Balancing the scales: how a benevolence climate mitigates exploitative leadership’s impact on service deviance and compulsory citizenship behavior

Purpose This study breaks new ground by examining the whiplash effect of exploitative leadership, a fact that has been overlooked in the hospitality literature. Drawing on ego depletion theory, this study aims to examine the impact of exploitative leadership on service deviance behavior and compulsory citizenship behavior, mediated by work–family conflict and moderated by the benevolence climate. Design/methodology/approach The authors used the multisource time-lag approach to collect data from 308 restaurant employees and analyzed it using structural equation modeling. Findings The results of this study reveal that exploitative leadership triggers service-deviant behavior and is negatively related to compulsory citizenship behavior. The findings show that work–family conflict mediates the relationship between exploitative leadership and service-deviant behavior, as well as compulsory citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the findings highlight the moderating role of the benevolence climate in the relationship between exploitative leadership and work–family conflict, as well as its subsequent impact on employee service deviance behavior and compulsory citizenship behavior. Originality/value This study is a pioneering effort to examine the unique combination of detrimental impacts of exploitative leadership on employee deviance and compulsory citizenship behavior, mediated through work–family conflict, and the interactional role of a benevolence climate in the hospitality industry. It uncovers how these factors contribute to the convergence of exploitative leadership with employee deviance and compulsory citizenship behavior. Moreover, this study examines how a stronger benevolence climate underscores the importance of fostering a supportive organizational environment to mitigate the adverse effects of exploitative leadership; therefore, its findings should be interpreted within this cultural and geographical context.