Although leadership effectiveness rests on the articulation and implementation of a vision, why and when visionary leadership leads to its documented outcomes is not yet well understood. Drawing on self-concept theory and the notion of a future possible self, we examined a moderated mediation model of the processes that underpin the influence of visionary leadership on customer service role performance. We employed a multi-wave multi-source research design and obtained data from 333 subordinate-supervisor dyads in service sector organizations in Taiwan. Results of multilevel path analysis reveal that visionary leadership positively relates to service performance and proactive customer service performance but indirectly through the serial mediation of psychological ownership and felt responsibility. Additionally, these relationships are shown to be conditional upon self-determination climate such that they are stronger when self-determination climate is high but not low. While these results evidence the criticality of vision articulation and implementation through the motivational effects of followers’ future possible self, they also reveal the importance of understanding the ecosystem of visionary leadership if its motivational effects are to be leveraged to promote the pursuit of the envisioned organizational future state.
