Investigating the relationship between servant leadership and employees' trust in the leader in the General Directorate of Cooperatives in Gilan Province

Dissertation for Master's Degree

Human Resources Orientation

Abstract

The general purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between servant leadership and trust in the leader. The research method is descriptive and its purpose is practical, and the method of data collection is field and the instrument is a questionnaire. In the current research, the statistical population under investigation is the employees of the Labor and Social Welfare Cooperative Department of Gilan Province with a number of 293 people. Considering the total number of the statistical population and according to Morgan's table, the sample size is 169 people, and 200 questionnaires were distributed using the non-probability sampling method. Finally, 174 questionnaires were collected from employees and the information was analyzed. By analyzing the data, it was found that the 95% confidence level of servant leadership and its components (serving, humility, trustworthiness, and kindness) have a significant relationship with trust in the leader. Also, the results showed that the relationship between trustworthiness and trust in the leader is stronger than other components.

Keywords: servant leadership, serving, humility, trustworthiness, kindness, trust in the communication leader

Introduction

Today, the issue of trust is growing and the interest of contemporary organizations in this issue has increased, and this is evidenced by the growing literature. Previous works in the field of trust show that trust is the main factor for cooperation within organizations and nowadays it is also important in interactions between people. However, regarding trust, there is a difference of opinion around its concept and formation as well as its evolution in organizations. Despite theoretical advances in the field of trust, there is still little empirical evidence to support many theories. We believe that one of the significant gaps that still exists in the trust literature is the process of developing trust in organizational and interpersonal settings. In reaching this goal, this research contributes to the development of this theory and reflects the specific social context of management, that is, the context of servant leadership (Sendjaya-Pekerti, 2010). Considering the indifference of employees and the lack of trust in organizations and the fact that both forms of trust, i.e., trust in the leader and trust in the organization, are considered to be effective characteristics of servant leadership and a lot of emphasis has been placed on them, it seems that the development of the servant leadership model can be considered as a suitable solution for removing mistrust in government organizations and increasing extra-role behaviors (Nadi and Ghahrani; 2011). Servant leadership is both a product and an introduction to trust in the leader and trust in the organization. This importance may be due to the fact that servant leadership increases followers' perception of the leader's trustworthiness, which has a two-way relationship with trust in the leader (Farling et al, 2010). Servant leaders are trusted because of their empathy with followers and full acceptance from them, which comes from their trustworthiness and confidence, and because of leadership through modeling and creating ethical examples in the organization (Ahmadi et al., 2013). Considering that the purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between servant leadership and trust in the leader, therefore, in this chapter, firstly, the statement of the problem and then the importance and necessity of the research and the theoretical framework and finally the proposed model of the research will be discussed. Various sciences have pointed out the importance of the role of trust in organizations. Organizational literature studies have also emphasized the importance of trust as a prerequisite for organizational effectiveness (Child-Mollering, 2010).

Trust is necessary for organizational success, making continuous changes in roles and technologies, as well as designing jobs and responsibilities. Trust can create intra-personal and interpersonal effects, and affect relationships inside and outside the organization (Danaifred et al.; 2018). Therefore, the decline of trust in the leader in government organizations is one of the issues that creates unmotivated and indifferent employees and causes the slow implementation of programs (Qalipour et al.Therefore, the decline of trust in the leader in government organizations is one of the issues that creates unmotivated and indifferent employees and causes the slow implementation of programs (Qalipour et al.; 2018) and also the low level of trust in the leader causes employees to divert the flow of information in the organization and spread suspicion and skepticism among employees and open and honest communication in the organization is lost and the organization's decisions do not have the desired quality (Farhang et al.; 2019). Trust in leadership is a state of mind that includes the intention to be vulnerable based on positive expectations of the other party's goals or behavior (Sendjaya-Pekerti, 2010). The existence of trust in the cooperative administration, like other organizations and financial and administrative institutions, is of particular importance, so that the consequences of its lack will cause selfish and self-centered behaviors in employees, reduce participation in decision-making (Panahi; 2019), failure to achieve goals and strategies, and will generally have a negative effect on organizational productivity (Qurbani and Babal-Hawaji; 2019). The need to emphasize public trust and trust in leadership is increasing day by day, as well as the requirement of distribution of power and empowerment in countries that are going through the process of democratization, has made the existence of servant leadership necessary (Birkenmeier et al, 2012). While the concept of trust is not exclusively related to servant leadership, and trust may be considered a key concept in all leadership models, servant leadership is particularly strongly related to trust. Servant leaders consider the needs and interests of the followers higher than their own needs and interests, have harmony between words and actions, participate in ethical conversations with the followers and instill a sense of achieving goals and meaning in the followers, as a result, they gain the trust of their followers. Sendjaya and Pekerti [1] (2010) believe that there is a relationship between servant leadership and the formation of followers' trust in the leader, thus in this research servant leadership has been used as an independent variable (Sendjaya-Pekerti, 2010). Greenleaf defines servant leadership as follows: Servant leadership emphasizes serving others and sacrifices personal interests for the interests of others so that people can have more tact, authority and health and become servant leaders themselves.

According to the material raised, the main question of the research is whether there is a relationship between servant leadership and trust in the leader in the Labor and Social Welfare Department of Gilan Province?

The necessity and importance of the research

Nowadays, the importance of trust in social, economic, political and organizational relationships has been significantly noticed (Danaifred et al.; 2018). Undoubtedly, creating trust in any military system is the main pillar of governance and the basis of its legitimacy, and its distortion will shake the foundation of any military system in the long run, as the gross mistakes of political leaders in relation to citizens and the lack of attention to the issue of service have damaged public trust, which ultimately leads to a decrease in the legitimacy of the political system (Baghreslimi et al.; 2010). Considering that trust in organizations requires building trust between employees and managers of executive departments, it is very important to pay attention to building trust within the organization. For optimal management, it is necessary to create trust as one of the most important social assets, and this creates a bond of empathy between employees and managers. The issue of trust has important theoretical and practical importance for the study of organizations. Trust as a facilitating phenomenon that makes organizations more productive (Carneval e, 2012).

Trust leads to effective performance, because it encourages the exchange of relevant and appropriate information between employees and organizations. Management thinkers consider trust as an important factor in cooperation and conflict, leadership styles, participation and organizational growth (Vidotto, 2012). In organizational studies, trust is mentioned as a fundamental factor for effective organizations, and leadership experts and researchers acknowledge the importance of building trust among the workforce. The study of organizational literature shows that trust is a vital and necessary factor for individual and organizational success. The high level of intra-organizational trust partially compensates for the weakness in other resources necessary to improve productivity. Studies show that trust creates intra-personal and interpersonal effects and affects relationships inside and outside the organization. Therefore, it is said that high trust is equal to improving job satisfaction, organizational commitment, an atmosphere of confidence in employees, increasing cooperation and consensus, sharing information, solving problems, facilitating empowerment, the ability to change, learning and organizational innovation, reducing emotional and psychological pressure, reducing uncertainty about the future, resolving conflicts and finally creating a framework for increasing organizational productivity (Danaifred et al.; 2018).

Servant leadership has inferences and characteristics that dominate the theory. Traders agree on them.