“Servant leadership and organizational performance: Mediating role of organizational culture”

Servant leadership positively influences the performance of organizations since it focuses on developing the most critical capital of organizations – human beings. The study aims to analyze the influence of servant leadership on organizational performance mediated by organizational culture focusing on administrative staff in Peru. It uses a quantitative approach and non-experimental design. The data were obtained transversally from 465 union members-administrative staff through a virtual survey with a 20-item Likert-type questionnaire, verifying the data for compliance with the underlying assumptions. For data processing, the SPSS AMOS program was chosen, subjecting the data to confirmatory factor analysis and using the structural equation model to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that, for administrative staff, organizational culture partially mediates the influence of servant leadership on organizational performance at 0.127. While servant leadership positively influences organizational performance ( β = 0.341, p < 0.01), it also positively influences organizational culture ( β = 0.492, p < 0.01). Furthermore, organizational culture positively influences organizational performance ( β = 0.262, p < 0.01). The study confirms the importance of servant leadership in the performance of organizations. Also, it provides evidence to affirm that organizational culture is fundamental in explaining this influence, thus filling the research gap.


INTRODUCTION
Society has been slowly emerging from a catastrophic phenomenon such as the COVID-19 pandemic (León et al., 2022).This phenomenon has affected all types of organizations, which have been making the necessary efforts to improve their performance (Dobni & Wilson, 2023).In this new scenario, organizations should change their central strategies to recover their performance levels (Lin, 2023).To do this, they must resort to factors such as human resources, whose work methods have been changed after the pandemic, making remote work more widespread, which implies new forms of management (Bouzakhem et al., 2023), and the incorporation and massification of technology, which imply new designs of organizational processes (Avecillas et al., 2023).Factors that imply changes in the culture of organizations to face new challenges are also widely discussed (Oleksa-Marewska & Tokar, 2022).
In these scenarios, it is crucial to appeal to leadership, which is responsible for designing the organizational vision, aligning organizational objectives, and motivating employees to achieve better performance (Holten et al., 2020).Servant leadership advocates that the leader, before being a leader, must be a servant: he must serve his colleagues so that they then choose him as their leader (Greenleaf, 1977).This leadership style stands out from the others since it allows people to first achieve high levels of commitment to the organization due to the treatment they are given and then give their all, which leads to achieving better employee performance (Hashim et al., 2019;Hutabarat et al., 2021;Khan et al., 2022;Peng & Chen, 2021).Various researchers have suggested continuing to investigate the relationships of servant leadership with different variables to build a model that clearly explains this connection (Eva et al., 2018(Eva et al., , 2019;;Hai & Van, 2021;Mcquade et al., 2021).Research associates it with various variables: antecedents, consequents, mediators, and moderators (Hartnell et al., 2020;Kimakwa et al., 2023; Langhof & Güldenberg, 2020; J. D. Politis & D. J. Politis, 2018).However, there are very few studies that address organizational culture in the role of mediator of the relationship of servant leadership and organizational performance.Such an analysis becomes significant because organizations have cultures, generally quite consolidated, which in many cases have established leadership, and implementing new leadership will be difficult to achieve, which prevents further progress in increasing the performance of the organization (Virgiawan et al., 2021).

