Outcomes of servant leadership among flight attendants: test of parallel and serial multiple mediating effects

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the parallel and serial multiple mediating effects of job insecurity (JIS) and occupational self-efficacy (OSE) in the association between servant leadership and work engagement (WENG). Design/methodology/approach: Data collected from 296 flight attendants in Korea were tapped to assess the study hypotheses. The linkages were tested via structural equation modeling. The phantom variable was used to estimate the parallel and serial indirect impacts of JIS and OSE. Findings: Servant leadership fosters OSE and WENG, while it alleviates JIS. Both JIS and OSE parallelly mediate the effect of servant leadership on WENG. Contrary to what has been hypothesized, the findings lend no credence to the serial multiple mediating impact. Practical implications: Management should pay utmost attention to the promotion of employees to supervisory positions based on “stringent selection and hiring of people.” Flight attendants high on WENG should have job security. This is important because such employees exhibit good performance at work. Management should also organize training programs that would enhance flight attendants’ OSE. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the relevant knowledge base by relating servant leadership to flight attendants’ WENG through JIS and OSE. Because of the number of rising disengaged service workers across the globe, this study also gauges the factors influencing flight attendants’ WENG and reports whether servant leadership, JIS and OSE influence their WENG at the same time. Unlike the preponderance of the empirical pieces, this study contributes to the literature by assessing the indirect effect of servant leadership on WENG via JIS and OSE as the parallel and serial multiple mediators using the phantom variable.