INVISIBLE THREADS: WEAVING LEADER’S BEHAVIORAL INTEGRITY, EMPOWERMENT, AND DEVIANT WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR IN PRE-TERTIARY SCHOOLING INSTITUTES

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of leader’s behavioral integrity on deviant workplace behavior among pre-tertiary schooling institutes, with the moderating effect of employee psychological empowerment, and the mediation effect of employee-organization psychological distance. A structured questionnaire using purposive sampling technique employed to collect the data from 227 public school teachers of Balochistan and analyzed using partial least square structural equational modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 4.1. The results showed that there was an inverse relationship between a leader's behavioral integrity and an employee's deviant workplace behavior, with the psychological distance between the employee and the organization acting as an intermediary. Furthermore, the findings indicated that leadership strategies, including behavioral integrity and employee psychological empowerment, mitigate aberrant workplace behaviors among teachers, hence cultivating a more conducive educational environment. Building trust and closing the psychological gap between employees and the organization through the leader's behavioral integrity can help employees align with the organization's goals. The finding offers practical insights for principals and the policymakers of the pre-tertiary schooling institutes to promote the training and capacity building session to enhance the leader’s behavioral integrity in order to avoid the deviant workplace behavior, which will ultimately enhance the quality of education by teachers’ performance in Balochistan, Pakistan.