Effect of despotic leadership on organizational deviance: The mediating role of Psychological Contract Breach and moderating role of moral identity
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Author(s)Hassan Al-KashabLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7431-4553
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Safa Al-Naimi
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Raghad KharrufaLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0652-9696
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DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.23(4).2025.46
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Article InfoVolume 23 2025, Issue #4, pp. 684-695
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2 Downloads
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Type of the article: Research Article
Abstract
Drawing on social exchange theory, this study aims to expand the literature on despotic leadership as a prominent indicator of organizational deviance using a moderate mediation framework. Data were collected from a two-wave study involving 185 randomly chosen full-time administrative staff members in October 2024, in six colleges at the University of Mosul. Hypotheses have been tested by hierarchical multiple regression analysis and an estimated confidence interval for the indirect effect using SPSS 21.0 and Mplus 6.0. The results indicated a positive effect between despotic leadership and between Psychological Contract Breach (PCB) (β = 0.23, p < 0.01), as well as a positive effect between PCB and organizational deviance (β = 0.17, p < 0.01). The results also demonstrated a mediating role for PCB, as its presence rendered the association between despotic leadership and organizational deviance non-significant (β = 0.04, p = n.s.). Furthermore, we demonstrated a moderating role for moral identity, as its interaction with PCB reduced the negative impact on organizational deviance (β -0.15, p < 0.01). The study recommends that organizations should focus on discouraging despotic leadership and addressing subordinates’ perceptions of PCB. Moreover, the results emphasize the importance of ethical identity and its beneficial influence on the reduction of the influence of despotic leadership on the deviance within the organization.
Acknowledgments
We would also wish to thank the University of Mosul and the colleges, which constituted study population in this work. Their support was significant to facilitate us conduct and complete the study.
- Keywords
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JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)M14, D23, J23
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References49
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Tables4
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Figures2
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- Figure 1. Conceptual model
- Figure 2. Moral identity as a moderator on psychological contract breach and organizational deviance
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- Table 1. Confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement models
- Table 2. Correlations, means, and standard deviations
- Table 3. Mediating and moderating in the regression analysis
- Table 4. Moderated mediation of moral identity in organizational deviance
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HEXACO personality domains and deviant behavior in Nigerian public universities
Grace Obalade ,
Adefemi A. Obalade ,
Vuyokazi Mtembu
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.21(3).2023.02
Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 21, 2023 Issue #3 pp. 11-21 Views: 923 Downloads: 468 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯWorkplace deviance is one of the significant problems in Nigerian public universities. This study aims to investigate the impact of HEXACO personality factors (honesty-humility, emotionality, and agreeableness (H-HEA)) on deviant workplace behavior in public universities in Southwestern Nigeria. The choice of the institutions (Ekiti State University, University of Lagos, and the Federal University of Akure) in the Southwestern region was based on purposive sampling. Simple random sampling was employed to select academic and non-academic staff. The study adopted a quantitative research design and employed Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis to analyze and test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that the H-HEA domain of personality traits negatively correlates with organizational and interpersonal deviance. Secondly, H-HEA personality traits have a negative effect on organizational and interpersonal deviance. Overall, the results of the regression analyses suggest that the H-HEA HEXACO domains of personality traits individually reduces the organizational and interpersonal forms of deviance. Based on the findings, the human resource departments of these institutions can curb workplace deviance by giving preference to candidates or individuals with high scores in H-HAE personality traits. This will go a long way in curtailing the vices of workplace deviance in Southwestern Nigeria public universities.
