An empirical study on the impact of servant leadership on organizational commitment and employee performance in the star category hotels

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Abstract

This research utilizes quantile mediation regression (QMR) to assess the consequences of servant leadership on organizational commitment and employee performance in the hospitality industry. Grounded in social exchange theory, we argue that servant leadership increases employee commitment and, in the process, performance improves. 330 frontline employees of two to five-star hotels were surveyed. We applied structural equation modeling (SEM) (Wang et al., 2024) and QMR (Nam et al., 2025) to analyze the performance distribution and the mediating effects. The outcome shows that servant leadership has a positive impact on organizational commitment and employee performance, with higher performance quantiles indicating stronger mediating effects. Commitment-construct mechanisms based on performance levels illustrate the need for a focus on leadership and adjustment. The study identifies tailored leadership approaches and adds to the literature on the need for varied commitment-construct mechanisms. The paper ends with a summary of limitations and opportunities for future research.

Keywords: Servant Leadership, Organizational Commitment, Employee Performance, Quantile Mediation Regression, Indirect Effects

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — S.C.; Methodology — S.C.; Software — S.C.; Validation — S.C.; Formal Analysis — S.C.; Investigation — S.C.; Resources — S.C.; Data Curation — S.C.; Writing — Original Draft — S.C.; Writing — Review & Editing — T.N.; Visualization — S.C.; Supervision — T.N.; Project Administration — S.C.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: C21, J24, L83, M12, M14

Received: 13.11.2025
Revised: 17.12.2025; 25.02.2026
Accepted: 04.03.2026
Published online: 06.03.2026

How to cite this paper: Chettri, S., & Nagpal, T. (2026). An empirical study on the impact of servant leadership on organizational commitment and employee performance in the star category hotels. Business Performance Review, 4(1), 92–107. https://doi.org/10.22495/bprv4i1p8