignments are distributed fairly
C4. There is good alignment between my department and other departments
C5. Team problem solving processes and methods are appropriate and effective
C6. Team members receive the guidance and resources they need from the team manager to do their jobs.
C7. Team members express their opinions honestly and openly to each other
C8. Team members make use of time they spend together
C9. Conflict between or among team members is handled promptly and effectively
C10. I am satisfied with the spirit of team work within company
D: WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY As a result of servant leadership:
1 2 3 4 5
D1.At work, I accept myself
D2. I am recognising my growth at work and I am inspired
D3. I make innovative suggestions to improve department
D4. I do not spent time in idle conversations
D5. At work, I feel that I am identified by others
D6. At work, I reflect my mistakes and improve them
D7. I know how to think from different angles
D8. At work, I can carry out honesty equality and love
D9. I adequately completes assigned tasks
D10. I assist supervisor with his or her work
E: ORGANISATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR
As a result of servant leadership:
1 2 3 4 5
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E1. I try to avoid creating problems for co-workers
E2. I consider the impact of my actions on co-worker
E3. I keep abreast to changes in the organisation
E4. My attendance at work is above the norm
E5. I am willing to help others who have work related problems
E6. I read and keep up with the organisation announcements, memos and notices
E7. I obey company rules and regulations even when no one is watching
E8. I am willing to share knowledge and expertise to help to help others improve
E9. I do not take extra breaks
E10. I always maintain a tidy work area
F: ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT As a result of servant leadership
1 2 3 4 5
F1. I feel emotionally attached to the company
F2. The company has a great deal of personal meaning for me
F3. I would be happy to spend the rest of my carrier with company
F4. I enjoy discussing about my organisation with people outside it
F5. I have invested a lot in the company, emotionally, socially and economically
F6. I would feel guilty if I leave the company
F7. I feel that I owe this organisation quite a bit because of what it has done for me
END OF QUESTIONNAIRE
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE TIME.