The Impact of Dark Triad Leader on Employee Creative Performance: Mediating role of Psychological Capital

Abstract

Leadership is responsible to shape the employee’s workplace attitude and their performance, however, in case of negative leadership results in undermining the positive contribution of their employees. Affective Events Theory (AET) states that dark triad leaders i.e. Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy leaders can effect employee’s creative performance by influencing their psychological resources. This study adds contribution in the literature of leadership and organizational behaviour by highlighting the role of employees’ psychological resource in fostering positive organizational outcomes. In this study, positivist research philosophy was adopted, in which a longitudinal research was designed. Respondents with the final sample of 518 were collected from the banking sector employees across Pakistan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. The findings of the results revealed that within the context of high power distance, intense power expectation and rigid hierarchical structure of Pakistani banking sector, the relationship among the research variables may be differ from other organizational variables. To accomplish the organizational goals, strict or manipulative leadership practices may occasionally be accepted. Affective Events Theory argues that Dark Triad Leadership creates negative emotional events in employees which results in lower their creativity, however, in high pressure work environment like in banking sector, these negative emotional events may be suppressed or manifested differently due to job insecurity and decrease creativity. Research add to the dark leadership literature by empirically defining PcyCap can play a vital role between dark triad leader and creative performance. This research encourages future researchers to enhance the study by considering the other mediating and moderating variables such as quality of leader-member exchange, ethical climate, moral disengagement, emotional intelligence or perception of organization justice to determine the understanding of why some employees remain more resilient to dark triad leadership than others.