Share:


Effect of despotic leadership on organizational cynicism: role of moral disengagement and organizational identification

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of despotic leadership on organizational cynicism both directly and with the mediating role of moral disengagement. It was also posited that organizational identification inversely moderates the effect of despotic leadership on organizational cynicism. Data was collected from the SMEs in Gujranwala Division of Punjab, Pakistan. The sample consisted of 280 randomly chosen front line employees from nine strata of SME manufacturing concerns. To empirically test the hypothesized model, SEM (Structural equation modelling) and Process Macros in SPSS 25 were used. The results confirm the hypothesized model. Despotic leadership has positive effect on organizational cynicism. Moral disengagement mediated between despotic leadership and organizational cynicism. Furthermore, results proved that employees higher on organizational identification were lesser cynic and vice versa. The study is first of its first kind and has advanced our understanding of dark leadership, cynicism, disengagement and organizational identification in the SMEs. The results guide the leadership practice by highlighting the ill-effects of despotic leadership. The study has important implications for literature, policy and managerial practice presented in the end.

Keyword : despotic leadership, moral disengagement, cynicism, identification

How to Cite
Ahtisham, M. M., Anwar ul Haq, M., Ahmed, M. A., & Khalid, S. (2023). Effect of despotic leadership on organizational cynicism: role of moral disengagement and organizational identification. Business: Theory and Practice, 24(1), 194–205. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2023.13483
Published in Issue
Apr 28, 2023
Abstract Views
758
PDF Downloads
650
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Abraham, R. (2000). Organizational cynicism: Bases and consequences. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 126(3), 269–292.

Abubakar, A. M., Namin, B. H., Harazneh, I., Arasli, H., & Tunç, T. (2017). Does gender moderates the relationship between favoritism/nepotism, supervisor incivility, cynicism and workplace withdrawal: A neural network and SEM approach. Tourism Management Perspectives, 23, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2017.06.001

Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411

Andersson, L. M., & Bateman, T. S. (1997). Cynicism in the workplace: Some causes and effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18(5), 449–469. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(199709)18:5<449::AID-JOB808>3.0.CO;2-O

Aronson, E. (2001). Integrating leadership styles and ethical perspectives. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne Des Sciences de l’Administration, 18(4), 244–256. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-4490.2001.tb00260.x

Ashforth, B. (1994). Petty tyranny in organizations. Human Relations, 47(7), 755–778. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679404700701

Ashforth, B. E., & Anand, V. (2003). The normalization of corruption in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 25, 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(03)25001-2

Ashforth, B. E., Harrison, S. H., & Corley, K. G. (2008). Identification in organizations: An examination of four fundamental questions. Journal of Management, 34(3), 325–374. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206308316059

Ashforth, B. E., & Mael, F. (1989). Social identity theory and the organization. The Academy of Management Review, 14(1), 20–39. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4278999

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice-Hall.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall.

Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Theory, research and applications (pp. 71–129). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bandura, A., Caprara, G. V., & Zsolnai, L. (2000). Corporate transgressions through moral disengagement. Journal of Human Values, 6(1), 57–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/097168580000600106

Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203792643

Boardley, I. D., & Kavussanu, M. (2010). Effects of goal orientation and perceived value of toughness on antisocial behavior in soccer: The mediating role of moral disengagement. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 32(2), 176–192. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.32.2.176

Bonner, J. M., Greenbaum, R. L., & Mayer, D. M. (2016). My boss is morally disengaged: The role of ethical leadership in explaining the interactive effect of supervisor and employee moral disengagement on employee behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(4), 731–742. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2366-6

Cartwright, S., & Holmes, N. (2006). The meaning of work: The challenge of regaining employee engagement and reducing cynicism. Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.012

Colquitt, J. A., Baer, M. D., Long, D. M., & Halvorsen-Ganepola, K. M. D. (2014). Scale indicators of social exchange relationships: A comparison of relative content validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(4), 599–618. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036374

De Clercq, D., Fatima, T., & Jahanzeb, S. (2019). Ingratiating with despotic leaders to gain status: The role of power distance orientation and self enhancement motive. Journal of Business Ethics, 171, 157–174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04368-5

