Strategy for Creating Empathetic Organization Culture through Servant Leadership : A Case of Prudential Myanmar
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/abacodijournal.2023.21Abstract
The global pandemic and political situation in Myanmar put leaders in the organizations to keep well-being of the employees as their priority. Prudential Myanmar encourages their leaders to be more empathetic with the employees being as servant leaders and provides necessary support to the employees throughout these years in challenging situations. Creating an empathetic organization culture is critical for the organization to become an employer of choice so organizations need to know what kind of strategy to be used to build the culture. The research was conducted to develop the strategy to create empathetic organization culture through servant leadership by using SOAR analysis and Appreciative Inquire framework to discover the strengths of the leaders and organizations and to explore the shared aspirations of employees. In this study, qualitative methods were applied, and data were gathered via structured interviews. Twenty informants from different level positions who are more than one year with Prudential Myanmar were selected to participate in the research. Data from interviews were analyzed by using content analysis with three coders consisting of the researcher, another coder from outside of the organization and one from the informants. The components of strengths include perceived organization support, perceived supervisory support, and rewards. The aspirations include future of organization, employees’ contributions, success of organization and difference between now and future. Finally, the strategy for creating an empathetic organization culture through servant leadership is formulated based on the strengths and aspirations of employees. There are common elements that informants from Prudential Myanmar would like organization to implement under organization support, supervisory support, and rewards while servant leadership serves as a foundation of the strategy to create an empathetic organization culture at Prudential Myanmar.
References
Autry, J.A. (2007). The Servant Leader: How to build a creative team, develop great morale,
and improve bottom-line performance. Crown Publishing Group.
Aselage, J. (2003). Perceived organizational support and psychological contracts: A theoretical
integration. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24 (5), 491-509.
Bock, G.-W. and Kim, Y.-G. (2002). Breaking the myths of rewards: An exploratory study of
attitudes about knowledge sharing. Information Resources Magement Journal, 15 (2),
-21.
Carson, K.D., Baker, D.S. and Lanier, P.A. (2014). The role of individual cultural traits
and proactivity in an organizational setting. Management Research Review, 37 (4), 348-366.
Chon, K.K.S. and Zoltan, J. (2019). Role of servant leadership in contemporary hospitality.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 1(8), 3371-3394.
Choi, S.Y., Kang, Y.S. and Lee, H. (2008). The effects of socio-technical enablers on
knowledge sharing: An exploratory examination. Journal of Information Science, 34 (5), 742-754.
Cooper, C.L., Liu, Y. and Tarba, S.Y. (2014). Resilience, HRM practices and impact on
organizational performance and employee well-being. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25 (17), 2466-2471.
Cropanzano, R. (1997). Progress in organizational justice: tunneling through the maze.
in Cooper, C.L. and Robertson, I.T. (Eds), International Review of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, Wil, Oxford, England, 12, 317 -372.
Cissell, M.J. (1987). Designing effective reward system. Compensation Benefits Review. 19 (6), 49-63.
Donnelly, R. (2018). Aligning knowledge sharing interventions with the promotion of firm
success: The need for SHRM to balance tensions and challenges. Journal of Business
Research, 94, 344-352.
Eisenberger, R.H. (1986). Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology,
(3), 500-507.
Ehrhart, M.G (2004). Leadership and procedural justice climate as antecedents of unit-level
organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel Psychology, 57, 61-94.
Faldetta, G. (2016). Organizational caring and organizational justice: Some implications for
the employment relationship. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 24 (1), 64-
Gregory, B.T., Harris, S.G., Armenakis, A.A. and Shook, C.L. (2009). Organizational culture
and effectiveness: A study of values, attitudes, and organizational outcomes. Journal of Business Research, 62 (7), 673-679.
George, J.R. (1993). Contact with AIDS patients as a source of work-related distress: Effects
of organizational and social support. Academy of Management Journal, 36 (1), 157-171.
Giles, D. and Yates, R. (2014). Enabling educational leaders: Qualitatively surveying an
organization’s culture. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 22 (1), 94-106.
Haar, J.M., Sune, A., Russo, M. and Ollier-Malaterre, A. (2019). A cross-national study on
the antecedents of work–life balance from the fit and balance perspective. Social Indicators Research, 142 (1), 261-282.
Hammer, L.B., Kossek, E.E., Anger, W.K., Bodner, T. and Zimmerman, K.L. (2011).
Clarifying work–family intervention processes: the roles of work–family conflict and family-supportive supervisor behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96 (1), 134-150.
Halbesleben, J.R. and Wheeler, A.R. (2015). To invest or not? The role of co-worker support
and trust in daily reciprocal gain spirals of helping behavior. Journal of Management, 41(6),1628-1650.
Hau, Y.S., Kim, B., Lee, H. and Kim, Y.G. (2013). The effects of individual motivations and
social capital on employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions. International Journal of Information Management, 33 (2), 356-366.
