Paranoid personality and frontline employee’s proactive work behaviours: a moderated mediation model of empathetic leadership and perceived psychological safety

Abstract

PurposeThis study expands on research related to the dark side of personality traits by examining how individual dark personality affects proactive work behaviours. Specifically, the authors consider paranoia as a dark personality trait and propose that it negatively relates to perceived psychological safety and indirectly affects frontline employees' (FLEs) willingness to report customer complaints as well as their extra-role customer service. The authors also posit that empathetic leadership is a focal, contextual factor that mitigates the impact of paranoia on perceived psychological safety and, consequently, the willingness to report customer complaints and engage in extra-role customer service behaviour.Design/methodology/approachThe model was tested on a sample of 252 FLEs using process macro (Hayes, 2017) and AMOS. Data were collected from FLEs working in different hospitality organisations using a time-lagged design; supervisor-rated employee extra-role customer service was also measured.FindingsThe authors found that FLEs with a paranoid personality trait had a lesser sense of psychological safety at work, which reduced their willingness to engage in proactive work behaviours. However, this negative effect was mitigated by the presence of an empathetic leader.Originality/valueThe results are important because research has yet to determine which actions managers should take to counter the negative effects of dark personalities in the workplace.

Do self-monitors experience less emotional exhaustion? Testing the role of supervisor-rated performance and perceived competitive climate

“…One of the main implications of our research is that employees' well-being at work is a function of the person and the situation, suggesting that service managers can promote employee well-being through creating awareness among employees regarding their personality (Bani-Melhem et al , 2021) and promoting healthy competitive climates (Khan et al , 2017). The research has widely established that self-monitors fit well and perform better in customer service contexts, including the hospitality industry.…”

How and when does job crafting contribute to franchised restaurant managers' service performance? The moderation of headquarter control systems

“…Our findings provide knowledge that is relevant to promoting the service performance of managers by demonstrating job crafting as an important job strategy that enhances service performance through work engagement. While an increasing body of research highlights the importance of job crafting or proactive work behavior in service jobs (Bani-Melhem et al. , 2021; Hulshof et al.…”

“…Our findings provide knowledge that is relevant to promoting the service performance of managers by demonstrating job crafting as an important job strategy that enhances service performance through work engagement. While an increasing body of research highlights the importance of job crafting or proactive work behavior in service jobs (Bani-Melhem et al, 2021;Hulshof et al, 2020;Karatepe and Eslamlou, 2017;L opez-Cabarcos et al, 2015;Shin et al, 2017), prior research has focused on non-managerial employees' job crafting, leaving the role of managerial job crafting unknown. Although recent studies have begun to examine the effect of managerial job crafting on work outcomes (Cenciotti et al, 2017;Shin et al, 2020b), virtually no research has assessed its effect on service performance.…”

Gazing the dusty mirror: Joint effect of narcissism and sadism on workplace incivility via indirect effect of paranoia, antagonism, and emotional intelligence

“…In many cases, firms avoid collaborating with employees who have the same negative personality trait (Spain et al, 2014 ; Wood and Dennard, 2017 ). The psychological mechanism of paranoia inhibiting proactive behavior is currently being debated (Frazier et al, 2017 ; Guchait et al, 2019 ; Bani-Melhem et al, 2020 ). Paranoia is a serious mental disorder in one's personality that might lead to clinical or non-clinical problems (Spain et al, 2016 ).…”