Narcissistic Leadership and Workplace Deviance: A Moderated Mediation Model of Organizational Aggression and Workplace Hostility

Background: Workplace Deviance are among the most common phenomena observed in organizations. This might be attributed to narcissistic style of leadership and the manifestations of organizational aggression. It is further aggravated by increased workplace hostility. The main purpose of this research is to observe the impact of moderated mediation of organizational aggression and workplace hostility upon the relationship between narcissistic leadership and workplace deviance. Methodology: A cross-sectional investigation was conducted using self-survey method. With 673 participants in the study, the author used an electronic questionnaire (Google Forms) to collect data from employees working at five food product companies in Iraq. Mediation model, moderation analysis, and moderated mediation models were evaluated using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for which AMOS V.23 software was used. Results inferred that organizational aggression partially mediates a positive relationship between narcissistic leadership and workplace deviance. Further, the relationship between organizational aggression and workplace deviance depends on the changes in level of workplace hostility. Moreover, the study empirically supports the fundamentals of moderated mediation model. In other terms, the study infers that indirect effect of narcissistic leadership in workplace deviance through organizational aggression has been significantly moderated by workplace hostility. Conclusion: When leaders adopt narcissistic behaviors to achieve their personal interests, it leads to increased organizational aggression and workplace deviance that eventually increase the levels of workplace hostility. Accordingly, moderated mediation model provides a better understanding about how narcissistic leadership, organizational aggression, and workplace hostility all work together to influence workplace deviance.

Are we Ready to Use Microchip Implants? An International Cross-sectional Study

Background and purpose: Despite their clear relevance to human life, microchip implants are still widely viewed as negative, threatening our privacy and raising growing concerns about our health. This paper aims to investigate the important factors influencing people’s perception of microchip implants and their willingness to use them for different purposes. Methodology: The cross-sectional study was conducted in three European countries and the data were analysed using the group Structural Equation Modeling approach. Only complete answers to the online survey questionnaire items were used representing a convenience sample of 804 respondents. Results: The results show that perceived ease of use, usefulness and perceived trust are significant predictors of intention to use microchip implants. Perceived trust is influenced by privacy and technology safety. Concerns about painful procedures and other health concerns reduce the perceived usefulness of microchip implants. Apart from the predictor health concerns, the results were similar in all countries. Conclusion: Based on the presented results, researchers interested in investigating the actual use of microchip implants can establish a solid foundation for their research. The results may assist policy makers in developing the regulations to ensure the safe use of microchip implants and allow for a higher level of security. As a follow-up, investigation of changes in the acceptance of microchip implants following the threat of a global pandemic is proposed.

The FunCaps Framework: Reconceptualizing Operational Alignment

Background and purpose: Operational alignment, the alignment between business processes (BPs) and information systems (ISs), is a well-acknowledged requirement for improving business efficiency. However, a lack of sound foundation for the practical implementation of operational alignment remains in the existing literature. This is, in part, because previously developed coarse-grained strategic alignment models for operational alignment have overlooked the differences between strategic and operational levels of alignment. Additionally, while some studies have recognized these differences, they remain limited. This is partly due to their negligence of the IS’s socio-technical nature or their focus on identifying the social antecedents and their effect on operational alignment, without considering how ISs meet the business requirements in achieving operational alignment. To overcome this potential lack of applicability, the purpose of this paper is to determine the right level of abstraction for describing BPs and ISs and reconceptualizing operational alignment. Methodology: This paper conducts empirical research using a grounded theory (GT), centering on semi-structured interviews with 28 experts involved in the Iranian top public universities. Data were analyzed by using MAXQDA software. Results: The resulting FunCaps framework specifies the required combinations of BP functions and IS capabilities for operational alignment. Conclusion: FunCaps reconceptualizes operational alignment based on operational planning and reciprocal integration and establishes the broader picture by considering an IS as a socio-technical system.

