Fostering creativity through servant leadership: Mediating role of knowledge sharing, thriving at work and burnout

Today, innovation and its association with leadership are dubiously one of the key challenges faced by the Pakistani banking sector. However, lack of investigation on this issue has led to examining the effect of servant leadership in fostering employee creativity through the mediating role of knowledge sharing, thriving at work and burnout. Further, the study framework was established from theories, namely the social exchange theory, social learning theory and conservation of resource theory. The purposive sampling technique was used to gather 286 useable responses. Findings obtained by using Smart PLS-SEM 3.0 which indicated a significant positive relationship of servant leadership with knowledge sharing, thriving at work, and employee creativity. The results also enlighten the positive relationship of knowledge sharing and thriving at work on employee creativity, and the significant negative relationship of servant leadership on burnout. Whereas, knowledge sharing and thriving at work mediates the relationship between servant leadership and employee creativity. Captivatingly, burnout remains insignificant between servant leadership and employee creativity. Thus, the study findings will redound to organizational benefits by enriching research on the area of servant leadership, which is in its infancy till now. However, the study will be useful for both organizations and employees to achieve desired outcomes. Keywords: Servant leadership, knowledge sharing, thriving at work, burnout, employee creativity.