Too far is as bad as not enough: The inverted U-shaped relationship between servant leadership and team outcomes

Servant leadership has received considerable academic attention in recent years, and it highlights the service and assistance for all followers. However, given that the resources and energy of a leader are constantly limited, servant leaders need to balance fairness and efficiency to protect the interests of marginalized employees while boosting the enthusiasm of star employees to thus achieve optimal team outcomes. This study shifts the research perspective to the team level and innovatively explores how servant leadership balances the needs of individual subordinates and the goal of the team as a whole. Based on a survey including 109 leaders and 527 followers, this research finds an inverted U-shaped relationship between servant leadership and the team-level in-role performance and extra-role organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through team leader-member exchange differentiation (LMXD). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.