When is an Islamic work ethic more likely to spur helping behavior? The roles of despotic leadership and gender
| Date | 03 April 2018 |
| Pages | 630-650 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-06-2017-0192 |
| Published date | 03 April 2018 |
| Author | Dirk De Clercq,Inam Ul Haq,Usman Raja,Muhammad Umer Azeem,Norashikin Mahmud |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
When is an Islamic work ethic
more likely to spur helping
behavior? The roles of despotic
leadership and gender
Dirk De Clercq
Goodman School of Business, Brock University, St Catharines, Canada
Inam Ul Haq
Lahore Business School, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan
Usman Raja
Goodman School of Business, Brock University, St Catharines, Canada
Muhammad Umer Azeem
School of Business and Economics,
University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, and
Norashikin Mahmud
Department of Human Resource Development,
University of Technology Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employees’Islamic work ethic might enhance their
propensity to help their coworkers on a voluntary basis, as well as how this relationship might be invigorated
by despotic leadership. It also considers how the invigorating role of despotic leadership might depend on
employees’gender.
Design/methodology/approach –Survey data were collected from employees and their supervisors in
Pakistani organizations.
Findings –Islamic work values relate positively to helping behaviors, and this relationship is stronger when
employees experience despotic leadership, because their values motivate them to protect their colleagues
against the hardships created by such leadership. This triggering role of despotic leadership is particularly
strong among female employees.
Practical implications –For organizations, the results demonstrate that Islamic work values may be
important for creating a culture that promotes collegiality, to a greater extent when employees believe that
their leaders act as despots who exploit their followers for personal gain.
Originality/value –This study elaborates how employees’Islamic work ethic influences the likelihood that
they help their coworkers, particularly in work contexts marked by stress-inducing leadership.
Keywords Quantitative, Conservation of resources theory, Helping behaviour, Islamic work ethic,
Despotic leadership
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Voluntary employee behaviors targeted at helping coworkers contribute effectively to how
organizations function internally (Chou and Stauffer, 2016; Hartmann et al., 2014; Podsakoff
et al., 1997; Williams and Anderson, 1991). Such helping behaviors reflect individually
oriented organizational citizenship, in that employees take the time to listen to their
coworkers’concerns and assist them in the completion of their job tasks, even if there is no
formal obligation to do so (Deckop et al., 2003; Li and Chen, 2012; Tang et al., 2008). Such
helping behaviors benefit both the targets (coworkers) and the employees themselves,
because they not only enhance coworkers’ability to meet their performance targets
Personnel Review
Vol. 47 No. 3, 2018
pp. 630-650
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-06-2017-0192
Received 27 June 2017
Revised 17 December 2017
Accepted 6 January 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
630
PR
47,3
(Podsakoff et al., 1997) but also benefit helpers due to the potential for reciprocity (Hui et al.,
2000; McNeely and Meglino, 1994). Moreover, employees who help enhance others’
well-being may experience personal joy and senses of fulfillment or meaningfulness
(Lemoine et al., 2015). Organizations in turn can benefit from a deeper understanding of
which factors trigger employees’engagement in helping behaviors (Choi and Moon, 2016;
Chou and Stauffer, 2016).
Previous studies highlight a broad range of factors that might stimulate helping
behaviors, including individual factors such as conscientiousness (Ilies et al., 2009),
self-efficacy (Chen and Kao, 2011), agreeableness (Ilies et al., 2009), and prosocial motives
(Choi and Moon, 2016), as well as personal values such as achievement, benevolence, and
self-direction (Arthaud-Day et al., 2012) and cultural values (Chan and Snape, 2013).
Contextual factors also influence helping behavior, including performance appraisal
processes (Zheng et al., 2012), organizational support (Randall et al., 1999), group cohesion
(Liang et al., 2015), and organizational justice (Karriker and Williams, 2009).
In contrast, stressful work conditions might limit employees’propensity to engage in
voluntary behaviors, whether because they are exposed to excessive workloads
(Pooja et al., 2016) or dysfunc tional organizat ional politics (R andall et al., 1999) or
because they confront destructive leadership styles such as abusive supervision
(Zellars et al., 2002) or despotic leadership (Naseer et al., 2016). The latter challenge is the
focus of this study. Despotic leaders are bossy, arrogant, and manipulative, focused on
their personal gains rather than their followers’interests (Aronson, 2001; De Hoogh and
Den Hartog, 2008). Evident in many organizations (Schilling, 2009), this style can be
manifested in various ways, such as when leaders express no pity or compassion for
followers, are unwilling to relinquish control, or expect complete obedience from
everyone who reports to them (De Hoogh and Den Hartog, 2008). Destructive leadership
styles, including despotic leadership, reflect a primary source of workplace adversity
that deprives employees of access to valuable leader resources, care, and support
(Naseer et al., 2016; Wu and Lee, 2016).
The core premise of the current study is that an important enabler of helping behavior, in
the presence of such resource-depleting despotic leadership, results from the personal
resource of an Islamic work ethic (Ahmad, 2011; Ali, 2005; Khan et al., 2015). An Islamic
work ethic embraces values such as hard work, collaboration, and ethically responsible
conduct and is deeply grounded in how Muslim employees perceive their appropriate
organizational roles (Ali, 1992; Beekun, 1997; Khan et al., 2015). To extend previous research
that focuses on the direct negative consequences of destructive leadership styles on the
likelihood that employees engage in voluntary behaviors (e.g., Buch et al., 2015; Wang et al.,
2013), this study investigates how and when employees’Islamic work ethic increases their
propensity to go out of their way to help coworkers. Some level of despotism might be
unavoidable in organizations –whether due to leaders’personality characteristics or strong
external competitive pressures (Einarsen et al., 2007; Schilling, 2009) –so firms must identify
ways to leverage appropriate resources among their employee bases to help them respond
effectively to the hardships caused by such destructive leadership approaches.
Conservation of resources (COR) theory postulates that employees’work behaviors are
influenced critically by anticipated resource gains and losses (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001), so
employeesengage in positive work behaviors,such as helping othersvoluntarily, to the extent
that they can leverage their existingpersonal resources and achieveadditional resource gains
(Hobfoll, 2001). Moreover, COR theory contends that the pursuit of further resource
gains appearsparticularly beneficial in the presence of adverse workconditions that generate
the threat of future resource losses (De Clercq and Belausteguigoitia, 2017; Hobfoll and
Shirom, 2000). Accordingly, an Islamic work ethic, as a critical personal resource
(Ahmad, 2011; Khan et al., 2015), may spur helping behavior, particularly in work contexts
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Islamic work
ethic
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