🧠 Journal Summary: The Impact of Applying the Servant Leadership Style among Educators in Educational Institutes: A Scoping Review

Authors: Mohamad Rohieszan Ramdan, Khoo Yin Yin, Nur Yuhainis Ab. Wahab, Norsamsinar Samsudin, Nor Liza Abdullah, Nurul Ashykin Abd Aziz, Chamil Arkhasa Nikko Mazlan, Norimah Rambeli

Published In: TEM Journal. Volume 13, Issue 2, pages 1068-1079, May 2024.

🔍 Study Summary

This scoping review investigated the prevalence, feasibility, benefits, and challenges of applying servant leadership among educators in educational institutions. Its primary goal was to provide a comprehensive overview of existing research on the influence of servant leadership within this context and identify areas for future study.

💡 Key Concepts

• Servant Leadership: A leadership approach where the leader prioritizes the growth and empowerment of their followers, motivating them to also become servant leaders. This includes characteristics like altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, organizational stewardship, and persuasive mapping. It fosters well-being, collaborative problem-solving, and clear goal setting, effectively supporting employees’ career development through mentoring and coaching.
• Scoping Review: A systematic research method used to map the existing literature on a particular topic, identify knowledge gaps, and understand the breadth and nature of past research, especially in emerging fields.
• Work Empowerment: The process by which leaders acknowledge team members’ contributions, encourage cooperation, and foster a positive and supportive work environment.
• Attitude: Reflects how leaders value individuals, grant autonomy, and build confidence, thereby boosting self-esteem, drive, and resilience among their subordinates.
• Behavior Formation: Involves leaders setting positive examples, guiding skill development, and promoting constructive actions to cultivate a collaborative and productive work culture.
• Management Support: Encompasses fostering teamwork through cohesion, motivation, and empowerment, including aspects like problem-solving, team assistance, encouraging loyalty, and developing potential.

📊 Key Insights

• Servant leadership, despite being underutilized in education, aligns well with educational objectives and significantly contributes to organizational effectiveness.
• Successful implementation of servant leadership in educational settings positively impacts individual behavior, character development, work environment, and overall performance.
• This leadership style empowers both teachers and students, stimulates creativity, and enhances employee motivation, leading to improved job engagement, performance, and loyalty.
• The study identified four major themes of servant leadership in education: work empowerment, attitude, behavior, and management support, further divided into eleven sub-themes.
• Servant leadership has a notable positive effect on job satisfaction, employee loyalty, organizational climate, student achievement, and institutional health.
• Research on servant leadership specifically within educational contexts is still in its early stages, indicating a need for more extensive exploration compared to studies on other leadership styles.

📘 Example Application

In a college or university, a dean who adopts a servant leadership approach would prioritize the professional development and well-being of their faculty. For instance, the dean might actively seek feedback from professors on their teaching needs and research aspirations, provide flexible schedules to support work-life balance, and offer mentorship opportunities to junior faculty.

This focus on serving the faculty members’ needs would empower them to excel in their teaching and research, leading to increased job satisfaction, higher quality academic output, and a more vibrant, collaborative academic environment, ultimately enhancing the learning experience for students and the institution’s reputation.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

The findings from this review are highly significant because they underscore the largely untapped potential of servant leadership within educational institutions. By emphasizing the well-being, growth, and empowerment of educators, servant leaders can cultivate environments where both staff and students not only perform better but also thrive.

This understanding is crucial for developing more effective, compassionate, and resilient educational systems, essential for navigating modern challenges and achieving sustained excellence.

📌 Takeaway

Servant leadership presents a powerful, yet underexplored, strategy for educational institutions to foster excellence by prioritizing the empowerment and well-being of their educators, thereby cultivating a more engaged and high-performing environment. Continued research and broader adoption of this leadership style are vital for optimizing educational outcomes.

🧠 Journal Summary: Servant Leadership and Spirituality Among Undergraduate and Graduate Nursing Students

Authors: Joyce L. Maglione, Kathleen Neville

Published In: Journal of Religion and Health (2021)

🔍 Study Summary

This study investigated the relationship between servant leadership characteristics and spirituality among undergraduate and graduate nursing students. The primary goal was to determine if and how these two concepts are linked in future nursing professionals, addressing a gap in existing literature that largely focused on workplace settings rather than students.

The researchers aimed to understand if students choosing nursing as a career inherently possess traits aligned with servant leadership and spirituality, which are crucial for effective and compassionate healthcare.

