Workplace spirituality and employee incivility: Exploring the role of ethical climate and narcissism

Abstract

This study aimed to examine how and when the practice of workplace spirituality fosters a civil work atmosphere in the Indian hotel industry. Grounded in social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) and theory of threatened egotism and aggression (Baumeister et al., 1996), ethical climate was proposed to mediate the relationship of workplace spirituality with instigated and experienced incivility, and narcissism was hypothesized to moderate this mediated linkage. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of hotel employees in India using a time-lagged two-study investigation. The findings revealed that workplace spirituality relates negatively with instigated as well as experienced incivility and this relationship is mediated by ethical climate. Nevertheless, the relationship between workplace spirituality and incivility via ethical climate was not the same for all employees. The indirect effect of workplace spirituality on instigated and experienced incivility was stronger for employees with high narcissistic characteristics. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.