Understanding Teacher Responses to Machiavellian Leadership: The Role of Ego Depletion and Traditionality

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of Machiavellian leadership on Pakistani college teachers’ withdrawal and helping behaviors through ego depletion, moderated by traditionality. Utilizing a three-waved, time-lagged survey design, data was collected from 530 teachers and 58 supervisors, forming 370 dyads, across 11 Pakistani colleges. The results, analyzed using the PROCESS Macro on SPSS, revealed that Machiavellian leadership increases withdrawal behaviors and decreases helping behaviors through ego depletion. Moreover, traditionality was found to amplify the negative impact of Machiavellian leadership on ego depletion and, subsequently, teacher behavior, but only at higher levels of traditionality. This research pioneers the application of ego depletion theory to Machiavellian leadership in the collegiate context, shedding new light on the psychological mechanisms and cultural factors driving adverse employee outcomes. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to promote ethical leadership and well-being in educational settings.

Keywords: Machiavellian leadership, traditionality, ego depletion, work withdrawal, helping behavior, Pakistan, supervisor–teacher relationship