💡 Key Concepts

• Servant Leadership: This leadership style emphasizes that the leader’s primary motivation is to serve others. Servant-leaders prioritize the needs of their followers, empowering them and fostering their growth by sharing knowledge and power. Key characteristics include listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth, and building community.
• Spirituality: Conceptually defined as a belief system acknowledging a Higher Power, contributing to a more meaningful life and individual well-being². In nursing, spirituality is integral to a holistic view of health, recognizing the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and environmental aspects of a patient’s health.

📊 Key Insights

• Nursing students in the study demonstrated relatively high levels of both spirituality and servant leadership.
• A significant positive association was found between overall servant leadership and spirituality scores (r=0.42, p<0.001).
• Servant leadership characteristics generally increased from Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) to Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program students but then decreased among doctoral students. A similar decline was observed in nurses with more than 10 years of practice.
• Spirituality scores increased as students pursued higher degrees, with doctoral students showing the highest scores.
• Spirituality scores for students with no prior healthcare employment were high, declined initially upon entering the workforce, and then continued to increase with more years of experience.
• Among the eight servant leadership subscales, “empowering others” had the highest mean score, while “humility” had the lowest.
• Most servant leadership subscales, with the exception of accountability and communication, showed weak to moderate statistically significant correlations with spirituality.

📘 Example Application

A university nursing program could integrate servant leadership and spirituality into its curriculum, especially for BSN and MSN students. By emphasizing these concepts through specific courses, practical exercises, and mentorship, the program can help cultivate future nurses who are not only clinically competent but also deeply empathetic and service-oriented.

For instance, case studies could focus on scenarios where nurses apply empowering communication or social justice principles in patient care or community health initiatives, while also reflecting on their personal spiritual well-being to prevent burnout and enhance quality of life.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

The findings of this study are incredibly insightful for the nursing profession. They suggest that the inherent qualities of servant leadership and spirituality are strong in those pursuing nursing, which is vital for building a compassionate and effective healthcare workforce.

Recognizing how these traits develop (or decline) across different educational levels and years of practice provides crucial information for designing targeted support and training programs. This understanding can help us nurture these essential qualities, ensuring nurses remain dedicated to service and well-being throughout their careers.

📌 Takeaway

Nursing students generally possess high levels of servant leadership and spirituality, and these two qualities are positively linked, highlighting their importance in shaping compassionate and effective future healthcare professionals. Educational programs and ongoing professional development should strategically cultivate these traits to ensure sustained commitment to patient care and personal well-being.

🧠 Journal Summary: SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND ITS RELATION TO WORK PERFORMANCE

Authors: Gašková, J.

Published In: Central European Business Review, Volume 9 | Issue 3 | 2020

🔍 Study Summary

This study investigated the connection between servant leadership and work performance, specifically examining how a supervisor’s servant leadership behaviors influence both the formal job duties (in-role performance) and voluntary helpful behaviors (extra-role performance) of their subordinates.

The research aimed to address a gap in studies on servant leadership within the Central European region. Data was collected through self-report questionnaires from Master’s students at the University of Economics, Prague, who were also working at least 20 hours per week.

💡 Key Concepts

• Servant Leadership: A leadership philosophy where the leader’s main goal is to serve their team members, focusing on their growth, well-being, and success. Key behaviors include empowering, helping subordinates develop, prioritizing their needs, ethical conduct, fostering emotional healing, and building community value.
• Work Performance: This concept covers two main areas:
  • In-role Performance: The specific tasks and responsibilities that are formally part of an employee’s job description.
  • Extra-role Performance: Voluntary actions that go beyond an employee’s official duties but still benefit the organization, such as helping colleagues or showing initiative.
• Empowering (as a dimension of Servant Leadership): A specific aspect of servant leadership where leaders provide their team members with significant responsibility, autonomy, and the necessary resources to effectively carry out their tasks.
• Regression Analysis: A statistical technique used in the study to determine and quantify the relationships between a leader’s servant leadership behaviors and their subordinates’ work performance.

📊 Key Insights

• The study found a clear and statistically significant positive relationship between a supervisor’s practice of servant leadership and an increase in both their subordinates’ in-role (formal duties) and extra-role (voluntary) work performance.
• Among the various characteristics of servant leadership, “empowering” was identified as the only individual dimension that showed a positive and significant link to overall work performance.
• The findings suggest that employees, especially working business students in the sample, highly value supervisors who grant them responsibility and autonomy in their work.
• This research confirms the relevance and positive impact of servant leadership within the Central European context, despite the specific nature of the study’s sample group.

