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Leadership beyond Narcissism: On the Role of Compassionate Love as Individual Antecedent of Servant Leadership

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  • Tim Brouns

    (Economía y Empresa, UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, 30107 Murcia, Spain)

  • Kai Externbrink

    (Economics and Management, FOM University of Applied Sciences, 45127 Essen, Germany)

  • Pablo Salvador Blesa Aledo

    (Economía y Empresa, UCAM Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia, 30107 Murcia, Spain)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Brouns & Kai Externbrink & Pablo Salvador Blesa Aledo, 2020. "Leadership beyond Narcissism: On the Role of Compassionate Love as Individual Antecedent of Servant Leadership," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:10:y:2020:i:2:p:20-:d:337238
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dirk Dierendonck & Kathleen Patterson, 2015. "Compassionate Love as a Cornerstone of Servant Leadership: An Integration of Previous Theorizing and Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 119-131, April.
    2. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    3. Sen Sendjaya & James C. Sarros & Joseph C. Santora, 2008. "Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 402-424, March.
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