Irfan, Sarah Salah <br/><br/>
INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP ON ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE THROUGH ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE:  HOTEL INDUSTRY OF ERBIL / 
SARAH SALAH IRFAN; SUPERVISOR: Asst. Prof. Dr. Husam Rjoub 
 - 162 sheets:  photos;  31 cm.  Includes CD 
<br/><br/>Thesis (DBA) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Doctorate of Business Administration Department 
<br/><br/>Includes bibliography (sheets 128-144) 
<br/><br/> ABSTRACT<br/>This paper is dedicated to investigate the topic of servant leadership, and its relationship<br/>with organizational change. In this research all characteristics of servant leadership have<br/>been included. Additionally, two mediating variables have been included in the<br/>hypothesized model of this research that are organizational commitment and cultural<br/>intelligence. Our research is directed towards staff and employee of hotels. These hotels<br/>are located in Erbil, Iraq, as this city as capital is one of the major touristic locations of<br/>the country. Total number of 231 employees participated in the questionnaire that was<br/>specifically designed for this study. Our model was tested through rigorous statistical<br/>means to show its goodness of fit in addition to presenting results that are in consensus<br/>with the existing literature. This is while current model has not been tested in this context<br/>and format prior to this research. Iraq as a case of study has also been neglected through<br/>the literature and Erbil was found appropriate to conduct the research to extend the<br/>geographical boundaries of this subject. Tourism industry and particularly, hotels are<br/>among the highly competitive markets, which also include variety of cultures that are<br/>involved from management level to staff. Each hotel, which was included in our study had<br/>a recruitment level of minimum four nationalities, which is suitable for the settings of our<br/>research as cultural intelligence requires cultural variety as a framework to begin with.<br/>Additionally, characteristics of a servant leader is close to the mindset of Iraqi culture due<br/>to the background and therefore it was expected that employees perceive a level of service<br/>provision from their leaders. The aim of this research was to find whether servant<br/>leadership has a direct and significant effect on organizational change. Moreover, to<br/>exhibit whether or not organizational commitment and cultural intelligence possess a<br/>mediating effect in the aforementioned relationship was another aim of this research. Our<br/>findings are in support of the hypothesized model and therefore, it can be said that<br/>managers of hotels, especially in Erbil, can adopt servant leadership to further increase<br/>commitment level of their staff and further foster organizational change. As hotel industry<br/>faces constant changes from technology, production, and sustainability. Servant leader<br/>can enhance acceptance and readiness of staff towards change and smoothen<br/>implementation of change. 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Organizational change--Dissertations, Academic<br/>Servant leadership--Dissertations, Academic<br/>Cultural intelligence--Dissertations, Academic