Aggressive workplace behavior, motivation, and worker's output: Mediating effect of religiosity among the service sector employees

Abstract

Toxic or aggressive workplace environment can directly and adversely affect the performance and motivation level of the employees in almost all types of business organizations. However, the role of religiosity can be observed as a dynamic tool to control this adverse effect. This study aims to examine the direct impact of aggressive workplace behavior in the form of workplace harassment, bullying, ostracism and workplace incivility to check their impact on two of the key endogenous constructs: workers' output and their level of motivation. Additionally, the mediating role of religiosity is also investigating while taking a sample of 415 employees through questionnaire approach. The overall response rate was 61%, which was further utilized for the descriptive analysis, assessment of measurement model through CFA and finally through structural equation modelling (SEM) technique while using AMOS-22. The outcomes of the study reveal the fact that both motivation and workers' output are adversely affected by key factors of aggressive workplace environment. However, the mediating role of religiosity provides the evidence that negative impact of workplace harassment, bullying and other subtleties of aggressive workplace behavior can reasonably lower down through religiosity. Besides, this study provides some suggestions, policy implications and limitations for the future studies.