📘 Example Application

In a tech startup, a team lead wants to boost productivity and innovation. Applying the principles from this study, the lead could adopt a more servant-oriented approach by focusing on empowering their developers. Instead of dictating every step, the lead might define the project’s goals but allow team members significant autonomy in choosing their development tools, methodologies, and even schedules, provided deadlines are met.

The lead would also ensure they have access to necessary resources and training. This empowerment would likely lead to better code quality (in-role performance) and encourage developers to proactively suggest new features or help debug colleagues’ issues (extra-role performance), ultimately benefiting the entire company’s growth.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

This research offers a powerful insight for leaders, particularly highlighting that effective leadership isn’t just about giving orders, but about enabling and empowering your team. The finding that ’empowering’ is a statistically significant dimension of servant leadership directly tied to better performance is crucial.

It suggests that by trusting employees with responsibility and autonomy, leaders can unlock their full potential, leading to improved execution of core tasks and a greater willingness to contribute beyond expectations. This is a vital lesson for fostering a proactive and high-performing workforce.

📌 Takeaway

Servant leadership, especially through empowering subordinates with responsibility and autonomy, significantly enhances both required job performance and voluntary helpful behaviors, proving its value in creating a more effective and engaged workforce.

🧠 Journal Summary: Servant Leadership and its Association with an Environment of Empathic Care: An Empirical Analysis of the Perspectives of Mid-Level Practitioners

Authors: Reginald Silver, Mark Martin

Published In: Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 35 No. 1, 2022, pp. 116-136

🔍 Study Summary

This study investigated how servant leadership influences an environment of empathic care, specifically from the perspective of mid-level healthcare practitioners. The research aimed to fill gaps in existing literature by focusing on care provider perceptions rather than solely patient views, understanding the conditions that foster empathy in healthcare settings, and exploring the exogenous properties of servant leadership.

The authors surveyed mid-level practitioners in a large integrated health system in the USA to understand their perceptions.

💡 Key Concepts

• Servant Leadership: A leadership philosophy that prioritizes the well-being and development of employees, contrasting with traditional hierarchical approaches. Key characteristics include listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth, and community building.
• Empathic Care: The ability to understand and share the feelings of others, which is crucial in healthcare. High levels of perceived empathy have been shown to positively impact patient satisfaction, outcomes, and safety.
• Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): A statistical method used to develop theories about the relationships between different concepts in a model and to group related factors into meaningful categories.
• Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM): A statistical technique employed to test theoretical models and analyze cause-effect relationships among complex variables.
• Sipe and Frick’s Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: A framework detailing core aspects of servant leadership, including integrity, putting people first, skilled communication, compassionate collaboration, foresight, systems thinking, and moral authority.

📊 Key Insights

• The study’s theoretical model effectively explained approximately 37% of the variation observed in an empathic care environment.
• Servant leadership has been linked to increased employee job satisfaction and improved patient satisfaction scores.
• Empathic care positively influences patient outcomes, safety, and overall perceptions of the care received.
• Four key factors emerged as relevant to fostering an empathic care environment: Team Norms, Feedback Mechanisms, Intra-team Concern, and Altruism.
• Team norms, feedback mechanisms, and intra-team concerns were found to be significant predictors in creating an empathic care environment.
• However, altruism, as a standalone factor, was not statistically significant in predicting an empathic care environment in this specific study.

📘 Example Application

In a healthcare organization, leaders can apply these findings by cultivating a servant leadership approach to improve both staff well-being and patient care. For instance, management could implement regular team-building exercises to strengthen “team norms” and ensure clear expectations for collaborative behavior. Establishing formal and informal “feedback mechanisms,” such as anonymous suggestion boxes or routine one-on-one check-ins, would allow mid-level practitioners to voice concerns and contribute ideas.

Furthermore, promoting a culture of “intra-team concern” through peer support programs or recognition of compassionate interactions among colleagues could significantly enhance the overall empathic care environment within the practice.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

This research highlights the crucial role of leadership in shaping the healthcare environment. The findings suggest that focusing on specific, actionable aspects of servant leadership, like building strong team norms and encouraging robust feedback, can directly contribute to a more empathetic workplace.

