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http://dx.doi.org/10.7469/JKSQM.2018.46.2.283

The Effects of Project Managers'Servant Leadership on Project Performance via Customer Satisfaction  

Lee, Hyung-Su (Department of Business Administration Graduate School, Soongsil University)
Shin, Ho-Chul (College of Business Administration, Soongsil University)
Publication Information
Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management / v.46, no.2, 2018 , pp. 283-300 More about this Journal
Abstract
Purpose: Since the servant leadership of project managers is seemingly related to the project performance by influencing project team members' positive attitude and behavior, this study attempts to provide empirical evidence for a link between servant leadership and project performance. In addition, the present study investigates the mediating effects of customer satisfaction on the servant leadership-project performance relations. Methods: The data of servant leadership and project performance were collected from 185 project team members of a company providing IT service, and customer satisfaction data were collected from 100 project clients served by the company. Before testing the hypotheses, we calculated aggregation statistics(e.g., $r_{wg}$, ICC(1), and ICC(2)) to ensure appropriate aggregation of servant leadership scores. The statistics confirmed the use of 67 team level servant leadership scores with project performance and customer satisfaction. Results: The results show that servant leadership is significantly related to three project performance measures(perceptions of performance contribution and sales contribution, and actual project profits) in the current team-level sample. Results also indicate that the clients' perception of customer satisfaction shows a mediating effect in the process of servant leadership affecting sales contribution of project performance. Conclusion: The present study empirically confirms that servant leadership plays a major role in enhancing project performance on team level analysis. The results suggest that servant leadership increases customer satisfaction since the project managers serve and care for their team members which translate into effective customer service. Theoretical and practical implications are reviewed, and limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are addressed.
Keywords
Servant Leadership; Project Performance; Customer Satisfaction; Team Level Analysis; B2B Market;
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