Effect of Leader Kindness on Service Sabotage and the Role of Feeling of Elevation and Employee Wellbeing: A Study of Municipal Employees in Kirikkale Province of Turkey

Abstract

While the stimuli related to negative situations like disasters affect people emotionally negatively, good behaviors toward those in difficult situations can cause us to experience positive emotions or reduce the effects of them. However, it is seen that exposure to kindness related stimuli and perceptions about them have not been sufficiently examined in the organizational context. In this research, the effect of perceptions toward leader’s kindness behaviors on service sabotage and the mediating role of feeling of elevation and employee well-being are investigated through a descriptive field study. In this direction, a questionnaire containing the research variables was applied to the employees of a municipality in Kırıkkale province of Turkey. As a result, it was found that perceptions toward leader kindness behaviors affect service sabotage in the negative direction, and employees’ sense of elevation and well-being positively. In addition, employee wellbeing was found to play a mediating role in the effect of perceptions toward kindness on service sabotage. The findings of the study suggest that perceptions about leader kindness behaviors may have important organizational outcomes. Finally, recommendations for researchers and organizations were developed.