The Influence of Transformational, Transactional, and Servant Leadership on Sustainable Organizational Performance: An Empirical Study in Indonesian Higher Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70550/sebi.v2i3.205Abstract
This study examines the influence of transformational, transactional, and servant leadership on sustainable organizational performance at Institut Sains dan Bisnis Atma Luhur, Indonesia. Using a census technique involving the entire population of faculty and educational staff, this quantitative research employed multiple linear regression analysis to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that while the three leadership styles collectively influence sustainable organizational performance, only servant leadership demonstrates a significant individual effect. Transformational and transactional leadership showed no significant direct effects on sustainable performance. These counterintuitive findings challenge the dominant transformational leadership paradigm prevalent in management literature and highlight the critical importance of servant leadership in knowledge-intensive organizations. The study suggests that servant leadership's emphasis on empowerment, stewardship, trust-building, and people-centered culture aligns better with the nature of academic work characterized by high professional autonomy and intrinsic motivation. The findings also resonate with Indonesian collectivistic cultural values that emphasize harmony and relationships. Practical implications include prioritizing servant leadership competency development at all organizational levels and adopting a comprehensive systemic approach to achieving institutional sustainability beyond leadership factors alone
Downloads
References
Aboramadan, M., Dahleez, K., & Hamad, M. H. (2020). Servant leadership and academics outcomes in higher education: the role of job satisfaction. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 29(3), 562–584. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-11-2019-1923
Aleixo, A. M., Azeiteiro, U. M., & Leal, S. (2020). Are the sustainable development goals being implemented in the Portuguese higher education formative offer? International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 21(2), 336–352. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-04-2019-0150
Alonderiene, R., & Majauskaite, M. (2016). Leadership style and job satisfaction in higher education institutions. International Journal of Educational Management, 30(1), 140–164. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-08-2014-0106
Alshehhi, A., Nobanee, H., & Khare, N. (2018). The impact of sustainability practices on corporate financial performance: Literature trends and future research potential. Sustainability (Switzerland), 10(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020494
Bai, Y., Lin, L., & Li, P. P. (2016). How to enable employee creativity in a team context: A cross-level mediating process of transformational leadership. Journal of Business Research, 69(9), 3240–3250. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.025
Cai, W., Khapova, S., Bossink, B., Lysova, E., & Yuan, J. (2020). Optimizing Employee Creativity in the Digital Era: Uncovering the Interactional Effects of Abilities, Motivations, and Opportunities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 1038. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17031038
Chiniara, M., & Bentein, K. (2016). Linking servant leadership to individual performance: Differentiating the mediating role of autonomy, competence and relatedness need satisfaction. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(1), 124–141. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.08.004
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.id/books?id=s4ViswEACAAJ
Dirgantari, P. D., Hidayat, Y. M., Mahphoth, M. H., & Nugraheni, R. (2020). Level of use and satisfaction of e-commerce customers in covid-19 pandemic period: An information system success model (issm) approach. Indonesian Journal of Science and Technology, 5(2), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijost.v5i2.24617
Eva, N., Robin, M., Sendjaya, S., van Dierendonck, D., & Liden, R. C. (2019). Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future research. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 111–132. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.07.004
Gottfredson, R. K., & Aguinis, H. (2017). Leadership behaviors and follower performance: Deductive and inductive examination of theoretical rationales and underlying mechanisms. Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 38, pp. 558–591. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2152
Hallinger, Philip. (2019). Science mapping the knowledge base on educational leadership and management from the emerging regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America, 1965–2018. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 48(2), 209–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143218822772
Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T. H., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: a mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6(1), 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8
Lee, A., Lyubovnikova, J., Tian, A. W., & Knight, C. (2020). Servant leadership: A meta-analytic examination of incremental contribution, moderation, and mediation. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 93(1), 1–44. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12265
Mittal, S., & Dhar, R. L. (2016). Effect of green transformational leadership on green creativity: A study of tourist hotels. Tourism Management, 57, 118–127. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.05.007
Nguyen, P. T., Ali, H., Yandi, A., & Mahaputra, M. R. (2020). FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: MOTIVATION, LEADERSHIP, ENVIRONMENT, CULTURE ORGANIZATION, WORK ACHIEVEMENT, COMPETENCE AND COMPENSATION (A STUDY OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT LITERATURE STUDIES). Retrieved from https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:225552003
Pokhrel, Sumitra, & Chhetri, Roshan. (2021). A Literature Review on Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Teaching and Learning. Higher Education for the Future, 8(1), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.1177/2347631120983481
Qiu, S., Alizadeh, A., Dooley, L. M., & Zhang, R. (2019). The effects of authentic leadership on trust in leaders, organizational citizenship behavior, and service quality in the Chinese hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 40, 77–87. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2019.06.004
Sugiyono. (2019). Metode penelitian kuantitatif, kualitatif, dan R&D (2nd ed.). Alfabeta.
Yahya et.al. (2017). Leadership Styles of Nurse Managers and Their Effects on Nurse and Organisational Performance, Issues and Problems. International Journal of Information Research and Review, 4(9), 4516–4525. Retrieved from http://www.ijirr.com/sites/default/files/issues-pdf/2269.pdf
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Social and Economic Bulletin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