This is vital not only for the well-being of healthcare professionals but also, ultimately, for enhancing patient care and satisfaction. It reinforces that leadership is not just about directives, but about fostering a supportive and understanding culture.

📌 Takeaway

Cultivating servant leadership characteristics, particularly strong team norms, effective feedback, and intra-team concern, significantly contributes to an empathic care environment in healthcare settings, benefiting both practitioners and patients.

🧠 Journal Summary: Servant leadership and healthy work relationships in university context: a moderated mediation analysis of psychological safety and socially responsible leadership

Authors: Mahadih Kyambade, Monica Tushabe, Gideon Nkurunziza, Luke Sewante, Afulah Namatovu

Published In: COGENT EDUCATION, 2024, VOL. 11, NO. 1, 2418802

🔍 Study Summary

This study investigated how servant leadership, psychological safety, and socially responsible leadership interact to influence healthy work relationships within public universities in Uganda. Using data from 241 staff members, the research employed a moderated mediation analysis.

The primary goal was to understand the indirect effect of servant leadership on work relationships through psychological safety, and how this process is shaped by socially responsible leadership. The study aimed to fill a gap in existing research, which has largely overlooked these dynamics in higher education settings.

💡 Key Concepts

• Servant Leadership: A leadership style where leaders prioritize serving the needs and growth of their followers, emphasizing empathy, empowerment, and ethical conduct.
• Healthy Work Relationships: Work environments characterized by trust, mutual respect, open communication, and effective collaboration among colleagues and leaders.
• Psychological Safety: The shared belief among team members that they can take interpersonal risks, express ideas, and voice concerns without fear of negative consequences or embarrassment.
• Socially Responsible Leadership: A leadership approach focused on ethical decision-making, social justice, and a commitment to the well-being of the community and stakeholders, aligning with broader societal values.
• Social Exchange Theory (SET): A theoretical framework suggesting that relationships are built on reciprocal exchanges, where positive interactions (e.g., support from leaders) lead to positive outcomes (e.g., healthy work relationships) through trust and mutual benefit.

📊 Key Insights

• Servant leadership is positively associated with healthy work relationships.
• Psychological safety acts as a mediator: servant leadership fosters greater psychological safety, which in turn leads to healthier work relationships.
• Socially responsible leadership moderates this indirect effect, indicating that its presence influences how servant leadership, through psychological safety, impacts work relationships. Specifically, for lower levels of socially responsible leadership, servant leadership significantly fosters healthy work relationships via psychological safety; however, this indirect effect is less pronounced when socially responsible leadership is already high.

📘 Example Application

In a university, administrators can apply these findings by implementing leadership development programs that teach servant leadership principles, such as active listening, empathy, and empowering staff. For instance, deans could be trained to prioritize faculty well-being and provide platforms for open feedback, fostering psychological safety.

Concurrently, the university should integrate socially responsible practices, like transparent decision-making regarding promotions or resource allocation, and engage in community initiatives. This combined approach would create an environment where faculty and staff feel safe, respected, and motivated, leading to stronger interpersonal connections, better collaboration, and improved overall university performance.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

“These findings are crucial for leaders in educational institutions, especially public universities. They highlight that fostering a culture of service and prioritizing employee well-being through servant leadership can directly lead to healthier work relationships.

Furthermore, when leaders also act with social responsibility, it enhances the sense of psychological safety among staff, allowing for more open communication and collaboration. This integrated approach is vital for creating a thriving academic environment where staff feel valued, respected, and motivated to contribute, ultimately boosting organizational effectiveness and employee well-being.”

📌 Takeaway

Servant leadership, amplified by socially responsible practices and psychological safety, is key to cultivating robust and healthy work relationships, particularly within university settings, leading to improved organizational effectiveness and employee well-being.

🧠 Journal Summary: Servant Leadership and Employee Prosocial Rule-Breaking: The Underlying Effects of Psychological Safety and Compassion at Work

Authors: Naqib Ullah Khan, Muhammad Zada, Christophe Estay

Published In: PLOS ONE

🔍 Study Summary

This study investigated how servant leadership influences “pro-social rule-breaking” (PSRB) among employees. It explored whether psychological safety acts as a go-between (mediator) in this relationship and if compassion at work changes (moderates) the effects of servant leadership on both psychological safety and PSRB. The research also looked at how compassion at work might affect the mediating role of psychological safety. The study gathered responses from 273 frontline public servants in Pakistan.

