It's Unexpected but Good: Leader Traditionality Fuels Greater Follower Reciprocation to Servant Leadership.

This article investigates how leader traditionality—defined as an individual's endorsement of traditional hierarchical-role relationships—moderates the effectiveness of servant leadership in fostering follower trust and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Integrating expectancy violation theory and social exchange theory, the authors conducted three studies (two experiments and one field study involving employees and managers from a Fortune 500 company in China) demonstrating that leaders high in traditionality are generally expected to exhibit less servant leadership. However, when such leaders do engage in servant leadership behaviors, they positively violate follower expectations, resulting in stronger follower trust and increased OCB compared to leaders low in traditionality. The research highlights leader traditionality as a boundary condition that enhances the social exchange relationship between servant leaders and followers, suggesting that unexpected positive leader behaviors can strengthen trust and reciprocal follower actions in organizational settings.