Log in

Executive-Level Volunteers in Jewish Communal Organizations: Their Trust in Executive Professionals as Mediating the Relationship Between Their Motivation to Volunteer and Their Pursuit of Servant Leadership

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Lay leaders who hold executive-level volunteering positions play a significant role in the operation of Jewish communal organizations and work closely with organizations’ senior administration and professional leaders. This study’s focus was executive-level volunteer practice of servant leadership in relation to volunteers’ motivational function and volunteers’ trust in the executive-level professionals with whom they work closely. Data were collected from 73 executive-level lay leaders in Jewish community organizations in North America. Results show that lay leaders motivated by a mission to help others, as opposed to self-interest, are more inclined to practice servant leadership. Moreover, results show that lay leaders’ trust in their professional colleagues mediates the relationship between lay leaders’ motivation to volunteer and their pursuit of servant leadership. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andersen, J. A. (2009). When a servant-leader comes knocking. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 30(1), 4–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, J. C., & Moore, L. F. (1978). The motivation to volunteer. Journal of Voluntary Action Research., 7(1), 120–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andre, A., & Lantu, D. C. (2015). Servant leadership and human capital managament: Case study in Citibank Indonesia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 169(20), 303–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16(2), 315–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Axelord, N. (1998). Current trends, best practices and future direction in board development. New York: Council of Initiatives in Jewish Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayman, R. (2004). Situational and contingency approaches to leadership. In J. Antonakis, A. Cianciolo, & R. Sternberg (Eds.), The nature of leadership (pp. 148–171). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagozzi, R. P., Yi, Y., & Phillips, L. W. (1991). Assessing construct validity in organizational research. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(3), 421–458.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbuto, J. E., Jr., & Wheeler, D. W. (2006). Scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. Group and Organization Management, 31(3), 300–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(5), 1173–1182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bean, L., & Martinez, B. (2015). Sunday school teacher, culture warrior: The politics of lay leaders in three religious traditions. Social Science Quarterly, 96(1), 133–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, P. (1999). Lay leadership in Jewish education: Recruitment, retention and development. Journal of Jewish Communal Service, 35(2), 210–223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, C. D. (2014). Antecedents of servant leadership: A mixed methods study. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 21(3), 299–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, G. L. (2010). Correlational analysis of servant leadrship and school climate. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, 13(4), 437–466.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanchard, K., & Hodges, P. (2003). The servant leader: Transforming your heart, head, hands & habits. Nashville, TN: J. Countryman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bliese, P. D. (2003). With-in group agreement non independence and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis. In K. J. Klein, & S. W. J. Kozlowski (Eds.), Multileval theory research and methods in organizations (pp. 349–381). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bono, J. E., Foldes, H. J., Vinson, G., & Muros, J. P. (2007). Workplace emotions: The role of supervision and leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1357–1367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bornstein, B. H., & Tomkins, A. J. (2015). Institutional trust: An introduction. In B. H. Bornstein & A. J. Tomkins (Eds.), Nebraska symposium on motivation: Motivating cooperation and compliance with authority: The role of institutional trust (pp. 1–11). Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, T. A. (2006). confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S., & Bryant, P. (2015). Getting to know the elephant: A call to advance servant leadership through construct consensus, empirical evidence, and multilevel theoretical development. Servant Leadership: Theory and Practice, 2(1), 10–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownell, J. (2010). Leadership in the service of hospitality. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 51(2), 363–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brudney, J. L. (2005). Designing and managing volunteer programs. In R. D. Herman (Ed.), The Jossey-Bass handbook of non-profit leadership and management (2nd ed., pp. 310–344). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carver, J. (1997). Boards that make a difference: A new design for leadership in non-profit organizations. San Francisco: Josey Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerit, Y. (2009). The effects of servant leadership behaviours of school principals on teachers’ job satisfaction. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 37(5), 600–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chin, D. T., & Smith, W. A. (2006). An inductive model of servant leadership: The considered difference to transformational and charismatic leadership. Working paper 43/06, Department of Management, Monash University, November 1–19. Retrieved from http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/40642.

  • Clary, E. G., Ridge, R. D., Stukas, A. A., Snyder, M., Copeland, J., & Haugen, J. (1998). Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1516–1530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clary, E. G., & Snyder, M. (1991). A functional analysis of altruism and prosocial behavior: The case of volunteerism. In M. Clark (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology (Vol. 12, pp. 119–148). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clary, E. G., & Snyder, M. (1995). Motivations for volunteering and giving: A functional approach. In C. H. Hamilton & W. F. Ilchman (Eds.), New directions for philanthropic fundraising (Vol. 8, pp. 111–123). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clary, E. G., & Snyder, M. (1999). The motivations to volunteer: Theoretical and practical considerations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 156–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conchie, S. M. (2013). Transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation, and trust: A moderated mediated model of workplace safety. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 18(2), 198–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Culmer, N. (2013). I.T. changes: An exploration of the relationship between motivation, trust, and resistance to change in information technology. Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2012. Retrieved from http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3280.

