How does servant leadership make work meaningful across different societies? A situational strength perspective

Purpose Although prior research has linked servant leadership (SL) with job crafting and organizational identification, its relationship with work meaningfulness (WM) remains underexplored. The purpose of this study is to examine this relationship across ethnically dissimilar cultural contexts to advance situational strength theory (SST). Design/methodology/approach Data from 327 academics at private universities in China and Malaysia were collected via a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using partial least squares path modeling (SmartPLS). Findings The study revealed that job crafting mediates the relationship between SL and WM only in a heterogeneous, but not a homogeneous, society. Moreover, it was observed that organizational identification mediates the relationship between SL and WM in both homogeneous and heterogeneous societies. The findings indicate that ethnic dissimilarity moderates the hypothesized relationships in the research model. Social implications This study provides empirical evidence of how SL fosters decent work (Sustainable Development Goals [SDG] 8) and well-being (SDG 3) among academics, particularly within informal and under-resourced labor markets in the Global South. Originality/value This study offers originality by extending the SL literature to the underexplored outcome of WM, particularly within ethnically dissimilar cultural contexts where leadership effects may vary according to situational cues and cultural diversity. In doing so, the study advances SST by demonstrating how contextual and cultural conditions shape employees’ interpretation of SL behaviors and their experience of meaningful work.