What makes a good leader—and what keeps employees engaged in their work? McDonough Scholar and Marietta College graduate student Jillian Fellers ’24, MAP’26 explored those questions through research examining servant leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intrinsic motivation in nonprofit organizations.
Her study found that certain aspects of servant leadership were connected to these important workplace outcomes, while length of time with an organization was not as influential as expected. Jillian’s research offers valuable insight into the leader-follower relationship and the factors that can shape meaningful, motivated workplaces in the nonprofit sector.
"This study investigated perceived servant leadership on employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intrinsic motivation in non-profit organizations," Fellers said.
"Previous research has explored these relationships in for-profit organizations, but more research within a non-profit context is necessary. Based on previous literature, it was hypothesized that perceived levels of servant leadership and time with the organization will be the greatest predictor of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction and time with the organization will be the greatest predictor of organizational commitment. Perceived levels of servant leadership and time with the organization will be the greatest predictor of intrinsic motivation. Additionally, it was hypothesized that only a subset of the servant leadership subscales would influence job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intrinsic motivation. Multiple linear regressions and Pearson’s correlations were conducted to evaluate these hypotheses. The results did not support the hypotheses that time with the organization would be a strong predictor; however, results supported the hypotheses that only a subset of the servant leadership subscales would influence job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intrinsic motivation although they were not the hypothesized subscales. This research provides insight on the psychological constructs that influence the leader- follower dynamics within a non-profit organizational context."