Charismatic leadership and public service recovery performance

Purpose Public service failures need to be recovered to sustain citizen satisfaction with public services. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of charismatic leadership in leveraging public service recovery performance (PSRP) as well as a moderated mediation mechanism underlying such an effect. Design/methodology/approach Public employees and their managers from local governments were recruited to provide the data for this research. Data analysis was conducted through structural equation modeling. Findings From the research results, charismatic leadership demonstrated the positive association with PSRP via public service motivation (PSM) as a mediator. Besides, serving culture was also found to play a moderating role to strengthen the positive links between charismatic leadership and PSRP as well as PSM. Originality/value The research model adds further insights into charismatic leadership and service recovery knowledge through the relationship between these two concepts as well as a moderated mediation mechanism underpinning this relationship.