The Impact of Toxic Leadership on Job Anxiety and the Mediating Role of Organizational Cynicism: A Study on Employees of the North Africa Bank, Misrata Branch

Abstract

The present study aims to examine the impact of toxic leadership on job anxiety, while exploring the role of organizational sarcasm as a mediating variable, through its application on the employees of North Africa Bank – Misrata Branch. A descriptive-analytical approach was adopted, given its suitability for achieving the study objectives. Data were collected using a questionnaire distributed to the entire study population, which consisted of 30 employees, employing a comprehensive survey method.

For data analysis and hypothesis testing, SmartPLS 4 software was utilized, along with various statistical techniques, including means, standard deviations, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. Illustrative figures and tables were also used to facilitate the presentation of the results.

The findings revealed a statistically significant effect of toxic leadership on job anxiety. Among the dimensions of toxic leadership, the self-promotion dimension showed the strongest influence on job anxiety, with a correlation coefficient of 0.50. When organizational sarcasm was introduced as a mediating variable, the narcissism dimension emerged as the most influential, with a coefficient of 0.37. Furthermore, the effect size of toxic leadership on job anxiety was moderate (0.411), whereas its effect on organizational sarcasm was very strong (1.422), indicating that toxic leadership exerts a greater impact on organizational sarcasm than on job anxiety directly.