Search results

Based on the conservation of resource theory and the affective events theory, the study aims to explore the role of workplace incivility in predicting work engagement through emotional exhaustion and how psychological capital moderates this relationship.

Using the questionnaire survey with a sample of 278 restaurant employees in Ghana and through process macro analysis, the hypotheses were tested.

The results depict the mediating role of emotional exhaustion on the workplace incivility–engagement relationship. Also, the level of an individual’s psychological capital buffers the impact of workplace incivility on engagement through emotional exhaustion. When psychological capital is high, the negative effect of workplace incivility on work engagement through emotional exhaustion weakens.

The findings suggest that organizations, particularly those in developing economies in Africa, can derive immense benefit from giving psychological capital training to employees to help buffer the effects of incivility on engagement through emotional exhaustion.

With a focus on a developing economy in Africa, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is novel in exploring the mediating and moderating mechanisms of the incivility–engagement relationship.

This study aims to investigate the influence of two perceived organizational ethics systems (perceived ethics training quality and integrity-based climate) on the ethical decision-making (EDM) of tax accountants in Ghana. The study also examines the moderating role of the decision-makers’ financial situation on the quality ethics training–EDM relationship.

Survey data from 356 tax accountants were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique.

The results show that the two ethics systems influence EDM, but their extent of influence varies across the stages of EDM. Specifically, quality ethics training is a better predictor of EDM at the ethical issue recognition stage, whereas integrity-based climate is a better predictor of EDM at the ethical intention stage. The study also found that decision-makers’ financial situation predicts the ethical recognition stage of EDM but does not moderate the quality ethics training–EDM relationship.

This study recommends the concurrent deployment of quality ethics training and an integrity-based work climate to improve ethical behavior. Policymakers should also emphasize a work climate that promotes honesty, conscientiousness and ethical principles (integrity-based climate) to improve ethical intentions.

This study applied the interactionist theory by capturing the relative effects of two organizational ethics systems and an individual-level situational factor in a single model. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that tests the moderation effect of decision-makers’ financial situation on the ethics training–EDM relationship in a developing country context.