IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v15y2025i10p399-d1774206.html

Corporate Culture, Leadership, and Pathological Relationships: A Moderated Mediation Model of Employees’ Well-Being

Author

Listed:
  • Jakub Michulek

    (Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26 Zilina, Slovakia)

  • Lubica Gajanova

    (Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26 Zilina, Slovakia)

  • Dominika Gajdosikova

    (Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26 Zilina, Slovakia)

  • Matus Senci

    (Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26 Zilina, Slovakia)

Abstract

This study investigates how corporate culture, work atmosphere, leadership, and pathological workplace relationships are linked to employees’ psychological well-being. Drawing on the JD-R framework and COR theory, we conceptualise supportive team dynamics and toxic interpersonal processes as parallel conditions shaping well-being at work. Survey data from 441 Slovak employees were analysed using a dual-moderated mediation model. The results show that corporate culture is positively associated with well-being mainly through its relationship with the work atmosphere, confirming the mediating role of workplace climate. Leadership moderates this pathway by attenuating the indirect association between culture and well-being. Contrary to expectations, pathological relationships did not exhibit a significant moderating effect, indicating that their role may be more complex and context-dependent. These findings extend existing models of employee well-being by incorporating negative social phenomena to an integrative framework. The study underscores the importance of examining both supportive and toxic aspects of organisational life simultaneously. Practically, the results suggest that fostering a positive culture, a healthy work atmosphere, and effective leadership practices can jointly strengthen employees’ psychological well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Jakub Michulek & Lubica Gajanova & Dominika Gajdosikova & Matus Senci, 2025. "Corporate Culture, Leadership, and Pathological Relationships: A Moderated Mediation Model of Employees’ Well-Being," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-32, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:10:p:399-:d:1774206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/10/399/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/10/399/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guillaume Deffuant & Thibaut Roubin & Armelle Nugier & Serge Guimond, 2024. "A newly detected bias in self-evaluation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(2), pages 1-28, February.
    2. Cribari-Neto, Francisco, 2004. "Asymptotic inference under heteroskedasticity of unknown form," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 215-233, March.
    3. Ján Zábojník, 2004. "A model of rational bias in self-assessments," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 23(2), pages 259-282, January.
    4. Lara Lindert & Sabrina Zeike & Kyung-Eun (Anna) Choi & Holger Pfaff, 2022. "Transformational Leadership and Employees’ Psychological Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Frank Bau & Kerstin Wagner, 2015. "Measuring corporate entrepreneurship culture," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 25(2), pages 231-244.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benoît Le Maux & Federica Minardy & Charlotte Magalhaes, 2011. "Determinants of Electoral Outcomes: A simple Test of Meltzer and Richard's Hypothesis," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2011-03-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    2. repec:ags:aaea22:335733 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Szafranek, Karol, 2017. "Flattening of the New Keynesian Phillips curve: Evidence for an emerging, small open economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 334-348.
    4. Katarzyna Jabłońska, 2018. "Dealing With Heteroskedasticity Within The Modeling Of The Quality Of Life Of Older People," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 19(3), pages 423-452, September.
    5. Cheng, Tsung-Chi, 2012. "On simultaneously identifying outliers and heteroscedasticity without specific form," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 2258-2272.
    6. Pötscher, Benedikt M. & Preinerstorfer, David, 2025. "Valid Heteroskedasticity Robust Testing," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 249-301, April.
    7. Zeileis, Achim, 2006. "Implementing a class of structural change tests: An econometric computing approach," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 50(11), pages 2987-3008, July.
    8. Benedikt M. Potscher & David Preinerstorfer, 2024. "A Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Size Controllability of Heteroskedasticity Robust Test Statistics," Papers 2412.17470, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2026.
    9. Pötscher, Benedikt M. & Preinerstorfer, David, 2023. "How Reliable Are Bootstrap-Based Heteroskedasticity Robust Tests?," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 789-847, August.
    10. Francisco Cribari-Neto & Maria da Gloria Lima, 2010. "Approximate inference in heteroskedastic regressions: A numerical evaluation," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 591-615.
    11. MacKinnon, James G., 2011. "Thirty Years of Heteroskedasticity-Robust Inference," Queen's Economics Department Working Papers 273816, Queen's University - Department of Economics.
    12. Karol Szafranek & Aleksandra Hałka, 2019. "Determinants of Low Inflation in an Emerging, Small Open Economy through the Lens of Aggregated and Disaggregated Approach," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(13), pages 3094-3111, October.
    13. Nicolas Sommet & Caroline Pulfrey & Fabrizio Butera, 2013. "Did My M.D. Really Go to University to Learn? Detrimental Effects of Numerus Clausus on Self-Efficacy, Mastery Goals and Learning," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-1, December.
    14. Cyrus J. DiCiccio & Joseph P. Romano & Michael Wolf, 2016. "Improving weighted least squares inference," ECON - Working Papers 232, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Nov 2017.
    15. Cerqueti, Roy & Costantini, Mauro & Lupi, Claudio, 2011. "FDR Control in the Presence of an Unknown Correlation Structure," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp11059, University of Molise, Department of Economics.
    16. Romano, Joseph P. & Wolf, Michael, 2017. "Resurrecting weighted least squares," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 1-19.
    17. Weingarten, Nina & Bach, Leonie & Wang, Wen-Xiu & Roosen, Jutta & Hartmann, Monika, 2023. "Every Step You Take: Nudging Animal Welfare Product Sales in a Virtual Supermarket," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335733, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. repec:jss:jstsof:11:i10 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Lyocsa, Stefan, 2015. "Predicting changes in the output of OECD countries: An international network perspective," MPRA Paper 65774, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Hausman, Jerry & Palmer, Christopher, 2012. "Heteroskedasticity-robust inference in finite samples," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 232-235.
    21. Marques, André M., 2022. "Is income inequality good or bad for growth? Further empirical evidence using data for all Brazilian cities," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 360-376.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:10:p:399-:d:1774206. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.