ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
The Relationship between Servant Leadership and Followers' Pro-Social Rule-Breaking Behavior: A Study Based on Chinese Selected Candidates
Provisionally accepted
- 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
- 2School of Public Policy and Management, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
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Objective: This study explores the relationships among servant leadership, work autonomy, risk-taking willingness, public service motivation (PSM), and pro-social rule-breaking (PSRB), focusing on their underlying psychological mechanisms. Methods: A survey was conducted among selected cadres using electronic questionnaires. The questionnaire included demographic information, the Servant Leadership Scale, the Risk-Taking Willingness Scale, the Work Autonomy Scale, the PSM Scale, and the PSRB Scale. A total of 679 valid responses were collected. Descriptive analyses and moderated mediation tests were performed using AMOS, SPSS, and the PROCESS macro. Results: Servant leadership showed a significant positive correlation with PSRB. Mediation analysis further indicated that work autonomy and risk-taking willingness exerted significant mediating effects. Servant leadership positively predicted work autonomy, which in turn predicted PSRB. Servant leadership negatively predicted risk-taking willingness. In turn, risk-taking willingness negatively predicted PSRB. The direct effect of servant leadership on PSRB was also significant. In addition, PSM significantly moderated the positive relationship between work autonomy and PSRB and negatively moderated the relationship between risk-taking willingness and PSRB. Conclusion: Servant leadership fosters PSRB through both direct and indirect mechanisms. Work autonomy and risk-taking willingness serve as parallel mediators, while PSM qualifies these mediating effects by moderating the second stage of the mediation process.
Keywords: servant leadership, Work autonomy, risk-taking willingness, Public Service Motivation(PSM), Pro-social Rule-breaking(PSRB) behavior
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Zhang, He and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoling He, 2495716812@qq.com
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