Ruling with an iron fist: the impact of despotic leadership on affective commitment through trust in leader and voice climate

Purpose This study investigates the impact of despotic leadership on employees’ affective organizational commitment (AOC) by incorporating trust in the leader and voice climate as parallel mediators. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 304 employees working in Pakistan. The direct and indirect relationships were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS macro (Model 4) for SPSS. Findings The findings showed a negative relationship between despotic leadership and AOC. The findings also showed that despotic leadership negatively affected employees’ trust in the leader and voice climate. Finally, both trust in the leader and voice climate were found to parallelly mediate the relationship between despotic leadership and AOC. Originality/value This study extends the dark leadership literature by providing empirical evidence on the parallel mediation roles of trust in the leader and voice climate in the relationship between despotic leadership and AOC.