💡 Key Concepts

• Servant Leadership (SL): A leadership style where the leader prioritizes serving the needs of their followers, focusing on their growth, well-being, and empowerment. It involves characteristics like empathy, listening, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community.
• Pro-social Rule-Breaking (PSRB): Employees intentionally breaking formal organizational rules, policies, or procedures not for personal gain but with positive intentions to benefit the organization or its stakeholders. This might happen when existing rules are seen as outdated or hinder efficiency.
• Psychological Safety: An employee’s belief that their workplace is a safe environment to express ideas, ask questions, voice concerns, and even make mistakes without fear of negative consequences.
• Compassion at Work (CAW): The perception that leaders and co-workers are sensitive to and act to alleviate the sufferings or difficulties of others in the workplace. It involves noticing, feeling, and acting on others’ distress.
• Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT): This theory suggests that individuals interpret cues from their environment to decide how to behave. In this context, employees evaluate the potential risks and rewards from their supervisors before engaging in certain behaviors like PSRB.

📊 Key Insights

• Servant leadership positively influences both pro-social rule-breaking and psychological safety. 
• Psychological safety positively influences pro-social rule-breaking. 
• Psychological safety acts as a significant mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and pro-social rule-breaking, meaning servant leadership fosters psychological safety, which in turn encourages employees to engage in PSRB. 
• Compassion at work significantly strengthens the positive relationship between servant leadership and psychological safety. 
• Compassion at work also significantly strengthens the positive relationship between servant leadership and pro-social rule-breaking. 
• The mediating effect of psychological safety between servant leadership and pro-social rule-breaking is significantly stronger when compassion at work is high. 

📘 Example Application

Imagine a public service agency dealing with an influx of new regulations. An employee identifies that a specific, outdated internal procedure is causing significant delays in assisting citizens, despite new regulations aiming for faster service. Under a servant leader who prioritizes employee well-being and open communication, the employee feels psychologically safe to deviate from the outdated procedure to help citizens more efficiently.

This action, a form of prosocial rule-breaking, is further encouraged if there’s a strong culture of compassion at work, where the employee knows their leader and colleagues understand and support actions taken to alleviate citizen suffering, even if it means bending old rules. The outcome is improved service delivery and a more responsive public agency.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

These findings are crucial for leaders, especially those in public service or other rule-bound environments. The study highlights that simply having rules isn’t enough; the leadership style and workplace culture profoundly impact how employees navigate and sometimes strategically break these rules for the greater good.

Understanding the roles of psychological safety and compassion allows leaders to cultivate an environment where employees feel empowered and supported to act in the best interest of the organization and its beneficiaries, even when it requires unconventional approaches. This can lead to more agile and effective organizations.

📌 Takeaway

Servant leadership, by fostering psychological safety and compassion, creates an environment where employees are empowered to break counterproductive rules for the organization’s benefit, ultimately leading to greater efficiency and positive outcomes.

🧠 Journal Summary: How servant leadership impact the cohesion and burnout of female athlete and how self-identity intermediate the association between servant leadership, cohesion and burnout

Authors: Yong Sheng Wang, Hong-Quan Hu, Zhao Chen, Yan Yang

Published In: Revista de Psicología del Deporte/Journal of Sport Psychology Vol. 30. n.°1 2021

🔍 Study Summary

This study investigated how servant leadership, particularly when practiced by team captains, affects team cohesion and burnout among female athletes. It also explored the role of “self-identity” as a mediator in these relationships. The research aimed to fill a gap in existing literature, which often focuses on servant leadership from an upper management perspective, by specifically examining its impact in a team captain context in sports. Using questionnaires collected from 245 participants, the study employed Smart PLS for data analysis to test its hypotheses.

💡 Key Concepts

• Servant Leadership: A leadership style where the primary focus is on serving the needs of followers first, rather than achieving organizational goals. In a sports context, this means the team captain prioritizes the well-being and development of the athletes.
• Cohesion: Refers to the unity within a group. The study differentiates between:
  • Task Cohesion: The perception of team members regarding their unity towards achieving collective performance goals.
  • Social Cohesion: The quality of social interactions and the tendency for members to enjoy spending time with one another.
• Burnout: An extended reaction to long-lasting emotional and personal stressors, characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, sports devaluation (loss of interest), and reduced self-efficacy (sense of accomplishment).
• Social Identity: A person’s sense of self based on their group membership. It involves prioritizing group benefits and goals over personal ones, fostering a “we” mentality rather than “I.”

