When Leaders and Followers Match: Unveiling the Nexus Between Despotic Leadership, Supervisor–Employee Value Congruence, and Organizational Deviance—Evidence From Egypt

Abstract

Introduction Leadership style and employee behavior has long been a topic of interest in organizational research. Objectives To explore levels of despotic leadership, supervisor–employee value congruence, and organizational deviance among the studied nurses. Furthermore, to explore the connection between the three variables. Methods The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative design. The researchers used three tools as follows: the despotic leadership survey, an organizational deviance scale, and a perceived supervisor–employee value congruence scale. The first of April 2023 to the first of July 2023 were the 3 months that were used to collect the data from 250 nurses. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's correlation, Kruskal–Wallis test, and Mann–Whitney U test. Results Nurses perceived a moderate level of despotic leadership as mean ± SD, 16.80 ± 3.01, also a moderate level for organizational deviance (30.63 ± 4.65). The studied nurses perceived a moderate level of supervisor–employee value congruence (10.93 ± 1.32) Furthermore, there is a solid positive significant relationship between despotic leadership and organizational deviance where p = .001. There is a negative significant relationship between despotic leadership and supervisor–employee value congruence where p = .001. Also, there is a negative significant relationship between organizational deviance and supervisor–employee value congruence where p = .001. Conclusion Nurse managers need to retain leaders to inspire subordinates’ uncluttered communication networks, stirring nurses’ partaking in nursing committees’ assemblies, and decision-making. Hospital administrators ought to focus more on the role that value congruence plays as a buffer for subordinates who exhibit organizational deviance and high levels of mistrust. Strategies should be employed to create and maintain value congruence and reinforce desired nondeviant behaviors to foster a positive work environment.