Abstract
This study aims to analyze and explain the effect of servant leadership on personnel's job satisfaction with work-life balance as a mediating variable at the Kuantan Singingi Regional Police. The high intensity of law enforcement duties and massive public service demands require police institutions to optimally manage their human resources to maintain the emotional stability and professionalism of personnel in the field. This research design uses an explanatory quantitative approach by distributing questionnaires to 234 personnel selected as samples. The data analysis technique used is Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) operated through SmartPLS software. The measurement model evaluation (outer model) confirms that all indicators used have met the requirements of convergent validity, discriminant validity, and robust construct reliability. Furthermore, the structural model testing (inner model) proves that all hypotheses proposed in this study are empirically accepted. Servant leadership is proven to have a direct positive and significant effect on both job satisfaction (t-statistics = 2.312; p-values = 0.021) and work-life balance (t-statistics = 5.664; p-values = 0.000). In addition, work-life balance is also found to have a very strong positive and significant effect on personnel's job satisfaction (t-statistics = 8.968; p-values = 0.000). The indirect effect test results show that work-life balance plays a significant role as a mediating variable with partial mediation characteristics in bridging the influence of servant leadership on job satisfaction (t-statistics = 4.470; p-values = 0.000). Based on the perspective of conservation of resources theory, these findings confirm that the implementation of servant leadership style by leaders will generate a much more massive psychological gain spiral in increasing the professional satisfaction of members if the institution is able to stimulate and prioritize the creation of a healthy life balance space for its personnel.