De Clercq, D., Haq, I. U., Raja, U., Azeem, M. U., & Mahmud, N. (2018). When is an Islamic work ethic more likely to spur helping behavior? The roles of despotic leadership and gender. Personnel Review, 47(3), 630–650. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-06-2017-0192

Davis, W. D., & Gardner, W. L. (2004). Perceptions of politics and organizational cynicism: An attributional and leader-member exchange perspective. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(4), 439–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.05.002

Dean, J. W., Brandes, P., & Dharwadkar, R. (1998). Organizational cynicism. Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 341–352. https://doi.org/10.2307/259378

De Hoogh, A. H. B. B., & Den Hartog, D. N. (2008). Ethical and despotic leadership, relationships with leader’s social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates’ optimism: A multi-method study. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(3), 297–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.03.002

Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., & Sweitzer, V. L. (2008). Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: A study of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 374–391. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.374

Dobbs, J. M., & Do, J. J. (2019). The impact of perceived toxic leadership on cynicism in officer candidates. Armed Forces & Society, 45(1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X17747204

Egan, V., Hughes, N., & Palmer, E. J. (2015). Moral disengagement, the dark triad, and unethical consumer attitudes. Personality and Individual Differences, 76, 123–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.054

Erkutlu, H., & Chafra, J. (2017). Leaders’ narcissism and organizational cynicism in healthcare organizations. International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 10(5), 346–363. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-12-2016-0090

Erkutlu, H., & Chafra, J. (2018). Despotic leadership and organizational deviance: The mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating role of value congruence. Journal of Strategy and Management, 11(2), 150–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-04-2017-0029

Fida, R., Paciello, M., Tramontano, C., Fontaine, R. G., Barbaranelli, C., & Farnese, M. L. (2015). An integrative approach to understanding counterproductive work behavior: The roles of stressors, negative emotions, and moral disengagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(1), 131–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2209-5

Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104

Gaskin, J., & Lim, J. (2016). Master validity tool: AMOS plugin. Gaskination’s StatWiki.

Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2018). Multivariate data analysis. Pearson.

Hanges, P. J., & Dickson, M. W. (2004). The development and validation of the GLOBE culture and leadership scales. Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, (January), 122–151.

Harris, L. C. and Ogbonna, E. (2013). Forms of employee negative word-of-mouth: A study of front-line workers. Employee Relations, 35(1), 39–60. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451311279401

Hayes, A. F., Preacher, K. J. (2014). Statistical mediation analysis with a multicategorical independent variable. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 67(3), 451–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/bmsp.12028

House, R. J., & Howell, J. M. (1992). Personality and charismatic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 3(2), 81–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(92)90028-E

Hystad, S.W., Mearns, K. J., & Eid, J. (2014). Moral disengagement as a mechanism between perceptions of organisational injustice and deviant work behaviours. Safety Science, 68, 138–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.03.012

Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Z., & Gumusluoglu, L. (2013). The bright and dark sides of leadership: Transformational vs. non-transformational leadership in a non-Western context. Leadership, 9(1), 107–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715012455131

Li, S., & Chen, Y. (2018). The relationship between psychological contract breach and employees’ counterproductive work behaviors: The mediating effect of organizational cynicism and work alienation. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01273

Lipman-Blumen, J. (2005). The allure of toxic leaders – why we follow destructive bosses and corrupt politicians and how we can survive them. Oxford University Press.

Liu, Y., Long, W., Lam, R., & Loi, R. (2012). Ethical leadership and workplace deviance: The role of moral disengagement. In W. Mobley, Y. Wang, & M. Li (Eds.), Advances in global leadership (Vol. 7, pp. 37–56). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1535-1203(2012)0000007006

Lorinkova, N. M., & Perry, S. J. (2017). When is empowerment effective? The role of leader-leader exchange in empowering leadership, cynicism, and time theft. Journal of Management, 43(5), 1631–1654. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314560411

Lowry, P. B., & Gaskin, J. (2014). Partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) for building and testing behavioral causal theory: When to choose it and how to use it. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 57(2), 123–146. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2014.2312452

Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13(2), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030130202

Martin, S. R., Kish-Gephart, J. J., & Detert, J. R. (2014). Blind forces: Ethical infrastructures and moral disengagement in organizations. Organizational Psychology Review, 4(4), 295–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386613518576

