Toxic roots, bitter fruits: how dark leadership breeds workplace incivility

Purpose This study examines the impact of despotic and exploitative leadership on employees' workplace incivility, both directly and indirectly, through the mediation of leader-member exchange, grounded in the principles of leader-member exchange and social exchange theory. Design/methodology/approach We collected time-lagged data from staff members and managers of three-, four-, and five-star hotels in southeastern Vietnam. SmartPLS was used to perform SEM to verify the validity of the variables and test the hypotheses of this study. Demographic analysis was performed using SPSS. Findings The results of the analysis confirmed that despotic and exploitative leadership enhances workplace incivility among employees, whereas leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between despotic leadership and workplace incivility and between exploitative leadership and workplace incivility. The findings of this study illustrate the detrimental effects of despotic and exploitative leadership on employees' workplace incivility, emphasizing the need for organizations to be cautious when appointing leaders and to regularly evaluate the behaviors of current leaders. Originality/value The influence of dark leadership on employee behavior has not received sufficient consideration. This study examines the impact of different dark leadership styles, specifically despotic and exploitative leadership, on employee behavior within a single framework. This study adds to the body of knowledge on organizational behavior from the standpoint of leader-member exchange and social exchange theories.