📊 Key Insights

• Servant leadership positively influences cohesion (both social and task cohesion) among female athletes.
• Servant leadership negatively influences burnout levels among female athletes, helping to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress.
• Self-identity plays a mediating role in the relationship between servant leadership, cohesion, and burnout, meaning that servant leadership enhances team cohesion and reduces burnout by strengthening the athletes’ sense of social identity within the team.
• Team captains acting as servant leaders can significantly improve team performance by fostering unity and reducing emotional distress among players.

📘 Example Application

In a university women’s basketball team, the captain adopts a servant leadership style. Instead of solely focusing on winning games, she prioritizes listening to her teammates’ concerns, helping them with academic stress, organizing team-bonding activities, and offering support during challenging training sessions. This approach fosters a strong sense of unity (cohesion) within the team. When a demanding coach implements an intense training schedule, the athletes, feeling supported and part of a close-knit group (strong social identity), experience less individual burnout. They are more motivated to work together, communicate effectively, and maintain their performance levels, leading to better overall team success and individual well-being despite the pressure.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

“The findings of this study underscore the profound impact of servant leadership, especially from a team captain, on athlete well-being and team performance. It highlights that true leadership in sports goes beyond strategy; it’s about nurturing human connections and fostering a collective identity. Understanding how social identity mediates these relationships offers valuable insights for coaches and sports organizations looking to build resilient and successful teams, emphasizing the importance of a ‘we’ over ‘me’ mindset.”

📌 Takeaway

Servant leadership, particularly when embodied by team captains, significantly enhances team cohesion and mitigates athlete burnout by fostering a strong sense of shared social identity. Prioritizing the needs and development of team members is key to building united, resilient, and high-performing sports teams.

🧠 Journal Summary: Do Assistive Technologies Moderate the Effect of Transformational Leadership on the Workplace Well-Being of Disabled Employees?

Authors: Wided Ragmoun and Abdulaziz Alfalih

Published In: South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Volume 20 (1) 2025

🔍 Study Summary

This study explored how a specific leadership style, called transformational leadership, affects the happiness and health of disabled employees at work. It also looked at whether assistive technologies play a role in this connection. The main goal was to understand this relationship better, especially by collecting information from 319 disabled employees in Saudi Arabia using surveys.

💡 Key Concepts

• Transformational Leadership (TL): This is a leadership style where leaders inspire and motivate their team members to achieve more than they thought possible. They encourage creativity, challenge the status quo, and act as role models.
• Workplace Well-Being: This refers to an employee’s overall happiness, health, and satisfaction in their work environment. The study looked at specific parts like job satisfaction, feeling discriminated against, and the need for recovery after work.
• Assistive Technologies (AT): These are tools or devices that help people with disabilities perform tasks or improve their abilities. Examples include screen readers, specialized keyboards, or mobility aids.
• Moderating Effect: This means that assistive technologies don’t directly cause well-being, but they change (or “moderate”) how strong the relationship is between transformational leadership and well-being. Think of it like a dimmer switch, making the effect brighter or weaker.

📊 Key Insights

• Leadership and Well-Being are Linked: The study found a positive but somewhat limited connection between transformational leadership and the overall well-being of disabled employees.
• Specific Impacts on Well-Being: This positive connection was especially strong for:
  • Job satisfaction: Employees felt happier with their jobs.
  • Perceptions of discrimination: Employees felt less discriminated against.
  • Need for recovery: Employees felt less exhausted and had less need to “recover” from work.
• Assistive Technologies Help: Assistive technologies actually strengthen this positive relationship. They specifically helped by:
  • Increasing satisfaction with using the technology.
  • Increasing how often the technology was used.
• Demographic Factors Matter:
  • Men reported lower well-being than women.
  • Well-being tended to decrease as employees got older.
  • Education level, however, did not seem to affect well-being for disabled employees in this study.

📘 Example Application

Imagine a large tech company with many disabled employees. To improve their workplace well-being, the company could train its managers in transformational leadership skills. This would involve teaching them how to inspire, support, and intellectually stimulate their disabled team members.

At the same time, the company should ensure that employees have access to the most effective assistive technologies for their needs and receive proper training on how to use them. For example, a manager using transformational leadership might empower a visually impaired employee by involving them in strategic decisions, while ensuring they have the latest screen-reading software and accessible workstation setup.

