CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION
5.2 Theoretical Contributions and Management Implications
5.2.2 Management Implications
(1) Reforming the management mechanism of leaders, selecting, using, cultivating and retaining servant leaders. According to the social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), employees imitate and learn leadership behaviors. Therefore, different leadership behaviors will influence and shape different employee behavioral performance. At present, the party and the government propose to build a service- oriented government that the people are satisfied with. The achievement of this goal depends on the high level of public sector employee service performance. The study has proved that servant leadership has a significant predictive effect on employee
service performance. Therefore, it is necessary to reform the management mechanism of public sector leaders to select, use, cultivate, and retain servant leaders. The first is to reform the selection mechanism of leaders and select servant leaders to public service management positions. The premise of scientific selection is accurate identification.
The servant leadership scale adopted in this study has been proven to be of high reliability and validity, which can be used as a reference standard for the public sector to identify and select servant leadership. The second is to reform the assessment mechanism of leaders and add the requirements of servant leaders into the assessment criteria. The third is to reform the training mechanism of leaders. China's civil service system clearly stipulates the training system for leaders. The leaders to be promoted should be trained for no less than 3 months. Party committees at all levels, their organizational departments and training institutions, may include relevant requirements for servant leaders in the training programs and courses. The fourth is to improve the export mechanisms of leaders, clear out the leaders that do not meet the requirements of servant leadership through the exchange system, resignation system, dismissal system, and other mechanisms, and ensure that qualified servant leaders stay in the public service leadership posts.
(2) Helping employees learn and grow, and then improve their public service self-efficacy. Employee ability is a direct predictor of employee behavior and performance. This study has confirmed that public service self-efficacy of public sector employees significantly predicts employee service performance and plays a mediating role between servant leadership and employee service performance. Therefore, firstly, public sector leaders should transform into servant leaders and create conditions to improve employees' public service self-efficacy. Specifically, it can start from the four sources of self-efficacy summarized by Albert Bandura (1997). First, starting from the enactive mastery experience of employees. Through improving employees’ abilities, empowering employees, encouraging employees to devote themselves to the practice of public service, servant leadership enables them to gain self-efficacy from successful practice. Second, starting from vicarious experience. Servant leaders in the public sector regard themselves and excellent employees as models to employees, and their successful experiences can also improve employees' public service self-efficacy. Third, starting from word persuasion. Servant leadership can educate employees to believe
that they should and can provide better public services through public service value education. Fourth, starting from physiological and affective states. Servant leaders exert moderate pressure on employees and soothe their emotions, so that employees are always in the best activation level, which is conducive to improving employees' public service self-efficacy. Secondly, public sector leaders should reform the human resource management system, improve the employee metabolism mechanism, select the employees with high public service self-efficacy, and transfer the employees with low public service self-efficacy.
(3) Strengthening employee education and guidance, arousing their public service motivation. This study verified that public service motivation positively affects employee service performance and plays a mediating role between servant leadership and employee service performance. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the education and guidance of employees and arouse their public service motivation. Firstly, public sector leaders should actively transform themselves into servant leaders to enhance employees' public service motivation. According to the social learning theory, only when there are positive behavioral incentives, employees will quickly transform the observed learning into action. These incentive conditions include direct incentives, alternative incentives and self-generated incentives (Bandura, 1977). First, leaders of public sectors should empower employees to match their posts and provide necessary help and support for employees' public service activities. It will help employees to successfully complete public service work, obtain the joy of success and generate the motivation to continue to engage in public service. Second, servant leaders should improve the reward system, and commend and reward people and things that perform well in public service as models, so that employees will be motivated by "I want it too".
Third, servant leaders provide emotional inspiration and value education of public service to employees through "teaching by example and teaching by words", so that employees can identify with and accept public service emotionally and value it, thus awakening their public service motivation from the bottom of their hearts. Secondly, reform the human resource management in the public sector to select, use, educate and retain employees with high public service motivation. With regard to job analysis, public sectors should conduct scientific job analysis of public service posts, draw up detailed job descriptions, and clarify the requirements and conditions of public service
motivation. In the link of personnel recruitment and assessment, public sectors should reflect the requirements of public service motivation in the examination content and assessment index system. With regard to personnel training, the public sectors should scientifically set up the content, methods and mentors of the course, in order to enhance the employees’ public service motivation. With regard to rewards and punishments, public sectors should set scientific rewards for those with high public service motivation. With regard to personnel turnover, public sectors should reasonably use the means such as exchange, dismissal and employment, so that employees with high public service motivation stay in public service posts, while employees with low public service motivation go out by appropriate means.
(4) Attaching importance to the development and construction of the organization and shaping the service climate that permeates the organization. This study verified that organizational service climate can predict employee service performance and can mediate the positive effect of servant leadership on employee service performance. Therefore, it is necessary to attach importance to the development and construction of the organization and shape the public service climate pervading the organization. Firstly, public sector leaders should transform themselves into servant leaders. They should demand themselves and employees with high moral principles, set an example to help others and give back to the society, and guide employees to participate in social public services. They also should serve employees, listen to them, communicate with them, and provide necessary policy support, technical assistance and humanistic care for their public service work. Secondly, public sector leaders should reform the public sectors and create an environment and mechanism conducive to organizational service climate. At the spiritual and cultural level, they should shape the organizational core values of serving the public and employees. At the organizational process level, they should improve the service-oriented organizational support system.
Gradually they should realize the promotion of service value, the training of service culture, the setting of service standards, and the control of service quality, and finally form realistic mechanism and strong climate of organization supporting service.
(5) Abandoning gender and educational bias and reforming bureaucracy and staffing systems. This study found that gender and education level have no significant effect on employee service performance. Therefore, the public sector should focus on
employees’ public service self-efficacy, public service motivation and organizational service climate, insist on equality between men and women and abandon the theory of only learning. This study also found that employee service performance in community autonomous organizations was significantly higher than that of employees in government agencies, the employee service performance of those with non-budget post was significantly higher than that of those with budget post, and the employee service performance of non-CPC members was significantly higher than that of CPC members.
Since there is a strong correlation between these three factors, the above conclusion can be simplified as follows: the employee service performance in autonomous organizations is higher than that of bureaucratic organizations, and the employee service performance of those with non-budget post is higher than that of those with budget post. Therefore, it is necessary to reform the bureaucratic organization and personnel post system, break the high stability of the bureaucratic organization and the permanent tenure system of the employees. It is also important to reform the personnel assessment system, include employee service performance and public evaluation into the assessment mechanism, and link the assessment results with rewards and punishments.