Servant Leadership and Project Success:
Unleashing the Missing Links of Work
Engagement, Project Work Withdrawal,
and Project Identi?cation
Shazia Nauman 1 , Ata Ul Musawir 1, Sania Zahra Malik 2,
a ...
Servant Leadership and Project Success:
Unleashing the Missing Links of Work
Engagement, Project Work Withdrawal,
and Project Identi?cation
Shazia Nauman 1 , Ata Ul Musawir 1, Sania Zahra Malik 2,
and Hina Munir 3
Abstract
Employing self-determination and social identi?cation theories, we examined how servant leadership, which focuses on employ-
ees’needs, in?uences project success. Based on 453 responses from project team leader–project team member dyads working in
a single organization, our?ndings suggest that servant leadership enhances project success predominantly by mitigating project
work withdrawal, rather than accentuating work engagement. Additionally, when team members’project identi?cation is high,
the servant leadership–work engagement relationship is weakened, whereas the servant leadership–project work withdrawal
relationship is strengthened. We contribute to the nascent literature that positions servant leadership as an effective style in
the project context.
Keywords
servant leadership, work engagement, project work withdrawal, project identi?cation, project success, parallel mediation,
moderated mediation
Introduction
Traditionally, project management has been primarily con-
cerned with managing projects as technical systems (Imam &
Zaheer, 2021). However, with the increasing emphasis on
human behavior and dynamics as key determinants of the
success of projects (Dalcher, 2019), the project management lit-
erature is now inclined toward viewing managing projects as
behavioral systems (Belout & Gauvreau, 2004; Martin, 2017;
Merrow & Nandurdikar, 2018). Recent trends indicate that
leadership and people skills are among the most important com-
petencies for future project managers (Project Management
Institute [PMI], 2017, 2020).
Prior literature suggests that people-oriented leaders tend to
be more effective in achieving successful project delivery
(Lee-Kelley & Kin Leong, 2003; Mäkilouko, 2004). In partic-
ular, servant leadership is gaining greater attention as an effec-
tive leadership style in the project management literature
(Holtzhausen & de Klerk, 2018; Krog & Govender, 2015a).
However, according to Aga et al. (2016), there remains a
need to understand the underlying mechanisms and boundary
conditions through which project managers and team leaders
invigorate team members to achieve superior project perfor-
mance. Accordingly, our central research question is: Howdoes servant leadership in?uence project success? Project
success here refers to the project leaders’perspective on
whether the project team was effective in completing its tasks
and skilled in its collaborations with project stakeholders
(Aga et al., 2016; Imam & Zaheer, 2021).
Servant leaders help team members grow and succeed by
placing their bene?ts?rst and promoting increased collabora-
tion among them (Hunter et al., 2013; Liden et al., 2008).
Followers of such leaders are expected to be more engaged
(De Clercq et al., 2014)
