Employee behavioural silence and organization based self-esteem: A study of psychopathic leadership in government departments in Pakistan

This study explores the effect of psychopathic leadership on employee behavioural silence and how the employee behavioural silence leads to work-family conflict thus, effecting the organizational citizenship behaviour. Considering the insights offered by behavioural plasticity theory, we have investigated whether the organization based self-esteem moderates the effect of psychopathic leadership on employee behavioural silence. Data is collected using a structured questionnaire at three different time lags with a gap of one month. The sample consists of 400 employees of government department in Pakistan, mainly Police department. At Time1 387 data received were useable and at Time2 only 350 responses were useable. The final sample obtained at Time3 was 228 to pursue this research study. The results obtained after data analysis using SPSS indicates that the links hypothesized are significant except the moderation hypothesis. The findings of this research suggests that due to psychopathic leadership, employees are inclined towards behavioural silence, thus, leading to work-family conflict and inversely effecting organizational citizenship behaviour. In addition, the moderation hypothesis is not proved. We have concluded our research study by sharing several practical and managerial implications and by offering some future interventions and avenues for potential researchers.