Impact of Despotic Leadership on Employees Outcome: The Mediating Roleof Emotion Regulation Failure

Abstract

The study explored the possible outcome of Despotic Leadership (DL) on
Work Withdrawal Behavior (WWB) of employees working in the Federal
Government Secretariat Islamabad, Pakistan. The present study
investigated the consequences of Despotic Leadership (DL) on employees
of the Establishment Division. The study is using a deductive approach, and
cross-sectional modality of research by applying a convenient sampling
technique, the data was collected from the nine (09) Wings and seven (07)
Attached Departments/Autonomous Bodies with basic scales ranging from
17 to 20 working in the Establishment Division (ED) (Federal Government
Secretariat Islamabad). The authors have collected the final 254 responses
through questionnaires from employees of the ED. Furthermore, using the
time-legged design approach, the survey was conducted in a non-contrived
setting by collecting the data over three-time spans (Time T1, T2, and T3).
Thus, the independent variable (Despotic Leadership) and moderating
variable (Supervisor’s Organizational Embodiment) of this study were
tapped in time 1, the mediator (Emotion Regulation Failure) was tapped in
time 2, and employees’ outcome (Work Withdrawal Behavior) was tapped
in time 3. The findings revealed that Despotic Leadership (DL) had a
substantial impact on Emotional Regulation Failure (ERF), which led to
employees withdrawing from productive work. The findings also indicated
that under the moderating role of the Supervisor’s Organizational
Embodiment (SOE), the effects of DL on ERF were weaker and vice versa.
The paper concluded with further discussion, implications, and future
research along with limitations in a similar domain of the study. This
research will benefit the Establishment Division's training wing, which
provides training to officers in occupational groups as well as civil servants.
This study can assist policymakers in determining the true function of the
leader in Federal Government organizations and developing measures to
curb the detrimental outcome of despotic leadership.