Servant Leadership Development: A Functional Counterfactual Thinking Intervention Approach

Although evidence indicating the positive implications of servant leadership abounds, we currently lack knowledge of how to develop servant leadership. Drawing on the functional theory of counterfactual thinking, I propose that servant leadership can be fostered by utilizing counterfactual thinking (CT) interventions (i.e., by inducing leaders to think about how they could have behaved differently toward their followers in the past to have better served their needs). I further contend that the positive impacts of CT interventions on leaders’ servant leadership transmit to followers’ thriving and servant leadership toward others, the key outcomes of the implementation of servant leadership at work. Yet I propose that the effects of CT interventions are stronger for leaders higher on prosocial motives, as their concerns with benefiting others encourage them to practice insights they gained from CT interventions. To test the hypotheses, I conducted two studies (i.e., an online pilot study and a field study) using a pre–post experimental–control group design. The samples of these studies were drawn from Prolific, an online data collection platform (65 supervisors), and various companies located in South Korea (188 supervisor-employee dyads). In the pilot study, the CT intervention was effective in inducing leaders to engage in CT about their serving of followers and positively influenced leaders’ posttest servant leadership intentions. In the main study, the CT intervention positively influenced the supervisors’ posttest servant leadership (rated by the employees) and, ultimately, the employees’ thriving and servant leadership toward others. However, in both studies, the moderating role of leaders’ prosocial motives was not supported. Overall, this research provides evidence that we can develop servant leadership and reap its key benefits using CT interventions.