Caring for those in your charge: the role of servant leadership and compassion in managing bullying in the workplace

Abstract

Purpose Adapting a positive business ethics framework, the purpose of this paper is to offer a new perspective to manage bullying at work. Specifically, this paper reports an empirical study which examines how the good work of servant leadership may lower employees’ exposure to workplace bullying, with compassion as a mediator and social cynicism beliefs (SCBs) as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were gathered from 337 essential health professionals working in various public and private health-care organisations in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model. Findings This study found that perceived servant leadership helps in lessening employee exposure to workplace bullying by strengthening their compassion. However, SCBs moderate the mediating role of compassion in employees’ perceptions of the servant leadership–bullying relationship. Research limitations/implications This study has implications in developing models of leadership to build employees’ empathetic resources to combat workplace bullying. The authors found that servant leadership and workplace compassion, embodying positive, ethical and sustainable attributes, play a crucial role in managing bullying at work by promoting relational dignity. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the relationships between employee perceptions of servant leadership, workplace bullying and employee compassion while considering SCBs as a boundary condition.

A role that takes its toll? The moderating role of leadership in role stress and exposure to workplace bullying

“…Second, our results point to the fact that leadership practices interact with other workplace factors and may be a part of the solution to address workplace bullying. This expands the field’s current focus beyond destructive types of leadership (Samnani, 2021; Einarsen et al , 2007) and draws attention to the potential of positive organizational psychology (Rayner, 2021) and more sustainable types of leadership (Ahmad et al , 2023) in workplace bullying intervention work. Our findings indicate that effective workplace bullying interventions should focus on impacting leadership practices by providing behavioural cues and encouraging leaders to display support by listening, organizing help and providing guidance.…”

“…By increasing leaders’ awareness of fair and supportive practices, organizations should not only observe a drop in reported bullying but also a decrease in mental distress and strain, sickness absence and disability pensioning (Blomberg and Rosander, 2021; Høgh et al , 2021a; Nielsen et al , 2020) among their employees. In so doing, organizations exhibit efforts towards sustainable workforce management, responsible management and ethical workplaces (Ahmad et al , 2023). Displaying supportive and fair behaviour towards one’s subordinates is consistent with ethical leadership, which means following such behaviours and motives as being trustworthy and fair (Yukl, 2010).…”

How does compulsory citizenship behavior disturb police employees' psychological health? The roles of work–family conflict and putting family first

“…It proposes that individuals are negatively affected when there is a likelihood of losing a resource, actual resource loss or a lack of anticipated resource gain; conversely, they are positively influenced when there is expected or actual resource gain (Hobfoll et al. , 2018; Ahmad et al. , 2023).…”

“…This theory is based on the concept that individuals want to acquire and protect resources (Chaudhary and Islam, 2022;Islam and Chaudhary, 2022). It proposes that individuals are negatively affected when there is a likelihood of losing a resource, actual resource loss or a lack of anticipated resource gain; conversely, they are positively influenced when there is expected or actual resource gain (Hobfoll et al, 2018;Ahmad et al, 2023). It also explains that resources are not just physical items, but also comprised of individual attributes, energy and conditions (Chou et al, 2021).…”

Despotic vs narcissistic leadership: differences in their relationship to emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions

“…Third, we contribute toward COR theory and the unfolding model of turnover by exploring linkages of despotic and narcissistic leadership with turnover intentions through emotional exhaustion, a form of resource depletion. Methodologically, our three-wave data collection strategy minimizes common method bias and reflects the unfolding sequence of destructive leadership styles, emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions (Sinclair et al , 2015; Ahmad et al , 2023). Our study has practical implications too, in both health care and elsewhere.…”