The Impact of Destructive Leadership on Public Servants’ Performance: The Mediating Role of Leader-member Exchange, Perceived Organizational Support and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Over the last years, a proliferating number of studies has revealed that destructive leadership negatively relates to employee performance, but few of them refer to the public sector. The present study seeks to add further insight into this relationship, by investigating three explanatory mechanisms, namely leader-member exchange, perceived organizational support and job satisfaction. Evidence from 354 public servants in Greece revealed the sequential full mediation of all three variables, highlighting the distal and indirect relationship between destructive leadership and employee performance. The theoretical significance and the practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.