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES
Servant leadership is being studied a lot; this style provides a solution to the crisis of leadership practiced worldwide, which has become very complex, challenging, and multifaceted (Gandolfi & Stone, 2016).This style states that a servant becomes a leader, just as from being a leader, he becomes a servant.However, in practice, it seems complicated to accept this (Russell & Stone, 2002).This leadership usually shares power, adequately establishes the needs of others, translates into common values, gives support to people for mutual growth, and thus manages to enhance the commitment that ultimately leads to achieving personal and organizational objectives (Hai & Van, 2021).The final objective of research on this topic is focused on explaining how the performance of the organization can be improved, shaped, and maintained in order to increase its profitability and sustainability in the long term (Singh et al., 2016).Among the definitions, there is the one proposed by Kaplan and Norton (1992), who consider that, to measure organizational performance, financial and non-financial indicators are needed that allow evaluating the degree of achievement of proposed goals and objectives.It has also been defined in terms of the well-being of stakeholders (Dyer & Reeves, 1995).
Organizational culture is a construct that does not have consensus in its definition.It is rooted in values and fundamental beliefs and is durable in the organization (Chatman & O'Reilly, 2016).These values, beliefs, and methods are learned through experience, which the organization has developed in its life history.They are evident when management per se is carried out and in the behavior of its members (Sapta et al., 2021).It is the link that brings everything together through patterns that are shared and have meaning, as well as dual knowledge of work practices in the organiza-tion and a set of symbols, as well as shared myths (Ouchi, 1981).It is focused on the organization as a whole and not on particularities; it includes norms of collaboration, openness, and innovation; therefore, it may be vital for some dimensions and weak for others (Schein, 1992).
Undoubtedly, servant leadership is positively related to organizational performance since it influences the trust of the organization's followers (Bobbio et  Leaders design the vision of the organization and contribute to the construction or modification of the organizational culture, guiding the fulfillment of the mission and the achievement of goals and objectives (Holten et al., 2020).They must transmit confidence and enthusiasm to employees to maintain or develop the company's organizational culture, which will become the driving force of the organization (Sugiartha et al., 2021).Effective leaders must understand the organizational mission to achieve success or change the culture to support the proposed vision.Although it is difficult and takes time, it is often necessary to achieve what they propose (Farrell, 2018).Leaders are the ones who build the culture, which becomes essential for achieving goals, in addition to how the organization is desired to be in the future (Mierke & Williamson, 2017).It has been found that, in craft clients, through structural equation modeling, servant leadership was significantly correlated with organizational culture (Setyaningrum, 2017).Likewise, servant leadership is positively associated with organizational culture of employees in large companies (Muhtasom et al., 2017).
Organizational culture is fundamental in the management of any organization because it is what shapes the actions of workers.Therefore, it has a direct relationship with organizational performance (Tarba et al., 2019).The literature maintains that different cultures have diverse effects on organizational performance (Zeb et al., 2021).The culture of adhocracy, hierarchy, and clans had a positive relationship with low-performance levels (Deshpandé et al., 1993).In comparison, marketoriented cultures are associated with higher levels of performance.In the university context, organizational culture significantly impacts performance (Abdullahi et al., 2021).On the other hand, culture is significantly related to the performance of organizations (Alghamdi, 2018).In comparative studies, clan and adhocracy are the qualities that can best be applied to achieve effectiveness in Russian companies, while market culture prevails in the American context (Fey & Denison, 2003).
Various studies have considered that the organizational culture could mediate the relationship between leadership and performance (Kaur Bagga et al., 2023; Ur Rehman et al., 2019; Alabdullah & AL-Qallaf, 2023).People learn to behave by observing or imitating the behaviors of leaders; that is, they show higher levels of performance by imitating the leader's performance (Bandura, 1971).
Employees follow the values leaders develop to achieve better performances, for which culture is essential (Abrell-Vogel & Rowold, 2014).Empirical evidence has also been found that organizational culture plays a mediating role by associating leadership and organizational performance, achieving favorable results (Zehir et al., 2011).
The literature is abundant in the study of variables and their relationships; however, no serious studies have been found about the me d iating role of culture for the association between servant leadership and organizational performance.However, it is essential to address this issue because servant leadership is a style that is being imposed in new work and organizational scenarios and that, in many cases, influences the modification of the culture within organizations that must adapt to the new normal to continue achieving better performance.
Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of servant leadership on organizational performance mediated by organizational culture sampling administrative s taff in Peru.Based on the literature review, r e search hypotheses and a theoretical model have been proposed and are presented in Figure 1: H1: Servant leadership is positively associated with organizational performance of administrative staff.
H2: Servant leadership is positively associated with organizational culture of administrative staff.
H3: Organizational culture is positively associated with organizational performance of administrative staff.
H4: Organizational culture plays a mediating role between servant leadership and organizational performance as perceived by administrative staff.

METHOD
The research has been conducted under the quantitative research approach.Hypotheses were tested through the data obtained via the survey technique using an item questionnaire with a Likert-type scale spread among Peruvian administrative staff.

Respondents and data collection
The data were collected after the approval of the union of administrative staff of Peru.The scales were adapted from published open-access instruments, which were translated into Spanish and then into English by two professional translators of the English language and Spanish speakers; they were also validated by five university professors and researchers in the administration field.The comments made by the validators were taken into account to improve the instruments and guarantee their adequate understanding by the research participants.The surveys were administered in Spanish, using the online survey through Google Forms.The data were collected in two rounds, separated by one month each.For this purpose, convenience sampling was used.The emails were provided by the institution's administrators, letting them know that the survey was for research purposes only and that there was no obligation to respond, so their participation was completely voluntary.The data were handled with total discretion, confidentiality, and anonymity.The participants were all professionals affiliated with the professional association and worked in different organizations, whether public, private, or social.The surveys were carried out in the second half of 2022.The pilot test was carried out in one of the 24 regional professional associations, which has more than 800 members.Bourque and Fielder (2003) suggest that adapted questionnaires must be subjected to pilot tests in order to measure their reliability and viability of the application of said instruments prior to applying the final survey.A total of 75 completed questionnaires were obtained in the pilot survey.
The survey containing the three main constructs was given to the participants.

