A lack of work engagement (WE) among university lecturers is believed to be among the factors responsible for the poor quality of research output and students' performance in Nigeria, which underscores the need to investigate factors that can help improve lecturers' WE. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR), this study aims to examine how servant leadership (SL) can help improve lecturers' WE via the parallel and serial mediating effects of organizational identification (OI) and intention to stay, which, to date, have not been studied.
This study employed a positivist (quantitative) approach, using a survey research strategy. The data were collected using convenience sampling from 479 university lecturers in Nigeria. SPSS 25 and PLS-SEM v4.1.0.3 were used for data analysis.
The study finds that OI and intention to stay parallelly and serially mediated the relationship between SL and WE.
The originality of the present study lies in examining the parallel and serial mediating effects of OI and intention to stay on the relationship between SL and WE in a single model. This provides new insights into the underlying mechanisms linking SL and WE.
