Social Exchange or Social Learning: A Theoretical Fork in Road for Servant Leadership Researchers

Abstract

While there has been a rise in servant leadership research, especially in Asia, there has been an equal lack of consideration for the social theories that underpins servant leadership to explain how they influence followers. To address this gap, this chapter provides a review and analysis of the two most commonly used social theories in servant leadership literature; social learning and social exchange. In doing so, we first examine servant leadership within an Asian context. Second, we examine social learning and social exchange and how they have been used in servant leadership literature to date. Lastly, we propose a future research agenda for future research in order to further understand these two social theories within the context of servant leadership.