Holt, S. and Marques, J. (2012). Empathy in leadership: appropriate or misplaced? An
empirical study on a topic that is asking for attention. Journal of Business Ethics, 105 (1), 95-105.
Hong, S., Ai, M., Xu, X., Wang, W., Chen, J., Zhang, Q., Wang, L. and Kuang, L. (2021).
Immediate psychological impact on nurses working at 42 government-designated hospitals during COVID-19 outbreak in China: a cross-sectional study. Nursing Outlook, 69 (1), 6-12.
Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B. Ohayv, D.D. and Sanders, G. (1990). Measuring organizational
cultures: A qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(2), 286-316.
Hu. J. and Liden, R.C (2011). Antecedents of team potency and team effectiveness: an
examination of goal and process clarity and servant leadership. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 96 (4), 851 -862.
Hung, S.-Y., Durcikova, A., Lai, H.-M. and Lin, W.-M. (2011). The influence of intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation on individuals’ knowledge sharing behavior. International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 69 (6), 415-427.
Jusoh, Z., Zubairi, A. M., & BAdrasawi, K. J. I. (2018). Validity evidence using expert judgement: A study of using item congruence involving expert judgement for evidence for validity of a reading test. AI-Shajarah: Journal of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), 307- 320.
Keith, K.M. (2015). The case for servant leadership. Greenleaf Center.
Kottke, J. & Sharafinski, C.E. (1988). Measuring perceived supervisory and organizational
support. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 48 (4), 1075-1079.
Kossek E, Pichler S, Bodner T, Hammer L (2011). Workplace social support and work–family conflict: A meta-analysis clarifying the influence of general and work–family specific supervisor and organizational support. Personnel Psychology. 289–313.
Lambert, S.J. (2000). Added benefits: the link between work-life benefits and organizational
citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 43 (5), 801-815.
Lapointe, E. and Vandenberghe, C. (2018). Examination of the relationships between servant
leadership, organizational commitment, and voice and antisocial behaviors. Journal of
Business Ethics, 148(1), 99-115.
Liden, R.C, Wayne, S.J., Liao, Ch. And Meuser, J.D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving
culture. Academy of Management Journal, 57 (5), 1434 – 1452.
Mayer, D.M(2010). Servant leadership and follower need satisfaction: Where do we go from
here?. in Dierendonck, D.V. and Patterson, K. (Eds), Servant Leadership Development in Theory and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire, 147-154.
Malek, S.L., Sarin, S. and Haon, C. (2020). Extrinsic rewards, intrinsic motivation, and new
product development performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 37 (6), 528-551.
Mansour, S. and Tremblay, D.G. (2016). Workload, generic and work–family specific social
supports and job stress. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28 (8), 1778-1804.
Nguyen, M., Malik, A. and Sharma, P. (2021). How to motivate employees to engage in online
knowledge sharing? Differences between posters and lurkers. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 25 (7), 1811-1831.
Pavlovich, K. and Krahnke, K. (2012). Empathy, connectedness, and organization. Journal of
Business Ethics, 105 (1), 131-137.
Rhoades, L. and Eisenberger, R. (2002). Perceived organisational support: A review of the
literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87 (4), 698.
Russo, M., Shteigman, A. and Carmeli, A. (2016). Workplace and family support and work–
life balance: Implications for individual psychological availability and energy at work. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11 (2), 173-188,
Rumpel, S. and Medcof, J.W. (2006). Total rewards: A good fit for tech workers. Industrial
Research Institute Inc, 49 (5), 27-35.
Shanock, L.R. and Eisenberger, R. (2006). When supervisors feel supported: Relationships
with subordinates' perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and
performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91 (3), 689.
Talukder, A.K.M., Vickers, M. and Khan, A. (2018). Supervisor support and work-life
balance: Impacts on job performance in the Australian financial sector. Personnel
Review, 47 (3), 727-744.
Thanetsunthorn, N. and Wuthisatian, R. (2018). Cultural configuration models: corporate
social responsibility and national culture. Management Research Review, 41 (10), 1137-1175.
van Dierendonck, D. (20111). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of
Management, 37 (4), 11228-1261.
Yasir, M., Majid, A. and Khan, N. (2019). Boundary integration, work/family enrichment and
life satisfaction among female nursing staff. Management Research Review, 42 (6), 740-759.
Yan, Z., Wang, T., Chen, Y. and Zhang, H. (2016). Knowledge sharing in online health
communities: A social exchange theory perspective. Information & Management, 53 (5),643-653.
Watkins, M. (2013). What is organizational culture? And why should we care. Harvard
Business Review, 5 (10), 20-26.
WorldatWork (2003). GR1 Total Rewards Management, WorldatWork Press, Scottsdale,
AZ.
Website
https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/role/total-rewards
