An analysis of the relationship between servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour in the fitness industry: The effect of technological adaptation capability

Keywords: Servant leadership; Organisational citizenship behaviour; Technological adaptation; Covid-19; Fitness centres

Abstract: It is important for any organisation to have committed and engaged employees who are willing to act on behalf of other individuals or the organisation itself (i.e., organisational citizenship behaviours). Leaders who care about employees and are committed to the organisation (i.e., servant leaders) are those most likely to incite employees to imitate this behaviour. Previous research has attempted to explain this relationship between servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour. Nevertheless, this study proposes that employees are more likely to exhibit organisational citizenship behaviours in environments where proper servant leadership is combined with a suitable capability for technological adaptation. Fitness centres have been adapting to the new Covid-19 pandemic situation by digitalising their management and their sports services. This implies that fitness centres are undergoing a major technological revolution and sports managers are more attentive than ever to the technological developments taking place in their industry. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature by highlighting the mediating role of technological adaptation capability on the relationship between servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviours, and reveals the importance of technology when managing fitness centres. Four Spanish chains of fitness centres participated in this study. PLS-SEM was used to test the proposed model.