Abstract

This research examined employee perceptions of servant leadership provided by their supervisors/managers and employees’ reports of service quality provided to clients by their hotels by front line workers employed in
four- and five –star hotels in Turkey. Data were collected from 221 front -line employees, a 37% response rate, 104 working in four-star hotels and 93 working in five-star hotels, using anonymously completed questionnaires.
Consistent with other research on front-line workers, respondents were generally young, had relatively short organizational tenures, and had high school educations. Previously developed and validated measures of
servant leadership (Liden, Wayne, Zhao Henderson, 2008) and service quali ty (Parasuraman, Zeithaml Berry, 1998) were used and both were found to be highly reliable in this study. Respondents working in five -star

hotels reported lower levels of servant leadership with respondents working in four - and five=tar hotels indicating similar levels of service quality.

Keywords: Social Exchange Theory, perceived organizational support, organizational identity, helping behavior, Mediating Role,