Avoiding the scenario of “The farmer and the snake”: the dark side of servant leadership and an intervention mechanism

Purpose This study aims to reveal the potential dark side of servant leadership by exploring its differential impact on followers with varying degrees of Machiavellianism and to uncover the role of leader negative feedback as an intervention mechanism in attenuating this negative impact. Design/methodology/approach A three-wave survey with one-month intervals was conducted with 344 participants from different industries. Findings The results suggest that servant leadership triggered psychological entitlement among followers with high Machiavellianism, leading to organizational and interpersonal deviance, but only when negative feedback from the leader was weak. Practical implications When leaders implement servant leadership, they should beware of breeding psychological entitlement among highly Machiavellian followers, as this can activate their deviant behavior, and should make full use of negative feedback as an intervention mechanism. Originality/value This study is one of the first to use the self-evaluation perspective to examine the negative impact of servant leadership on follower behavior via attitude and to explore boundary conditions to overcome this effect.