Can Gratitude Counter Workplace Toxicity? Exploring the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital (PsyCap)

Abstract

Gratitude is essential in positive organizational scholarship and is said to flourish and prosper organization members. This article aims to investigate the role of gratitude in transforming a toxic workplace into a collaborative work environment by exploring the mediating role of psychological capital (Psycap). The results reveal that gratitude practiced by the employees at the workplace can counter workplace toxicity and enhance a collaborative work environment, creating harmony in society. The study proposes the institutionalization of a gratitude-based organizational culture that prevents workplace toxicity and supports a collaborative work environment. The study is one of the pioneer studies that tried to unlock the “black box” through which dispositional gratitude can help build workplace harmony and collaboration.

The associations among gratitude, job crafting, teacher-student relationships, and teacher psychological well-being

“…Meanwhile, Mahipalan and Sheena (2019) investigated the spirituality of the workplace and subjective happiness among high school educators, highlighting the moderating function of appreciation. Lastly, Sarkar et al (2023) explored whether gratitude can counteract toxic workplace settings, examining its plausible mediating role in enhancing psychological capital and ameliorating unfavorable workplace circumstances.…”

Does workplace toxicity undermine psychological capital (PsyCap) of the employees? Exploring the moderating role of gratitude

“…Therefore, with the theoretical backing of the “broaden and build theory” of positive emotions and associated frameworks, we presume that gratitude can cushion the individuals from the pernicious influence of toxic behaviours because, gratitude, in and of itself, augment resources for coping with challenges (Armenta et al , 2017; Garg and Sarkar, 2020). Lastly, taking cue from the latest research (Kim and Baker, 2019; Locklear et al , 2021; Sarkar et al , 2023; Zhang and Wang, 2019; Garg et al , 2023), which demonstrated the effect of gratitude intervention for decreasing workplace mistreatment, including acts of incivility, the following hypotheses are posited. And, collectively, the following conceptual model has been proposed (refer to Figure 1):…”

Predicting non-violent work behaviour among employees using machine learning techniques

“…The rising instances of moonlighting and quite quitting need to be examined from the lens of organisational violence (Mehta et al , 2022). The latent and hidden conflict hidden within the minds and hearts of employee might develop into spirals of violence in the future (Sarkar et al , 2023). Thus, modern organisations seek to evolve interpersonal relationships based on empathy, love, trust, mutual welfare and compassion, which forms the basis of non-violent work culture (Richani, 2013).…”