Examining Relationships between Servant Leadership, and Employee Job Performance and Employee Innovation Performance in the Public Sector

This study employs an important theory of leadership, servant leadership theory, to analyse relationships between leadership on the one hand and employee job performance and employee innovation performance on the other. By doing so, it: 1) responds to calls that more investigation of servant leadership within public sector organizations is needed; 2) contributes to the public management field examining relationships between leadership and performance; and 3) moves beyond public management studies by analysing supervisor-rated scores on both employee job performance and employee innovation performance instead of for instance innovative intentions. This study examines relationships with data from two surveys of 2,148 employees and 132 supervisors working in a large Dutch public service organization. Results indicate that strong empowering leadership – a core dimension of servant leadership – is important for fostering employee job performance as well as employee innovation performance. Directions for future research are discussed.