Abstracts

Servant leadership is maturing in its theoretical development. Although initially introduced to the literature over four decades ago by Greenleaf (1970), the relationship of the effect of servant leadership and commitment has not been quantitatively explored until recently. Scholars, such as Sokoll (2013) and Drury (2004), have performed studies in the USA, but no quantitative empirical study has been published from Latin America. A call for the expeditious and quantitative investigation of servant leadership theory applicability in non-Western cultures seems to be emanating from within the academy and across organizations around the world (Northouse, 2015). This study, utilizing validated psychometric instruments, examined the essence of servant leadership and found it to have a significant (p < .001) effect on member commitment, especially on affective organizational commitment. This effect was most accentuated in the Latin American culture. The current study also found leadermember exchange to have a strong mediation significant (p < .001) effect on normative commitment and a modest significant (p < .001) effect on affective organizational commitment. The leadermember exchange effect was found to be more accentuated in the Latin American culture. The mediation role of members level of identification with the leader was also a significant (p < .001) effect, but there were no significant contrasts across the two cultures. The study was conducted in churches and online among a robust samples of 431 responses in the USA and 328 in Latin America comprised of multiple Evangelical Christian denominations. Respondents to the studys survey were highly diverse in regards to age, gender, and involvement. This study offers empirical evidence for organizational decision makers to consider servant leadership as an emerging leadership approach that has a superior effect on cultivating member commitment, even in cultures where it was thought not to be a viable leadership style.