The Influence of Exploitative Leadership on Service Performance in China and Morocco: The Mediation of Surface Acting and the Moderation of Power Distance Orientation

This study explores how exploitative leadership-manifested through self-serving and manipulative practices-affects service performance in the hospitality industries of China and Morocco. By focusing on frontline employees rather than on managers, the project attempts to fill an empirical gap that has persisted in discussions about non-Western workplaces. Researchers posit that leaders who exploit their subordinates might be tacitly accepted in high-power-distance cultures such as China, whereas workers in relatively egalitarian Morocco may react with visible fatigue and frustration. Power-distance orientation is therefore treated as a cultural lens that intensifies or dampens the detrimental effects of the toxicity. Standardized instruments provide the quantitative foundation. The researchers rely on the Exploitative Leadership Scale, the Emotional Labor Scale, and a locally validated version of the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire, along with items derived from Hofstede’s original battery. Questionnaire packets-split into two waves to bolster causal inference-will be delivered electronically to hotel staff in Beijing and in Marrakesh. The first wave collects anchor data on perceived exploitation and power-distance attitudes; a follow-up three months later clocks surface acting and self-reported job performance. A pilot run precedes the main fieldwork to check wording, reliability, and cultural fit. Item-by-item feedback from bilingual colleagues ensures that no cultural nuance, euphemism, or workplace idiom slips between the cracks. This project sets out to uncover the subtleties of how local customs and social norms color workers views of managers who abuse their authority. The goal is to translate those findings into practical guidance for firms trying to tame toxic leadership across the world’s service sectors.