An Examination of Followers’ Motivation to Serve as an Antecedent of Servant-Leadership in UK Organisations

Motivation to serve is conceptualised as an antecedent of servant-leadership but is mostly studied from the leaders’ perspective. Yet, as in any dyadic relationship, exploring the followers’ perspective is crucial, particularly as servant-leadership is an acclaimed follower-centric leadership theory. Hence, this quantitative study is a departure from the norm with a focus on the followers’ motivation to serve (MTS). Premised on the social learning theory, data was collected from 208 respondents in UK private and public organisations using existing and adapted questionnaire surveys that were statistically analysed. The results show a correlation between motivation to serve and servant-leadership but suggest that followers’ motivation to serve is independent of their experience of servant-leadership. It also shows that some followers have a higher or natural congruence to serve than others. Practically, highly motivated followers can be potential candidates for development into servant-leadership roles. Other implications, recommendations and areas for future investigation are discussed.