Studying the Role of Wisdom-Oriented Leadership on Employees’ Public Service Motivation with Mediation Variables of Leader-Member Exchange and Organizational Identification

Extended Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of the present research is to study the effect of wisdom-oriented leadership on staff public service motivation with the mediating role of leader-member exchange and organizational identification in the University of Zabol. The research uses an applied research methodology in terms of purpose and a descriptive survey method with structural equation modeling in terms of performance. The research statistical population included all 480 employees of Zabol University. Research samples included 214 individuals selected through a simple random method based on the Krejcie and Morgan tables. Research field data were collected through questionnaires of wisdom-based leadership according (Rahmani et al., 2018), Perry’s measurement scale of public service motivation (2000), leader-member exchange (Liden and Maslen, 1998), and organizational identification (Miller et al., 2000). Experts confirmed the face and content validity of instruments. Construct validity and instrument reliability was also verified through confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, and compositional reliability. Research data were also analyzed using SPSS 23 and Smart PLS. Research findings indicated that member-leader exchange and organizational identification variables are the mediating variables in the relationship between wisdom-based leadership and public service motivation.
Introduction
With the outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19 and changing organizational approaches, especially in universities and high education centers, leadership performance and strategies in leading staff and how to deliver service to clients are particularly interested. Leadership style is one of the fundamental practical elements in delivering employee services in the organization since the connecting link between individual and organizational goals is weakened or lost without leadership. In other words, the measured effectiveness of individuals, groups, and organizations in higher education centers relies on leadership quality in these organizations. Thus, studying leadership issues in higher education centers is a critical section in organizational researches and one of the most critical foundations of the educational system in each country. It also plays a crucial role in transferring cultural heritage and governing values of the society and meets the social needs of communities (Keikha, Hovieda &Yaghoubi, 2017). 
Theoretical Framework
Given the critical situation that organizations, including universities, are now dealing with, organizations may require recruiting leaders and employees, putting aside self-utilitarianism incentives, and operate based on the public service motivation to mobilize people to do great things in the organization. In leader-member relationships, if leaders tend to achieve a high level of efficiency with trust and cooperation, they must show their trust in others before needing the trust of others (Rahman khan& et al., 2013). It is necessary to mention that the quality of the member and leader relationship determines the amount of physical and mental efforts, material and information resources, and the interacted social support between the leaders and subordinate (Joo & Ready, 2012). It may lead to improved organizational identity among staff. Organizational identification encourages employees to focus on profitable matters rather than personal goals (Çeri-Booms & Azerbaijan, 2012).
Research Methodology 
This is an applied research in terms of purpose and a structural-equation modeling-based descriptive survey in terms of implementation. The research statistical population included all 480 staff of Zabol University, 214 of which were randomly selected as research samples using KREJCIE and Morgan tables. Research data were collected using questionnaires of wisdom-based leadership according (Rahmani et al., 2018), Perry’s measurement scale of public service motivation (2000), leader-member exchange (Liden and Maslen, 1998), and organizational identification (Miller et al., 2000). Face and content validity was verified by experts, and construct validity by confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach’s alpha and compositional reliability of all variables were measured larger than 0.70, indicating the proper reliability of research instruments. Research data were analyzed using SPSS 23 and Smart pls, and research hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model. 
Discussion and results
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many problems for managing organizations and organizational leaders, especially academic leaders. The number of infected and the rate of mortality of Covid-19 has caused panic among staff and other stakeholders in organizations. Being widespread and unpredictable, managers may fail to respond to this problem efficiently. Undoubtedly, the present organizational crisis, following the sanction crisis, and financial crisis over the recent decade, is one of the critical concerns and challenges testing organizational leaders in Iran, especially in higher education centers. What managers require in times of crisis is not a pre-defined measure; instead, they need behaviors and attitudes free from any emotional attachment to past events to help them be forward-looking. So, it seems necessary to consider effective factors that help managers and leaders run and control the organization, provide services, and lead to human resource identification and improved relationships. 
Conclusion
The research results showed that the wisdom-based leadership variable could largely explain the variance of the public service motivation variable. In addition, member-leader exchange and organizational identification variables mediate the relationship between wisdom-based leadership and public service motivation. Wisdom-based leadership variable has a significant direct effect on public service motivation. As a result, the mediation role of member-leader exchange is poor; whereas, the mediation role of the organizational identification variable is decisive.