Servant Leadership on Team Effectiveness in Agile Software Companies
Mediating Role of Intellectual Stimulation and Perceived Supervisor Support
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22006944 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Asjad Shahzad (0000-0002-3157-2672, National University of Sciences and Technology), Afshan Naseem (0000-0002-4766-8070, National University of Sciences and Technology), Maqsood Sandhu (0000-0003-1994-7192, United Arab Emirates University, corresponding author), Junaid Maqsood (0000-0001-9327-8201, National University of Sciences and Technology) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | SAGE Open (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2158-2440 • E-ISSN: 2158-2440 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/21582440251403523 |
| OpenAlex | W7118863849 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 87 |
This research investigates how servant leadership influences team effectiveness within agile software companies. Additionally, it examines the mediating roles of intellectual stimulation and perceived supervisor support in this relationship. The study adopts a survey approach, with 327 IT professionals from various cities across Pakistan. The questionnaire achieved a response rate of 45%. Data analysis was conducted using regression and mediation analysis methods with IBM SPSS. The results revealed that servant leadership had a significant positive impact on team effectiveness in agile software companies. Intellectual stimulation mediated this relationship, showing that leaders who encourage creativity and critical thinking improve team outcomes. Perceived supervisor support further enhanced the positive effects of servant leadership on team effectiveness, highlighting the role of supervisors’ emotional and professional support in fostering a productive team environment. This research sheds light on the understudied domain of servant leadership in IT, offering insights for academic and practical leadership development. It pioneers a comprehensive analysis of servant leadership, intellectual stimulation, perceived supervisor support, and team effectiveness in agile software companies. Theoretically, the study advances our knowledge regarding how supervisor support and intellectual stimulation help connect servant leadership with better team performance, especially in agile settings. Practically, the findings guide IT companies to improve team outcomes by encouraging leaders to be ethical, supportive, and open to new ideas
Agile software development · Creativity · Intellectual capital · Mediation · Servant leadership · Shared leadership · Supervisor · Team effectiveness · Human Resource and Talent Management · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
Leadership and Procedural Justice Climate as Antecedents of Unit‐level Organizational Citizenship Behavior
A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents and Consequences of Leader-Member Exchange
Do Data Characteristics Change According to the Number of Scale Points Used? An Experiment Using 5-Point, 7-Point and 10-Point Scales
Affective commitment to the organization
Employee Learning Orientation, Transformational Leadership, and Employee Creativity
The Servant Leadership Survey
Leadership and Job Demands-Resources Theory
Reciprocation of perceived organizational support.
When supervisors feel supported
A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling
Job demands–resources theory
Common Method Bias in PLS-SEM
Perceived organizational support
Comparison of Convenience Sampling and Purposive Sampling
Modeling Character
Team‐level servant leadership and team performance
Impact of Servant Leadership on Project Success Through Mediating Role of Team Motivation and Effectiveness
How transformational leadership influences employee voice behavior
The Effects of LMX Differentiation on Team Performance
Partial, conditional, and moderated moderated mediation
Survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research
Pioneers as Peers
Impact of Servant Leadership on Performance
Transformational Leadership and Job Performance
The Role of Co-worker and Supervisor Support in the Relationship Between Job Autonomy and Work Engagement Among Portuguese Nurses
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |