Paying It Forward or Enjoying it Inward? Dual Motivations in Followers’ Interpersonal Agency Under Servant Leadership

This study advances a more follower-centric perspective on servant leadership by examining how followers’ experiences of “being served” function as a motivational factor in their agency to shape social structures. Integrating servant leadership research with social cognitive and network agency approaches, we argue that servant leaders motivate a dual pursuit in followers’ relationship brokering, i.e., inspiring other-oriented behaviors (“paying service forward”) while also empowering focus on personal benefits (“enjoying it inward”). Our analysis of 365 followers in 128 groups across 20 organizations generally supports our social cognitive theorizing. Specifically, we demonstrate that the interaction between followers’ perceived servant leadership (i.e., a motivational underpinning) and perceived networking ability (i.e., a cognitive underpinning) shapes their tendency to both share network advantages ( tertius iungens ) and pursue personal advantages ( tertius gaudens ) through interpersonal agency. Furthermore, our results highlight the precarious nature of shared advantages, as followers are increasingly likely to engage in tertius gaudens brokering when experiencing a negative emotional state. We discuss the implications of these findings for servant leadership research.