The impact of perceived servant leadership traits and safety climate on task performance and risk-taking behavior in times of crisis

Purpose The adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have opened the door to investigations of the leadership practices needed to guarantee positive work-related outcomes among employees in organizations. Therefore, building on the norm of reciprocity, this research aims to propose a model to examine servant leadership’s role in stimulating task performance and risk-taking behaviors during crisis times. In this model, safety climate was hypothesized to serve as a mediating variable between servant leadership, task performance and risk-taking behavior. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 237 staff (medial and administrative staff) working in Palestinian hospitals. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Common method bias remedies were presented. Findings This study demonstrates that servant leadership is effective in fostering task performance and risk-taking behaviors in times of crisis through the mediation of safety climate. According to the results, safety climate demonstrated to fully mediate relationship between servant leadership and task performance (ß = 0.225, p-value = 0.000), and the relationship between servant leadership and risk-taking behavior (ß = 0.248, p-value = 0.000). Moreover, the results demonstrated that employees with higher experience tend to be more willing to engage in risk-taking behavior. Practical implications The findings may be useful for hospital managers on the role servant leadership can play in generating positive work-related outcomes during crisis times. Originality/value The paper is among the few empirical endeavors which examine the consequences of servant leadership in times of crisis, taking into account the intervening role of safety climate.