Workplace Spirituality and Experienced Incivility at Work: Modeling Dark Triad as a Moderator

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ORIGINAL PAPER

Workplace Spirituality and Experienced Incivility at Work: Modeling Dark Triad as a Moderator Madhu Lata1 · Richa Chaudhary1 Received: 21 December 2019 / Accepted: 2 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Abstract Management scholars view workplace spirituality as an effective means of improving employee well-being and organizational productivity. However, a spiritual work environment may also be beneficial for controlling employees’ experiences of uncivil behaviors in the workplace. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and cognitive appraisal theory, we proposed and explored the linkage between workplace spirituality and incivility experienced from supervisors and colleagues in the workspace. We also investigated the moderating effect of the dark triad on the relationship. The data collected from two different samples (Sample 1—Banking industry, N = 225, and Sample 2—Information Technology (IT) industry, N = 220) provided support for our hypotheses. In both studies, we found a significant negative correlation between workplace spirituality and incivility experienced from the two sources (supervisors and colleagues). While only psychopathy moderated the linkage between workplace spirituality and supervisor incivility in Sample 1, the moderation effect of all three dark traits was significant in case of colleague incivility. In Sample 2, each member of the dark triad moderated the association between workplace spirituality and incivility experienced from seniors and peers. The findings provided support for the cognitive appraisal theory by explaining how the practice of workplace spirituality alters employees’ perceptions of uncivil behaviors shown by their superiors and peers. The study makes a significant contribution to theory, research, and practice by presenting workplace spirituality as a solution to the ever-rising epidemic of incivility in the workplace. Keywords  Workplace spirituality · Workplace incivility · Dark triad · Machiavellianism · Psychopathy · Narcissism · India

Introduction Workplace spirituality has been gaining much academic attention in the last two decades, since it facilitates the expression of spiritual selves of employees at work (Burack 1999; Duchon and Plowman 2005; Pawar 2009; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz 2010). Employees all over the world anticipate living their spiritual values at the workplace (Neal 2000). The workplace spirituality movement started in the 1920s. However, the campaign gained momentum in the 1990s when organizations were dealing with umpteen transformations occurring within and outside the organizational * Richa Chaudhary [email protected]; [email protected] 1

Madhu Lata [email protected]; [email protected]

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta, Patna, Bihar 801106, India

boundaries. The outcomes of these changes like corporate downsizing, layoffs, re-engineering, mergers, and cost-cutting brought about a massive rise in the competition among companies