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Vol. 2 No. 4 (2025): October

Copyright (c) 2025 Sayeed Sami Muzafary

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Proactive Personality as a Moderator between Servant Leadership and Job Engagement: A Conservation of Resources (COR) Perspective

https://doi.org/10.62810/jssh.v2i4.177
Sayeed Sami Muzafary
Department of Educational Planning and Policy, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Kabul University, Kabul, AF

Corresponding Author(s) : Sayeed Sami Muzafary

muzafary1988@gmail.com

Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol. 2 No. 4 (2025): October

Abstract

Employee job engagement has been recognized as a crucial determinant of organizational effectiveness and performance, yet the mechanisms and boundary conditions influencing this construct remain insufficiently understood. The primary aim of this study is to examine how servant leadership influences employee job engagement and to determine whether proactive personality moderates this relationship. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the research explores how leadership behaviors and individual personality traits jointly shape engagement levels among academic staff in higher education institutions in Afghanistan. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed, and data were collected through standardized self-report questionnaires administered to 178 faculty members across four public universities in Kabul. The research instrument underwent translation and back-translation procedures to ensure linguistic and cultural validity. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the study established the construct reliability and validity of the measures. Subsequently, hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesized moderation model. The empirical results demonstrated a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and job engagement. Furthermore, proactive personality was found to moderate this relationship, such that the positive impact of servant leadership on engagement was stronger among employees with higher levels of proactivity. These findings extend the theoretical understanding of servant leadership by integrating individual personality differences within the COR framework. Practically, the study highlights the importance of fostering servant leadership behaviors and creating work environments that support proactive employees, thereby enhancing faculty engagement and organizational performance in resource-constrained and post-conflict higher education institutions.

Keywords

Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory Job Engagement Proactive Personality Servant Leadership
Muzafary, S. S. (2025). Proactive Personality as a Moderator between Servant Leadership and Job Engagement: A Conservation of Resources (COR) Perspective . Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2(4), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.62810/jssh.v2i4.177
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Received 2025-09-10
Accepted 2025-10-25
Published 2025-10-31
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