Employee well-being, flow and performance: A diary study approach into the mediating role of servant leadership

Today´s workplace is constantly changing. Organizations are confronted with multiple challenges, brought by continuous change: globalization, new technologies, growing cultural differences, changes in employees’ and customers’ needs and values, and a constant demand for efficacy and efficiency. Against this background, leadership has been proposed as a key factor for the well-being, commitment and continued performance of both employees and companies (Luthans, 2002; van Dierendonck, 2011).  A way to study and deepen our understanding of the continued engagement in the day-to-day work is flow. Flow has been described as a state in which the person is immersed completely in a task; flow is experienced as a pleasant state that facilitates successful completion of such a task. The experience of flow is subject to the experienced work conditions and the leadership style of the direct supervisor. Servant leadership, with its specific focus on the needs of followers, may be of relevance here.

This presentation will focus on a diary study that we designed and applied. In this diary study, 126 workers fill out a general survey followed by keeping a diary. In this diary, they filled out three times a day for five consecutive workdays, questions on the servant leadership, flow and performance. The overall goal was to study the direct effect and the mediating role that the servant leadership has in the emergence of the states of flow and in levels of performance and well-being at the end of the workday.