This study provides a new perspective on servant leadership research by examining the social influence of the servant leadership of individuals who are not in a supervisory position. Drawing on servant leadership and social learning theories, we examine how the servant leadership of managers in support roles can initiate a social learning process that shapes the leadership style of line managers and thereby influences employee outcomes throughout the organization. To facilitate the integration between servant leadership and social learning theories, we also examine the role of efficacy beliefs in enhancing the effectiveness of the social learning process. Using nested, time-lagged data from 667 store managers, 121 line managers, and 23 human resource managers (i.e., support managers), we find that support managers’ servant leadership positively influences organizational members’ perceptions of overall justice and leader-member exchange through line manager servant leadership. In turn, employees’ favorable perceptions stemming from line manager servant leadership enhance the employees’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The results also indicate that high leadership self-efficacy augments line managers’ effectiveness in emulating servant leadership behaviors from support managers and reinforces the indirect effects on organizational members’ favorable perceptions.

这项研究通过检查未担任监督职务的个人的仆人领导的社会影响，为仆人领导的研究提供了新的视角。借助仆人领导和社会学习理论，我们研究了支持角色的经理的仆人领导如何启动社会学习过程，该过程塑造了直线经理的领导风格，从而影响整个组织的员工绩效。为了促进仆人领导力与社会学习理论之间的整合，我们还研究了效能信念在增强社会学习过程有效性中的作用。使用来自667个商店经理，121个生产线经理和23个人力资源经理（即支持经理）的嵌套，时滞数据，我们发现，支持经理的仆人领导对组织成员通过直属经理的仆人领导对整体公正和领导者与成员交换的看法产生积极影响。反过来，来自直属经理仆人领导的员工良好的看法会增强员工的组织承诺和工作满意度。结果还表明，高领导者的自我效能感增强了直线经理在模仿支持经理的仆人领导行为时的有效性，并增强了对组织成员的良好看法的间接影响。直属经理仆人领导对员工的好感增强了员工的组织承诺和工作满意度。结果还表明，高领导者的自我效能感增强了直线经理在模仿支持经理的仆人领导行为时的有效性，并增强了对组织成员的良好看法的间接影响。直属经理仆人领导对员工的好感增强了员工的组织承诺和工作满意度。结果还表明，高领导者的自我效能感增强了直线经理在模仿支持经理的仆人领导行为时的有效性，并增强了对组织成员的良好看法的间接影响。