Title: Servant leadership and organisational commitment in UAE-based work environments: do employee burnout and resilience play a role?

Authors: Lama Blaique; Farzana Asad Mir

Addresses: American University in Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Rd. – Al Sufouh, Dubai Media City – Dubai, UAE ' Faculty of Business and Law, The British University in Dubai, 1st and 2nd Floor – Block 11 – Academic City, Dubai, UAE

Abstract: Ensuring commitment from employees is one of the main challenges faced by organisations. Employees who are committed to their organisations facilitate better performance compared to those who are not. A leader's behaviour can have a significant positive effect on employees' attitudes and behaviours. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how a servant leadership style affects organisational commitment. This study uses the partial least square (PLS) approach to structural equation modelling to analyse a sample of 119 employees based in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Results show a positive relationship between servant leadership and organisational commitment. The results reveal that burnout mediates the relationship between servant leadership and organisational commitment, whereas, employee resilience acts as a mediator between servant leadership and burnout. However, the proposed serial mediation of employee resilience and burnout between the relationship of servant leadership and organisational commitment was not supported. The study expands the knowledge about the antecedents of organisational commitment, namely servant leadership, employee resilience and burnout and highlights the important role of burnout in studied relationships. The study helps organisations to recognise the importance of servant leadership style in shaping employee outcomes that lead to desired organisational objectives.

Keywords: organisational commitment; OC; servant leadership; SL; employee resilience; employee burnout.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2026.150477

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2026 Vol.25 No.1, pp.61 - 81

Received: 12 Aug 2024
Accepted: 29 Mar 2025
Published online: 15 Dec 2025 *

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