Data review
After having obtained the data, a selection was carried out in order to guarantee that they were accurate in terms of what was expected to be measured and that they met all the necessary underlying statistics.First, the analysis of missing values was performed.For this, the Little Missing Completely at Random (MCAR) test was used, which indicated that there were no missing data.The normality, linearity, homoscedasticity, and multicollinearity tests showed no issues.
First, the results related to the asymmetry and kurtosis of the items were between the values -1 and +1; these values indicate that the data do not have important normality problems.Second, in the case of linearity, variables that were previously tested to be normally distributed showed plots with elliptical or oval scatter, demonstrating nonlinearity.Third, it has been found that the distributions of standardized type residuals in the scatter diagrams all formed approximately rectangular patterns, which demonstrates that there is homoscedasticity in the data collected.Finally, 3.903 was obtained as the highest value of variance inflation factors (VIF), which is below 10, which is the highest accepted threshold, thus demonstrating no multicollinearity of the independent variables.

Data analysis
The posed hypotheses using the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator.Due to the mediation effect test, the paper used a bootstrap of 2000 replacements.

Calculation of reliability and biases
Table 1 shows the level of reliability for the measured constructs.Cronbach's alpha values were calculated above 0.90; this indicates excellent values for all the questionnaires applied.The single-factor tes t , proposed by Harman, was used in order to identif y biases in common methods.Likewise, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out, restricted to 1 extracted factor.A variance of less than 50% was obtained in that single factor; it follows that, although there may be common method bias in the processed data, it does not mean a significant problem.Note: SL = Servant leadership.OC = Organizational culture.OP = Organizational performance.

Descriptive statistics
Table 2 shows the mean and standard deviation for the control and latent variables.Adequate values for these measures are evident in all variables.
Table 3 shows the composite reliability (CR) of each latent variable; the values are greater than 0.7, ranging between 0.903 and 0.909, indicating a very high composite reliability.Convergent validity was measured using the average variance extracted (AVE), obtaining values greater than 0.5; the minimum was 0.514 and the highest was 0.667, demonstrating adequate indicators for convergent validity.It was also possible to determine that the values along the main diagonal of the three latent variables are above the rest of the values off the diagonal.This indicates that the v ariables represent a greater proportion than the items of each variable.There is discriminant validity considered strong, demonstrating that the mo del has discriminant and convergent validity within the accepted parameters.Note: (a) The diagonal results the results of the square roots of the average variance extracted (AVE); these are greater than the other elements that are off the diagonal.(b) The AVE results are above 0.5 and the CR are above 0.7.**<0.05.

Structural model
Four models were compared: a model with three factors, two models with two factors each, and a single-factor model (see Table 4 and Figure 2).The three-factor model was made up of servant leadership, organizational culture, and organizational performance, which has quite acceptable results: χ2 = 188.472,df = 111, p < 0.01; RMSEA = 0.039, SRMR = 0.024; CFI = 0.984, TLI = 0.981, considered adequate for model adjustment (Hair et al., 2014).In the two-factor models, servant leadership was combined with organizational culture as a single factor and organizational performance as another factor.In contrast, servant leadership as a single factor was related to culture and performance both at the level as another factor.In the single-factor model, the three variables studied were combined.The two-factor models and the one-factor model show important but lower results than the three-factor model.
The structural model allows testing of the proposed hypotheses, demonstrating significance for H1, H2, and H3.The values obtained in the trajectories confirm that servant leadership is associated with organizational culture.Likewise, servant leadership is positively and significantly associated with organizational performance.Furthermore, organizational culture is positively associated with organizational performance.The standardized effects found for servant leadership indicate that they influence the organizational culture at a value of β = 0.492, SE = 0.072, p < 0.01.In the case of servant leadership, an influence was found on organizational performance with β = 0.341, SE = 0.088, p < 0.01; organizational culture influences organizational performance at β = 0.262, SE = 0.057, p < 0.01, as seen in Figure 2.

Mediating role of organizational culture
The total effects, direct and indirect, were determined using the bootstrap method.Table 5 shows the results.A direct effect of servant leadership on organizational performance was found, which    was significant, and the indirect effect of servant leadership on organizational performance via organizational culture was significant.This implies that servant leadership influences organizational culture and organizational performance.Thus, the study demonstrates a partial mediation of organizational culture between servant leadership and organizational performance.In this way, H4 is verified.

