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Leadership Beyond Narcissism: On the Role of Compassionate Love as Antecedent of Servant Leadership
(2020)
While we already know a lot about the outcomes and boundary conditions of servant leadership, there is still a need for research on its antecedents. Building on the theory of purposeful work behavior and further theorizing by van Dierendonck and Patterson (2015), we examine if leaders’ propensity for compassionate love will evoke servant leadership behavior. At the same time, we contrast compassionate love to leaders’ narcissism as psychological counterpart to compassionate love, because narcissism is not associated with leader effectiveness, but with leader emergence instead. We collected data from 170 leader-follower-dyads in a field study in Germany, while measuring leaders’ compassionate love and narcissism, and followers’ perceptions of servant leadership. We found a positive association between leaders’ compassionate love and servant leadership behavior, while narcissism was negatively associated with servant leadership. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as pathways for future research are discussed.
The purpose of the paper is to contribute to the inner workings of transformational leadership in the context of organizational change. According to the organizational role theory, role conflict is proposed as a mediator between transformational leadership and affective commitment to change and irritation. Cross-sectional data were collected in a German company in the textiles sector, undergoing a pervasive IT-related change. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was performed for validity and hypothesis testing. The findings suggest that role conflict acts as a full mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and affective commitment to change, as well as irritation. Transformational leadership is often discussed in terms of change-oriented leadership. Surprisingly, only a few studies have examined the specific impact of transformational leadership on attitudinal outcomes during change processes, yet. Consequently, research on the underlying psychological mechanisms of the relationship is scarce, too.
Leaders’ Psychological Costs and Benefits of Servant Leadership: A Conservation of Resources View
(2025)
Servant leadership is widely recognized for its positive effects on followers, but its impact on leaders' mental health remains understudied. This gap is crucial, as servant leadership might place significant demands on leaders' psychological resources, without sufficient social, psychological, or organizational rewards. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), we investigate how and when servant leadership affects leaders' mental health, viewing its role not only as resource-depleting but also as resource-generating for leaders, depending on the organizational context. Two cross-sectional studies were conducted using leader self-assessments (N = 101; N = 170). Study 1 focused on the relationship between servant leadership, experienced meaningfulness, emotional exhaustion, and flourishing, emphasizing the resource-generating potential of servant leadership. Study 2, examined the moderating effect of the distributive justice climate (DJC) on the link between servant leadership and emotional exhaustion, exploring the possibility of resource depletion under conditions of low organizational fairness. Results. In Study 1, servant leadership was found to mitigate emotional exhaustion by enhancing experienced meaningfulness at work. Moreover, it fostered leaders' flourishing through the same mechanism, suggesting that servant leadership can be a source of leaders’ well-being. Study 2 demonstrated that DJC moderates the servant leadership–emotional exhaustion relationship. Specifically, when DJC is low, servant leaders are more susceptible to emotional exhaustion, indicating that unfair organizational climates can exacerbate the resource-depleting aspects of servant leadership. Servant leadership has the potential to both reduce and exacerbate emotional exhaustion in leaders. While it generates psychological resources like experienced meaningfulness, which enhances well-being, its effectiveness is influenced by the organizational context. In unjust environments, servant leadership's emotional demands may lead to resource depletion. These findings are in line with COR and highlight the complex impact of servant leadership on the well-being of leaders. Limitations remain to issues of causality.