Mapping of the Emergence of Society 5.0: A Bibliometric Analysis

Background and purpose: The study aims to answer a research question: With which essential cornerstones technological innovations the transformation from Society 4.0 and Industry 4.0 to Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0 is enabled? The study is important for practitioners and researchers to understand the meaning of Society 5.0 and to familiarise themselves with the drivers that will help shape Society 5.0 policies and play an important role in its further development. Therefore, the authors conducted a quantitative bibliometric study that provides insights into the importance of the topic and incorporates current characteristics and future research trends. Methodology: The study used algorithmic co-occurrence of keywords to gain a different insight into the evolution of Society 5.0. Thirty-six selected articles from the Web of Science database were analysed with the bibliometric analysis and overlay visualisation. Results: The co-occurrence analysis shows that terms artificial intelligence, cyber-physical systems, big data, Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, open innovation, Society 5.0, super-smart society have been widely used in researches in the last three years. Conclusion: The study presents a bibliometric analysis to analyse the current and future development drivers of a Society 5.0. According to the results, the transition from Society 4.0 to Society 5.0 can be achieved by implementing knowledge and technologies in the IoT, robotics, and Big Data to transform society into a smart society (Society 5.0). In particular, the concept would enable the adaptation of services and industrial activities to individuals’ real needs. Furthermore, these technologies allow advanced digital service platforms that will eventually be integrated into all areas of life.

Content Analysis of Gossip at Different Levels of a Hospital

Background: Most societies have a negative attitude toward gossip and managers are concerned about the impact of gossips on the communication in an organizational environment. Our study examined the perception of gossip, and the context of gossip at different levels of a hospital, a case of organization with high communicational relation among staff. Also, the differences between the gossip context within the organizational context and within the social environment have been considered. Methodology: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 informants, 9 in each of three groups: nurses, supervisors and managers of the Hospital. Recorded interviews were analyzed using content analysis, and results for each group of respondents were compared. Finally, the main gossiping issues for each group were categorized. Results: The study revealed that the topics of gossip in a hospital can be divided into eight main categories, and 34 sub-categories all identifiable by special topics. These main topics included confidentiality issues, merits, financial status/standing, personal characteristics, position, communications, biography, and job conditions. In terms of organizational gossip, a person’s merit in the workplace and financial standing were of particular interest to the participants of this study. Also, the gossip topics at different levels among nurses, administrators, and managers had significant differences. Conclusion: Managers should acknowledge different gossip contents among people at different organizational levels, and that employees do not have the same motives for communication at different organizational levels. Additionally, the distances between contents in the Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire and categories in the organizational environment need more studies, to explore precedents and outputs. Managers may use these findings to facilitate organizational change and communication.

Antecedents of Service Innovative Behavior: The Role of Spiritual Leadership and Workplace Spirituality

Background: Managers in labor-intensive industries are facing challenges on how to encourage innovation, as services are mostly offered by employees and not machines. Intense competition in the service and hospitality industry calls for more innovative work behavior exhibition among employees, and the question on how enterprises can nurture innovative behavior remains unanswered. The objective of the research is to clarify the inter-relationship between spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality and how their collective effect can nurture employee service innovative behavior in the hospitality industry by drawing on relational energy theory. Methodology: Data were obtained using a survey quantitative research method based on a convenience sampling technique from (n = 867) employees working in four- and five-star Jordanian hotels. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied to assess the proposed research model and hypotheses. Results: Findings from PLS-SEM show that spiritual leadership impacts and increases the level of workplace spirituality and service innovative behavior among employees. Workplace spirituality increases the level of service innovative behavior and mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and service innovative behavior. Conclusion: Spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality initiatives and practices can be beneficial for hospitality enterprises in terms of service innovative behavior. Moreover, the key point is that hospitality HR practitioners should not only focus on selecting, training, and appointing leaders with spiritual characteristics, but also on creating a spiritual work atmosphere to enable employees to exhibit service innovative behaviors. The results did not only advance our knowledge concerning the nexus and importance of spirituality in the workplace, but also validates and reveals the importance of spirituality on innovative behavior in the Arabian context.

