Leadership and Workplace Aggression: A Meta-analysis

Wenrui Cao (), Peikai Li (), Reine van der Wal () and Toon Taris ()
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Wenrui Cao: Utrecht University
Peikai Li: Ghent University
Reine van der Wal: Utrecht University
Toon Taris: Utrecht University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2023, vol. 186, issue 2, No 6, 347-367

Abstract: Abstract Workplace aggression (bullying, incivility, and similar forms of interpersonal mistreatment) has been established as a prevalent and detrimental issue in organizations. While numerous studies have documented the important role of leaders in inhibiting or accelerating workplace aggression, a systematic overview of the associations between different leadership styles and workplace aggression as well as its boundary conditions is still lacking. This study reports a meta-analysis investigating the associations between leadership and workplace aggression. Drawing on data from 165 samples (N = 115,190), our results revealed that change-oriented, relational-oriented, and values-based and moral leadership (but not task-oriented leadership) were associated with reduced workplace aggression. In contrast, passive and destructive leadership (i.e., abusive, narcissistic, uncivil, and authoritarian) were associated with increased workplace aggression. Importantly, relative weights analyses revealed that ethical leadership was most strongly negatively associated with workplace aggression. Additionally, moderation analyses revealed that the associations between leadership and workplace aggression were, in some cases, moderated by power distance (for transactional leadership) and rating sources (for transformational and abusive supervision), but independent of measurement time lag. Overall, the findings of this meta-analysis highlight the important associations between leadership and workplace aggression. Implications for future research and policy recommendations aiming to reduce workplace aggression are discussed.

Keywords: Leadership; Workplace aggression; Meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05184-0

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