Causal model of the relationship between the characteristics of servant leadership, career path, work ethic and organizational civic behavior among university staff

The aim of this study was to investigate the causal pattern of relationships between the characteristics of servant leadership, career path, work ethic and organizational civic behavior among the staff of Urmia University. The research method is descriptive-survey and is of structural equation type. The statistical population of the study included all administrative staff of Urmia University, 596. A sample of 236 people was selected using the stratified relative sampling method for the study. Four standard questionnaires of servant leadership (Taylor, 2002), career path (Adeckla, 2011), work ethic (Gregory, C. Petty, 1990) and organizational civic behavior (Kanowski, 1996) were used to collect research data. The results obtained from the implementation of software output path analysis models show the appropriateness of the fit of the structural equation model. The results of hypothesis testing by structural equation modeling showed that servant leadership has a direct and significant effect on career path, work ethic and organizational civic behavior. The results showed a direct and significant effect of career path and work ethic on organizational civic behavior. The results also showed that career path and work ethic play a mediating role in the causal relationship between servant leadership and organizational civic behavior. Therefore, in general, it can be said that career path and work ethic have been able to play a mediating role in increasing the effect of servant leadership on organizational civic behavior. Therefore, university administrators should emphasize employee leadership, work independence and work ethic to enhance the civic behavior of employees.