How leader’s psychological entitlement leads to despotic leadership causing employee-instigated workplace incivility: mediation of emotional exhaustion and moderation of Islamic work ethics

Purpose Leadership’s dark side has been on the rise, negatively affecting organizations. The phenomenon, however, is not as simple as it seems. Based on social exchange and conservation of resource theories, current research aims to explore the impact of psychological entitlement on despotic leadership, ultimately leading to instigated workplace incivility. Moreover, emotional exhaustion was tested as a mediator and Islamic work ethics as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach This study aims to examine the effect of dark side of leadership and for this, the survey approach was used to collect data from 402 bankers from Pakistan’s twin cities (Islamabad and Rawalpindi). Findings The results showed that psychological entitlement leads to despotism and despotic leaders become a reason for instigated workplace incivility. Results also showed that emotional exhaustion mediated, and Islamic work ethics moderated the relationship. Practical implications Bankers have a demanding job which is further exacerbated by despotic leaders feeling psychologically entitled and instigating employees toward uncivil behaviors as they experience emotional exhaustion. Despotic leaders need to be dealt with to reduce instigated incivility and Islamic work ethics can also aid in improving employee behavior. Originality/value Literature available on both antecedents and effects of the leadership’s dark side is limited, and this study strives to contribute by extending the literature available on psychological entitlement, despotic leadership and instigated workplace incivility relationships.