The impact of servant leadership on employee job insecurity and outcomes: the moderating role of perceived team competition

Purpose Drawing on conservation of resources theory and contingency theories of leadership, this study investigates how servant leadership reduces employee job insecurity and, in turn, relates to lower emotional exhaustion and higher organizational commitment. We also examined the moderating effect of perceived team competition. Design/methodology/approach A three-wave survey of 203 employees was conducted at a photoelectric technology company in China. We employed path analysis combined with a bootstrapped resampling method to test our hypotheses. Findings Servant leadership reduces employee job insecurity, which in turn leads to lower emotional exhaustion and higher organizational commitment. Perceived team competition weakens the relationship between servant leadership and job insecurity, as well as the indirect relationships between servant leadership and emotional exhaustion and organizational commitment via job insecurity. Practical implications Servant leaders can help reduce employee job insecurity, and a less competitive work environment is an important contextual condition that enables this effect. Originality/value Prior research has largely overlooked the extent to which employees’ job insecurity is influenced by their servant leadership experience. This study focuses on how employee job insecurity is reduced by servant leadership and how this beneficial effect is counteracted by perceived team competition. Meanwhile, we identify reduced job insecurity as a new mechanism that may mediate the effect of servant leadership on emotional exhaustion and organizational commitment.