The Relationship of the Components of Toxic Leadership Style with Organizational Cynicism in the Staff of the Ministry of Sport and Youth with the Mediating Role of Machiavellianism Management

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of the components of toxic leadership style with organizational cynicism in the staff of the Ministry of Sport and Youth with the mediating role of Machiavellianism management. The research method was descriptive and was in the category of applied research. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the official staff of the Ministry of Sport and Youth (N=335). The sample size of the study included 180 subjects based on Morgan's table. 3 standard questionnaires of Schmidt's Toxic Leadership (2008), the Machiavellian Management Questionnaire by Ruth Klaus (2009) and the Kalagan’s Organizational Cynicism Questionnaire (2009) were used in the study. Content validity of the questionnaires was approved by 6 sport management professors at Razi University. Their reliability was determined as 0.89, 0.87 and 0.88 respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient and path analysis model were used to analyze the data using SPSS and Amos software. The results showed that toxic leadership had a positive effect on organizational cynicism, with the impact factor of 0.53. It can also be stated that Machiavellianism management plays a mediating role with the impact factor of 0.32 in the effect of toxic leadership on organizational cynicism. Therefore, managers should try to prevent toxic behaviors as much as possible in their leadership style, because the existence and continuation of these negative behaviors ultimately lead managers to the lack of attention to the organization and its human resources and lay the groundwork for staff’s cynicism in the organization.