Impression Management as an Intervening Mechanism between Despotic Leadership and Employee's Outcomes: The Moderating Role Goal Congruence and Machiavellianism

Abstract

Purpose/Objectives-- The main objective of this study is to analyze the mediating mechanism of impression management in the relationship of despotic leadership and employee’s outcomes (organizational career growth, creativity and job performance) such that under the dark leadership environment particularly despotic leadership environment, the employees indulged in impression management tactics realizing the only way for their survival and to gain their personal goals particularly those who are high in Mach and/ or their goals are aligned with those of the leader. The study attempts to bridge a gap in the dark side of leadership by examining how a dark leader such as despotic leader might actually turn to produce positive outcomes for followers and it opens up a new avenue by addressing the sunny side of the dark leadership. Design/Methodology/Approach--- The primary data which was temporally segregated at three different time intervals with a time lag of one and a half month between each time wave, was collected through questionnaires using convenient sampling technique, from employees and their peers (n= 458, self and peer dyads) belong to different levels and diverse occupational groups of a public sector utility organization of Pakistan. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis and Regression Analysis (PROCESS approach) employing bootstrapping technique using AMOS and SPSS software, were utilized for conducting analysis and testing the hypotheses. Findings-- The results fully support the hypotheses and the model fit statistics for structural models indicate that the model of direct and indirect effects adequately fits the data. The findings of the bootstrapping technique in SEM indicated that the indirect paths running from despotic leadership to employee’s outcomes (organizational career growth, job performance and creativity) through the mediator (impression management) were significant (Two tailed) and contained non zero (bootstrapped confidence intervals). Furthermore, Machiavellianism trait and Goal Congruence moderate the relation between Despotic Leadership and Impression Management. Research Limitations/ Implications--Although the current study possesses several theoretical and methodological strength; opens up a new avenue for the researcher by addressing the sunny side of dark leadership environment particularly the despotic leadership etc, it has some weakness as well and provide opportunities for research to expend the Despotic Leadership domain. The data was collected from the employees of a public sector utility organization using convenient sampling techniques in order to have access to the participants for 6-7 months for three wave of data collection, its findings cannot be generalized in other sectors. The study highlighted bright side of dark leadership and examine the mediating role of the impression management between despotic leadership and employee’s outcomes and future research may consider a few more mediating / moderating variables affecting the employee’s outcomes in the dark leadership such as despotic leadership environment.