Management of Machiavellianism, Organizational Cynicism and Workplace Incivility by Servant Leaders: A Moderated Mediation Analysis of How They Maintain Trust and Performance

Abstract

Purpose: Past studies show that Machiavellianism, Organizational Cynicism, and Workplace Incivility can lead to adverse behavioral outcomes. For a munificent work climate and performance, managing these behaviors is essential. Which may hypothetically be difficult for leaders with positive behavioral orientation. Servant Leaders possess positive qualities like forgiveness, compassion, morality, and emotional healing. The study attempts to examine whether they are overwhelmed by or are able to manage the impact of behaviors like Machiavellianism, Organizational Cynicism and Workplace Incivility which are known to hamper trust and performance. Method: The study employs moderated mediation analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) to model the moderating role of servant leadership over the relationship between Machiavellianism, Organizational Cynicism, and Organizational Incivility (independent variables) and performance (dependent variable) as mediated by trust climate. Findings: Results show that Servant Leadership plays a moderating role such that it significantly diminishes the negative effect of Machiavellianism, Organizational Cynicism and Organizational Incivility on Trust climate and (through that) on performance. Trust climate fully mediates the negative relationship between independent variables and dependent variables. Practical Implications: Present study suggests that the positive qualities of servant leaders are not overwhelmed by Machiavellianism, Organizational Cynicism, and Workplace Incivility. Instead, they are successfully able to maintain environment of trust leading to positive performance. Originality/Value: Since the impact of Servant Leadership style in presence of negative behaviors has not been examined yet; present study fills this gap and shows that qualities of servant leaders reduce the impact of negative behaviors like Machiavellianism, Organizational Cynicism and Workplace Incivility.