  • Dennis, R., & Winston, B. E. (2003). A factor analysis of Page and Wong’s servant leadership instrument. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 24(8), 455–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, R. O., & Gilson, L. (2015). Exploring the influence of trust relationships on motivation in the health sector: A systematic review. Human Resources for Health, 13(1), 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz, G., & Den-Hartog, D. (2006). Measuring trust inside organizations. Personnel Review, 35(5), 557–588.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dionne, S., Yammarino, F., Atwater, L., & James, L. (2002). Neutralizing substitutes for leadership theory: Leadership effects and common source bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 454–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 611–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dolnicar, S., & Randle, M. (2007). The international volunteering market: Market segments and competitive relations. International Journal of Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 12(4), 350–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrhart, M. (2004). Leadership and procedural justice climate as antecedents of unit-level organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel Psychology, 57, 61–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein, M. A. (2009). Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivational orientations and the volunteer process. Personality and Individual Differences, 46(5–6), 653–658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, S., Brown, F. W., Lunde, J. P., & Banset, E. A. (2005). Interpersonal skills for leadership (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, M. T., Rodriguez, R. A., Wheeler, C. A., & Baggerly-Hinojosa, B. (2015). Servant leadership: A quantitative review of instruments and related findings. Servant Leadership: Theory and Practice, 2(2), 76–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and Greatness. New York: Paulist Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guseh, J., & Winders, R. (2002). A profile of volunteerism in North Carolina. The Journal of Volunteer Administration, 20(4), 555–568.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hair, J. F., Jr., Tatham, R. L., Anderson, R. E., & Black, W. C. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heavey, C., Halliday, S. V., & Gilbert, D. (2011). Enhancing performance bringing trust, commitment and motivation together in organizations. Journal of General Management, 36(3), 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, J. G., & Rempel, J. K. (1989). Trust in close relationships. In C. Hendrick (Ed.), close relationships (pp. 187–220). Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, B., Beck, P., & Kadushin, C. (1997). Women and men on the boards of major national American Jewish organizations. New York: The Center for Social Research and the Center for Jewish Studies, The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Houle, B. J., Sagarin, B. J., & Kaplan, M. F. (2005). A functional approach to volunteerism: Do volunteer motives predict task preference? Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27(4), 337–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, J., & Liden, R. C. (2011). Antecedents of team potency and team effectiveness: An examination of goal and process clarity and servant leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), 851–862.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irving, J. A., & Longbotham, G. J. (2007). Team effectiveness and six essential servant leadership themes: A regression model based on the items in the Organizational Leadership Assessment. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 2, 98–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacoub, L. (2014). How cognitive and affective trust in the leader is related to leads behaviors and effectiveness. Retrieved from http://essay.utwente.nl/65415/.

  • James, L. R., Demaree, R. G., & Wolf, G. (1984). Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(1), 85–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, E. E., & Winston, B. E. (2005). A correlation of servant leadership, leader trust and organizational trust. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 26(1), 6–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung, D. I., & Avolio, B. J. (2000). Opening the black box: An experimental investigation of the mediating effects of trust and value congruence on transformational and transactional leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21(8), 949–967.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahl, J., & Donelan, T. (2004). Leading from the heart: Choosing to be a servant leader. Westlake, OH: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Käser, P. A. W., & Miles, R. (2001). Knowledge activists: The cultivation of motivation and trust properties of knowledge sharing relationships. Academy of Management Proceedings, ODC, D1–D6

  • Kenny, D. A., Kashy, D. A., & Bolger, N. (1998). Data analysis in social psychology. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 233–265). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laub, J. A. (1999). Assessing the servant organization: Development of the servant Organizational leadership assessment (SOLA) instrument. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University, Florida.

  • Lewis, M. H. (2004). Models and meanings in the history of Jewish leadership. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, J. D., & Wigert, A. (1985). Trust as a social reality. Social Forces, 63(6), 976–985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Zhao, H., & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. Leadership Quarterly, 19(1), 161–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ling, Q., Liu, F., & Wu, X. (2016). Servant versus authentic leadership: Assessing effectiveness in China’s hospitality industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 58(1), 53–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ljungholm, D. P. (2016). Effective servant leadership behaviour in organizations. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, 15(1), 239–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luthans, F., & Avolio, B. (2003). Authentic leadership development. In K. S. Cameron & J. E. Dutton (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 241–255). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAllister, D. J. (1995). Affect and cognition-based trust as foundations for interpersonal cooperation in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 38(1), 24–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mowen, J. C., & Sujan, H. (2005). Volunteer behavior: A hierarchical model approach for investigating its trait and functional motive antecedents. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(2), 170–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, R. O. (1996). Basic principles of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, B., & Asparouhov, T. (2015). Causal effects in mediation modeling: An introduction with applications to latent variables. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 22(1), 12–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neubert, M. J., Kacmar, K. M., Carlson, D. S., Chonko, L. B., & Roberts, J. A. (2008). Regulatory focus as a mediator of the influence of initiating structure and servant leadership on employee behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(7), 1220–1233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ng, K. Y., Koh, C., & Goh, H. C. (2008). The heart of the servant leader. Leader’s motivation-to-serve and its impact on LMX and subordinates’ extra-role behavior. In G. B. Graen & J. A. Graen (Eds.), Knowledge driven corporation-complex creative destruction (pp. 125–144). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parris, D. L., & Peachey, J. (2013). A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(3), 377–393.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasisz, D. J., & Hurtz, G. M. (2009). Testing for between-group differences in within-group interrater agreement. Organizational Research Methods, 12(3), 590–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, K. A. (2003). Servant leadership: A theoretical model. Doctoral dissertation, Regent University. ATT no. 3082719.

