Understanding the Psychological Pathways between Despotic Leadership and Medical Practitioners Burnout: A Mediated Moderated Model

Abstract

Burnout among medical doctors is a critical occupational challenge. In high-pressure health care environments, the leadership practices shape professional and personal well-being. Drawing on the theories of conservation of resource, social cognitive and work-family spillover model, the study examines work-family conflict as mediator and self-efficacy as a moderator between despotic leadership and burnout. Data were collected from 364 doctors working in public and private sector of Lahore and Sialkot. The hypothesis testing was done using SMART-PLS 4. Results revealed that despotic leadership positively associates with work-family conflict and burnout. Moreover, work-family conflict was shown to partially mediate the relationship between despotic leadership and burnout. The moderating results showed that self-efficacy does not moderate the direct relationship between despotic leadership and burnout but significantly dampens the negative effect of despotic leadership on work-family conflict as well as the indirect effect of work-family conflict on burnout. These findings highlight that toxic leadership style not only directly depletes doctors' psychological resources, but also disrupts their work-life balance which leads to high burnout. The study contributes to the negative leadership style and well-being in the healthcare sector. It also explores the role of self-efficacy as a personal resource which can buffer the negative effect of despotic leadership.

Keywords: Burnout, Despotic Leadership, Work-family conflict, self-efficacy, healthcare professionals.