When visionary leadership foster proactive customer service performance among community workers in China: the role of personal initiative and workload

Leader effects on employees’ work outcomes vary based on individual traits and task characteristics, and synergistic or compensatory relationships exist among leadership, individual, and task variables. This study aims to examine how visionary leadership facilitates proactive customer service performance (PCSP) and the role of personal initiative and workload in this relationship. Additionally, this study tests these relationships among a group of Chinese community workers, who primarily provide services to residents. Their PCSP is crucial for effective community management in China. Based on this, two hypotheses were proposed from a synergistic or compensatory perspective. The study surveyed 448 community workers (97.5% female, with 74.7% within the age range of 31–45) in an eastern Chinese city, using data from both self- and leader-rated assessments. The findings showed that employees with low personal initiative and high workloads benefit more from visionary leadership, demonstrating the compensatory effect of personal initiative and the synergistic effect of workload in the visionary leadership-PCSP relationship. This study contributes to a better understanding of the effectiveness of visionary leadership by considering the interactions between personal and situational factors. Additionally, it enriches PCSP research by considering the three-way interaction relationships and expanding the scope of participants. Future research should gather data from multiple time points, sources, and industries, as well as explore alternative mechanisms to further investigate the relationship between visionary leadership and PCSP.