Leader's desire for promotion, workplace anxiety and exploitative leadership: the moderating effect of Machiavellianism

Purpose Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the present research paper examines the moderating role of leaders' Machiavellianism in the relationships between the desire for promotion, workplace anxiety and exploitative leadership. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected matched time-lagged data from part-time MBA students and their subordinates. The subordinate questionnaires were paired and coded by the researchers and then directly distributed and instructed to be filled out, which would not be known to the MBA students. The final sample size came to 370 leader-subordinate dyads. The data were analyzed using SPSS 24 and Mplus 7.0. Findings Leaders' desire for promotion is positively related to exploitative leadership via workplace anxiety. Furthermore, this mediating effect is significant when Machiavellianism is high, but not when Machiavellianism is low. Originality/value For business ethics scholars and practitioners, this study points out that leaders with a desire for promotion can produce workplace anxiety, lead to subordinates' perception of exploitative leadership and how this process varies by key personality trait—Machiavellianism.