Effect of Implicit Voice Theories on Employee Constructive Voice and Defensive Silence: A Study in Education and Health Sector

Background and Purpose: Implicit voice theories are the beliefs that are related to employee silence. This study aims to examine the implicit voice theories (don’t embarrass the boss in public, negative career consequences of voice) as predictors of employee defensive silence and employee constructive voice. Methodology: This study is a cross-sectional and an analytical study. The sample of this study consisted of 494 participants working in the healthcare sector (n = 277) and education sector (n = 217) in Turkey. We performed linear regression analyses to test our hypotheses. Results: We found that power distance and negative career consequences of voice predicted employee defensive silence while proactive personality and the belief of “don’t embarrass the boss in public” predicted employee constructive voice. These results confirm the effect of implicit voice theories on employee silence and voice. Conclusions: Employees holding the belief of “don’t embarrass the boss in public” and “negative career consequences of voice” tend to remain silent or prefer to speak with their managers privately, which prevent sharing ideas in group interactions in organization. Therefore, managers must combat the belief that speaking up is risky. In order to change these beliefs in a positive way, they should make their subordinates feel that speaking up is a valuable behavior in organization.

Hotel Branding Exposed: a Content Analysis of Related Organisational Values

Background/Purpose: This paper explores how organisational values can help to understand the interlinks of hotel brands and their hotel rating. The study assumes that the importance of organisational values in the service sector represents one of the key components of both growth and development of an organisation. Methods: Conceptual content analysis was used on the dataset of organisational values found on websites of the top 100 European hotel brands. Advanced network analytic procedures were applied to identify clustered dimensions of organisational values among various hotel brands. Results: Results identified shared organisational values among hotel brands clustered into four predominant dimensions: entrepreneurial, stakeholders, moral, and tradition. The study confirmed wide content variability of organisational values within the hotel brand industry. Conclusion: The cluster analysis identified clusters of the most important words from values statements, concluding that hotel brands highly value “entrepreneurial” and “ethical” clusters. The island analysis approach on hotel brands’ level also reveals that organisational values in this sector are determined by many factors, including the scale and market positioning. Our study provides theoretical and practical implications to hotel brand strategists in order to better understand their current and desired sector position.

The Role of Workload, Nepotism, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Politics on Turnover Intention: A Conservation of Resources Perspective

Background: Despite extensive research on employee turnover intention in the existing literature. Previous studies have paid rare attention to the role of workload (WL), nepotism (N), job satisfaction (JS), and organization politics (OP) on turnover intention, especially, mediating the effect of harassment between WL, N, JS and OP on turnover intention in the Pakistani context. This study is using Hobfoll’s conservation of resources (COR) theory. Methods: Data were collected from 189 female employees (doctors and nurses) working in public and private hospitals in the province of Sindh, Pakistan, by adopting a purposive sampling technique. SmartPLS and SPPS were used to analyze the data. Results: The results demonstrated that workload and job satisfaction are positively related to harassment. At the same time, harassment has a direct effect on turnover intention. More importantly, harassment partially mediated the effect between workload and job satisfaction on turnover intention. In contrast, nepotism and organizational politics did not observe any significant relationship with harassment. However, it also did not have any mediating impact of harassment between nepotism and organizational politics on turnover intention. Conclusion: There is a lack of research on the antecedents of turnover intention in the existing literature especially in the developing country context (Pakistan). Furthermore, this study examined the mediation mechanism of harassment on turnover intention. In this way, this is an original contribution to the body of knowledge. Finally, COR theory has been utilized to explain how antecedents of turnover intention play their role along with harassment at the workplace. This study also advances the existing literature on human resource management. The current study provides insightful guidelines to policymakers, managers, and HRM practitioners for devising employee-friendly policies at the workplace.