This combined approach, as shown by the study, would lead to higher job satisfaction and a more inclusive environment for the employee.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

“This paper offers a crucial perspective, especially relevant for modern workplaces aiming for true inclusivity. It highlights that while inspiring leadership is vital for everyone, for disabled employees, the actual tools they use (assistive technologies) play a powerful role in making that leadership truly effective. It tells us that it’s not just about a leader’s good intentions, but also about providing the practical support that empowers employees with disabilities. This is a clear call for organizations to think about both ‘people skills’ and ‘tech tools’ together when building a supportive environment.”

📌 Takeaway

Transformational leadership positively affects the well-being of disabled employees, and assistive technologies are key to making this effect even stronger. Companies should focus on both developing inspiring leaders and providing effective assistive tools to create truly inclusive and supportive workplaces.

🧠 Journal Summary: The Role of Social Skills in Enhancing Managerial Performance Through Transformational Leadership Characteristics: A Developing Country Perspective

Authors: Alisa Mujkić, Amra Kapo, Jasna Kovačević, Benina Veledar

Published In: South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Volume 20 (1) 2025

🔍 Study Summary

This study looked at how social skills help managers do better at their jobs. It specifically checked if a certain type of leadership, called transformational leadership, acts as a go-between in this process. The main goal was to fill a gap in research about how transformational leadership affects a manager’s work, especially when personal interaction skills are involved. The research happened in a developing country, offering a new viewpoint compared to earlier studies mostly done in Western places.

💡 Key Concepts

• Social Skills (SS): This means being good at behaving in ways that people accept and appreciate. In this paper, social skills are broken down into social presentation (being able to clearly share ideas and thoughts) and social flexibility (being able to adjust to unexpected situations). These skills help people talk and work well with others, reach their own goals, and manage relationships without ignoring what others need.
• Transformational Leadership (TL): This is a leadership style known for being good at managing in changing environments. It involves leaders inspiring their team and using special management skills. This leads to high performance, motivation, happiness, and growth for the team members. This study sees TL as a link between social skills and how well a manager performs.
• Managerial Performance (MP): This is about how effective and successful managers are in their roles. It’s really important for a company to grow and develop. The study explores how social skills, through transformational leadership, can make this performance better.
• Mediation: This is when one thing (social skills) affects another thing (managerial performance) because of a third thing in the middle (transformational leadership).

📊 Key Insights

• Social Skills Help Create Transformational Leaders: The study found that social skills, especially being good at presenting ideas and being flexible, really help someone become a transformational leader.
• Transformational Leadership Improves Manager Performance: Leaders who use transformational leadership perform better in their management roles.
• Transformational Leadership Acts as a Go-Between: Transformational leadership partly explains how social skills lead to better managerial performance. This means social skills do help performance directly, but a big part of that help comes through the manager’s transformational leadership style.
• Strong Connections Found: The overall link between social skills and managerial performance was strong. Also, the direct link was strong. The indirect link (Social Skills → Transformational Leadership → Managerial Performance) also showed that transformational leadership plays an important role as a go-between.

📘 Example Application

Imagine a company that is quickly changing and needs leaders who can adapt. A manager with strong social skills (like being great at explaining new plans and flexible enough to handle different team members’ worries) can greatly improve their work performance. For example, during a company-wide change, a manager who clearly explains the new strategy (social presentation) and changes their approach for different team members (social flexibility) can build a more inspiring and empowering team environment. This inspiring leadership, in turn, makes employees feel stronger, boosts their motivation, and finally leads to better team and individual results, helping the whole company succeed. The study shows how important it is to train managers in these social skills to improve their ability to lead in a transformational way, which then makes them perform better.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

“The findings of this paper are really valuable, especially for developing countries. They clearly show how social skills, inspiring leadership, and a manager’s work performance are all connected. In today’s fast-moving business world, managers who can explain ideas well and adapt to different situations (social skills) are not just ‘nice to have’; they are key drivers that strengthen their ability to lead big changes. This then directly improves how well they do their job. This research gives a helpful guide for companies wanting to grow strong leaders and achieve more success by specifically improving their social abilities.”

📌 Takeaway

Good social skills are very important for becoming a transformational leader, and this kind of leadership greatly improves how well managers perform. Companies should help managers develop their social skills to encourage transformational leadership, which will lead to better results for both individuals and the whole organization.