Moore, C., Detert, J. R., Klebe Treviño, L., Baker, V. L., & Mayer, D. M. (2012). Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Personnel Psychology, 65(1), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01237.x

Mostafa, A. M. S. (2018). Ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behaviours: The moderating role of organizational identification. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 27(4), 441–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2018.1470088

Naseer, S., Raja, U., Syed, F., Donia, M. B. L., & Darr, W. (2016). Perils of being close to a bad leader in a bad environment: Exploring the combined effects of despotic leadership, leader member exchange, and perceived organizational politics on behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(1), 14–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.09.005

Nauman, S., Fatima, T., & Haq, I. U. (2018). Does despotic leadership harm employee family life: Exploring the effects of emotional exhaustion and anxiety. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 601. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00601

Palmer, N. (2013). The effects of leader behavior on follower ethical behavior: Examining the mediating roles of ethical efficacy and moral disengagement. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/businessdiss/40/

Perren, S., & Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, E. (2012). Cyberbullying and traditional bullying in adolescence. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9(2), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2011.643168

Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendation on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63(1), 539–569. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452

Reed, G. E. (2004). Toxic leadership. Military Review, (July-August), 67–71.

Saidon, I. M., Galbreath, J., & Whiteley, A. (2010). Antecedents of moral disengagement: Preliminary empirical study in Malaysia. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Conference (pp. 1–27). Curtin University.

Schilling, J. (2009). From ineffectiveness to destruction: A qualitative study on the meaning of negative leadership. Leadership, 5(1), 102–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715008098312

Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 138–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.09.001

Shah, R., & Goldstein, S. M. (2006). Use of structural equation modeling in operations management research: Looking back and forward. Journal of Operations Management, 24(2), 148–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2005.05.001

Shu, L. L., Gino, F., & Bazerman, M. H. (2011). Dishonest deed, clear conscience: When cheating leads to moral disengagement and motivated forgetting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(3), 330–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211398138

Simões, J. G. (2016). The impact of ethical and despotic leadership on the emotions and team work engagement perceptions of individual members within work teams. Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

SMEDA. (2017). SMEDA. https://smeda.org/index.php/business-facilitation/reports/cluster-profiles/category/44-punjab-cluster-profiles

SMEDA. (2018). SMEDA Annual Report 2017–2018. Islamabad.

Sungur, C., Özer, Ö., Saygili, M., & Uğurluoğlu, Ö. (2019). Paternalistic leadership, organizational cynicism, and intention to quit one’s job in nursing. Hospital Topics, 97(4), 139–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/00185868.2019.1655509

Tepper, B. J. (2000). Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal, 43(2), 178–190. https://doi.org/10.2307/1556375

Van Dick, R., Christ, O., Stellmacher, J., Wagner, U., Ahlswede, O., Grubba, C., Hauptmeier, M., Cornelia, G., Moltzen, K., & Tissington, P. (2004). Should I stay or should I go? Explaining turnover intentions with organizational identification and job satisfaction. British Journal of Management, 15(4), 351–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2004.00424.x

Vondey, M. (2008). The relationships among servant leadership, organizational citizenship behavior, person-organization fit, and organizational identification. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 6(1).

Wang, H.-J., Demerouti, E., & Le Blanc, P. (2017). Transformational leadership, adaptability, and job crafting: The moderating role of organizational identification. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 100, 185–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.009

Yamane, T. (1967). Statistics: An introductory analysis. Harper and Row.

Zhang, M. F., Dawson, J. F., & Kline, R. B. (2021). Evaluating the use of covariance-based structural equation modelling with reflective measurement in organizational and management research: A review and recommendations for best practice. British Journal of Management, 32(2), 257–272. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12415

Zhao, H., Zhang, H., & Xu, Y. (2019). Effects of perceived descriptive norms on corrupt intention: The mediating role of moral disengagement. International Journal of Psychology, 54(1), 93–101. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12401

Zhou, X., Rasool, S. F., Yang, J., & Asghar, M. Z. (2021). Exploring the relationship between despotic leadership and job satisfaction: The role of self efficacy and leader–member exchange. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105307

Zhou, Y., Zheng, W., & Gao, X. (2019). The relationship between the big five and cyberbullying among college students: The mediating effect of moral disengagement. Current Psychology, 38(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0005-6