The influence of Servant leadership on Employee performance: mediating role of Affective trust, Cognitive trust and Volunteerism -a research in Ho Chi Minh

Abstract

Ho Chi Minh City is a key economic city in the southern region of Vietnam. Therefore, there are many businesses that have been established and operated for a long time, but there are also newly established businesses that find a place for themselves in the market in their field of business. In addition to the product factor and good business plan, another factor that helps businesses have the strength to maintain and develop their business is the workforce and their performance. The workforce is getting younger with their perspective on leadership that are different from the older generation. This is the reason the author realize the need to study the impact of leadership on employee performance through the mediating effects of trust, which are affective trust and cognitive trust. In this study, the author studied servant leadership, a leadership style that is completely different from other leadership styles, along with a new factor, volunteerism. The study was conducted through a survey in Ho Chi Minh City and data was processed using SPSS and SmartPLS software. The valid sample collected and analyzed was 384 samples. The results showed that servant leadership has a positive impact on employee affective trust, cognitive trust, and volunteerism. The results also proved that affective trust and cognitive trust also play a mediating role in the relationship between servant leadership and employee performance, proving that when employees have trust in their boss with a servant leadership style, their work performance is higher. However, the research results do not support the hypothesis related to volunteersim, volunteerism does not affect work performance and does not have a mediating role in the relationship between servant leadership and employee performance. However, the research still has many limitations within the author's ability