Leader narcissism and defensive silence in higher education: a moderated mediation model of interactional justice and value congruence

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the narcissism of leader and the defensive silence of employee. Specifically, it introduces interactional justice as mediator by taking a relational approach. It also considers the moderating role of leader-follower congruence in the relationship between leader narcissism and defensive silence. The sample included 1,023 randomly selected faculty members and department chairs from 15 universities in Turkey. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis tested the proposed model. The findings supported the positive relationship between leader narcissism and employee's defensive silence as well as interactional justice's mediating role. Moreover, when the level of congruence of leader-follower value is high, the relationship between leader narcissism and defensive silence is also strong, whereas the relationship is weak when the level of congruence of leader-follower value is low. This study contributes to employee silence literature by revealing the relationship between leader narcissism and employee silence. In addition, this study provides practical assistance to higher education employees along with their leaders interested in building trust, enhancing employee-leader relationships, and reducing defensive silence.