  • Penner, L. A. (2002). Dispositional and organizational influences on sustained volunteerism: An interactionist perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 58(3), 447–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pomerance, R. (2014). Leaders of the tribe. Retrieved from http://www.jewishresearch.org/v2/2004/articles/prof_dev/10_11_04.htm.

  • Reinke, S. J. (2004). Service before self: Towards a theory of servant-leadership. Global Virtue Ethics Review, 3(1), 30–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieke, M., Hammermeister, J., & Chase, M. (2008). Servant leadership in sport: A new paradigm for effective coach behavior. International Journal of Sport Science and Coaching, 3(1), 227–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rokach, A., & Wanklyn, S. (2009). Motivation to volunteer: Hel** empower sick children. Psychology and Education: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 46(1), 7–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, R. F. (2001). The role of values in servant leadership. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 22(2), 76–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaubroeck, J., Lam, S. S. K., & Peng, A. C. (2011). Cognition-based and affect-based trust as mediators of leader behavior influences on team behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), 863–871.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shadish, W., & Sweeney, R. (1991). Mediators and moderators in meta-analysis: There’s a reason we don’t let dodo birds tell us which psychotherapies should have prizes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59(6), 883–893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, B. N., Montagno, R. V., & Kuzmenko, T. N. (2004). Transformational and servant leadership: Content and contextual comparisons. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 10(1), 80–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, A. G., Russell, R. F., & Patterson, K. (2003). Transformational versus servant leadership: A difference in leader focus. Paper presented at the Servant Leadership Roundtable at Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.

  • Tebeian, A. (2012). How to improve employee motivation and group performance through leadership-conceptual model. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series, 21(1), 1092–1097.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Dierendonck, D. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1228–1261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dierendonck, D., & Nuijten, I. (2011). The servant leadership survey: Development and validation of a multidimensional measure. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(1), 249–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walumbwa, F. O., Hartnell, C. A., & Oke, A. (2010). Servant leadership, procedural justice climate, service climate, employee attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior: A cross-level investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(3), 517–529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Washington, R. R., Sutton, C. D., & Field, H. S. (2006). Individual differences in servant leadership: the roles of values and personality. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 27(8), 700–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Washington, R. R., Sutton, C. D., & Sauser, J. I. (2014). How distinct is servant leadership theory? Empirical comparisons with competing theories. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 11(1), 11–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Widjaja, E. (2010). Motivation behind Volunteerism. CMC senior theses. Paper 4. Retrieved from http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/4.

  • Wong, P. T. P. (2003). An opponent-process model of servant leadership and a typology of leadership styles. Paper presented at the Servant Leadership Roundtable at Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, October 16, 2003.

  • Wong, P. T. P., & Davey, D. (2007). Best practices in servant leadership. Paper presented at the Servant Leadership Research Roundtable, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.

  • Wong, P. T. P., & Page, D. (2003). Servant leadership: An opponent-process model and the revised servant leadership profile. Paper presented at the Servant Leadership Roundtable at Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, on October 16, 2003.

  • Xu, L., Stewart, T., & Haber-Curran, P. (2015). Measurement invariance of Servant Leadership Questionnaire across K-12 principal gender. School Leadership and Management, 35(2), 202–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yair, M., & Noor, A. M. (2016). Ethics and morality: Comparing ethical leadership with servant, authentic and transformational leadership styles. International Review of Management and Marketing, 6(4S), 310–316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, J., & Mossholder, K. W. (2010). Examining the effects of trust in leaders: A bases-and-foci approach. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), 50–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in organizations (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhikun, D., & Fungfai, N. (2007). Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of McAllister’s trust scale. Construction Management and Economics, 25, 1107–1117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, W., Newman, A., Miao, Q., & Hooke, A. (2013). Revisiting the mediating role of trust in transformational leadership effects: Do different types of trust make a difference? The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 94–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This study was funded by the Zefat Academic College (Grant Number 234-76-1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lior Hameiri.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author declares that he has no conflict of interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hameiri, L. Executive-Level Volunteers in Jewish Communal Organizations: Their Trust in Executive Professionals as Mediating the Relationship Between Their Motivation to Volunteer and Their Pursuit of Servant Leadership. Voluntas 30, 193–207 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-9998-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-9998-6

Keywords

Navigation