Research On The Relationship Between Servant Leadership And Engagement In Higher Vocational Colleges

With the popularization and the development of higher vocational education,more and more attention ware paid to the management level and teaching quality of higher vocational colleges.Employee engagement which determines the development and level of higher vocational colleges is closely related to the leadership style.This study aim to discuss whether servant leadership can effectively improve employee engagement and its impact mechanism.This study discusses the relationship about servant leadership,job satisfaction and engagement by a survey of teaching and administrative staff in higher vocational colleges.Based on the social exchange theory,social learning theory,resource conservation theory and existing studies,we assume that servant leadership positively affect job satisfaction and engagement,and job satisfaction positively influence engagement.And we suppose servant leadership influence engagement through job satisfaction according to the logic line of objective situation factors-individual emotional reactions/experience-individual attitude/behavior on the basis of the emotional events theory and literature review.We constructed the research model and collected 386 valid questionnaires from teaching and administrative staff in higher vocational colleges.Finished reliability analysis,validity analysis and overall measurement model test with SPSS 21 and AMOS 21,the study test main effect hypothesis by structural equation analysis and mediating effect hypothesis by Sobel test.Empirical results indicate the positive effect of servant leadership(including vision,service and empowerment)on job satisfaction and engagement;Job satisfaction positively influence engagement;servant leadership(including vision,service and empowerment)positively impact on engagement through job satisfaction.The innovations and contributions of this research included:(1)Put forward and verified the positive effect of servant leadership on engagement,and enrich the research about outcome variables of servant leadership and influence factors of engagement.(2)Based on the emotional events theory,according to the logic line of objective situation factors-individual emotional reactions/experience-individual attitude/behavior,we suppose servant leadership indirectly affect employee engagement through job satisfaction,and prove it,which enrich the research of effect mechanism about servant leadership and engagement.(3)The research conclusions are based on the survey of the teaching and administrative staff in higher vocational colleges,so the study expand the application scope of the relationship about servant leadership,job satisfaction and engagement.In addition,this study also provide effective and scientific management methods for managers in higher vocational colleges.They should change the leader style from paternalistic leadership to servant leadership and improve the staffs job satisfaction.Consequently,improve employee engagement effectively and the quality of teaching,and promote the development of higher vocational colleges.