DISCUSSION
From the results obtained, the great importance of servant leadership in achieving better organizational performance in the private, public, or social sectors continues to be corroborated.Therefore, strategies must be implemented that allow this leadership style to be incorporated into organizations.This will lead to more humanizing management since this style focuses on people as human beings and enhances their different abilities.From the literature review, few studies were carried out on the mediation of organizational culture for servant leadership and organizational performance.The results have found that mediation is partial and significant, showing that culture plays an important role, not only with other leadership styles but also with servant leadership, which is oriented toward the empowerment of the human being rather than achievements.Therefore, with people with high potential and commitment, greater advantages can be achieved for organizations.
The obtained results confirm the validity of the theory of social learning, where followers learn from leaders and then model their actions according to how they are guided, achieving greater personal and organizational performance.Servant leadership is a style that promotes learning more effectively since the leader becomes a guide at the service of his followers, who first serves and is then elected as a leader.In addition, the theory of servant leadership advocates that servant leaders are experts in teaching their followers, providing them with empowerment and security, strengthening authenticity, improving responsibility, and increasing commitment and a culture of service within the organization.
The results contribute to an understudied field, such as the mediating role of organizational culture, when servant leadership and organizational performance are associated, thus demonstrating that organizational culture becomes essential to obtain better results whether at the business, government or social entity level.In this way, this study contributes to the literature on the relation-ships of servant leadership with other variables, antecedents, consequents, mediators, or moderators, responding to the calls of various researchers (Eva et al., 2019;Liden et al., 2014).
The study found a positive relationship between the variables studied.The main relationships corroborate what was found by previous research, demonstrating that servant leadership has great potential, both for adaptation or change in culture and for improving organizational performance.Thus, organizations must implement, as part of their strategic management, this leadership style, which is aimed at the development of the person as a human being rather than as a resource, which will bring great benefits to organizations.Likewise, organizational culture should not be neglected in these leadership change processes since it is a fundamental lever for its consolidation.
The surveys were applied to administrative staff on a single occasion, who are members of a professional association, who work in different organizations, in management and middle management, so they have extensive knowledge of the organization and their perceptions can be clear regarding the variables studied.The results establish that servant leadership is a style that can provide better results for organizations and, therefore, benefits external and internal clients and other interested parties.Therefore, it is expected that if organizations implement servant leadership, they will improve their organizational culture and organizational performance.The results will allow organizational decision-makers to implement policies and actions aimed at improving leadership, which will motivate all employees to improve their commitment to the organization, increase their empowerment, and turn their efforts to achieve the organization's objectives.
The research has several limitations.The first is that it has been carried out with data collected cross-sectionally.Although no significant differences have been found in the different age groups, it has been possible to show, for example, differences in the perceptions of men and women in relation to the style of studied leadership.In this way, it is suggested to conduct more in-depth research based on gender.It is also necessary to conduct a longitudinal study that helps clarify the behavior of relationships over a long time, which would undoubtedly lead to a generalization of the results.The second limitation was that the model was tested with the perceptions of administrative staff, who are generally in management positions.In this sense, investigations must be implemented that include other workers.To do this, items that measure their perceptions must be increased.
As the third limitation, the data obtained are self-perception.Therefore, knowledge of the constructs could be improved with more in-depth research strategies such as interviews or focus groups.As the fourth limitation, the respondents were professionals working in different organizations, so there may be certain levels of common method bias in the responses.To this end, it was planned to reduce this limitation by randomly placing the items in the questionnaire preparation.Furthermore, the survey has been maintained with the corresponding anonymity to reduce biases related to social desirability.At the same time, participation in responding to the questionnaire was voluntary, thus guaranteeing biases related to non-response.Even so, there may be bias because the technique was the survey, and the results should be used with some caution.Finally, "I do not know the answer" had not been included as an alternative within the item alternatives, which could have caused the surveys to not be completed.

CONCLUSION
The study analyzes the influence of servant leadership on organizational performance mediated by organizational culture targeting administrative staff in Peru.The results demonstrate that servant leadership influences the performance of organizations.This is essential, especially in post-pandemic scenarios, dominated by information and communication technologies and by more independent, more trained workers, competent in their work and, in many cases, who do not hold on to a job or submit to strict schedules.
It has also been found that leadership significantly influences organizational culture, demonstrating its great importance for strengthening or changing culture.Likewise, it is vitally important to point out that organizational culture positively influences performance.It is worth highlighting the mediation of organizational culture in the relationship between servant leadership and organizational performance, demonstrating the great importance that culture has in implementing this leadership style to achieve better organizational performance in various sectors.

Table 1 .
Reliability results

Table 2 .
Descriptive statistics of control and latent variables

Table 3 .
Validity and reliability of the model

Table 4 .
Main model fit indicators

Table 5 .
Mediation of organizational culture through the bootstrap method Note: SL = Servant leadership.OP = Organizational performance.OC = Organizational culture.BCa = bias-corrected and accelerated.CI = Confidence level.