Take the bull by the horns! The role of spiritual leadership and dark triad toward workplace incivility

Purpose

Workplace incivility has become a global issue; therefore, this study aims to investigate how spiritual leadership can help employees to overcome uncivil behaviors in the workplace. Specifically, the authors explored the mediating mechanism between spiritual leadership and workplace incivility through workplace spirituality. The authors further examined how negative personalities (i.e. Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism) moderate workplace spirituality and workplace incivility.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected data from 369 employees working in the banking sector on a convenience basis. The authors applied structural equation modeling for hypotheses testing.

Findings

The authors noted that spiritual leaders help employees to reduce uncivil workplace behaviors and employees’ perception of workplace spirituality intervenes the same. The authors further identified that the negative association between workplace spirituality and workplace incivility is moderated by the dark triad (Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism) such that individuals high in Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism weaken this negative association.

Research limitations/implications

The cross-sectional design may restrict causality. However, our findings not only contribute to social cognitive theory but also suggest management includes civility intervention as an essential part of organizations’ training and development.

Originality/value

This study not only highlighted the role of spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality toward workplace incivility but also shed light on how negative personalities can ignore workplace spirituality to exhibit uncivil behavior.