Personality moderators of the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinates' resistance

The ways to avoid abusive supervision: the moderating effects of the characteristics of supervisors and subordinates on abusive supervision

Following the recent emphasis on supervisory interactions in abusive supervision, this study explains why and how supervisors' job insecurity and authoritarianism are related to abusive supervision and how subordinates' characteristics, agreeableness and negotiating resistance interact with the effects of supervisors' characteristics. We conducted a field study with 261 supervisor and subordinate dyads in South Korea, and the study findings confirmed that supervisors' authoritarianism is positively related to abusive supervision and that the effect is enhanced when subordinates are highly agreeable and display resistant behaviors. The study contributes to the leadership literature, particularly on abusive supervision and personality. Moreover, our findings have practical implications for employees to manage their work relationships with their supervisors or subordinates.

Emotional intelligence, leadership, and work teams: A hybrid literature review

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been widely researched in different fields of knowledge. This paper reviews the literature on emotional intelligence, leadership, and teams in 104 peer-reviewed articles and reviews provided by the Web of Science and Scopus databases from 1998 to 2022. It is a hybrid or mixed review as it uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques. The aims of this study are a performance analysis of the selected documents (years of publication, country, sectors, techniques used, most cited authors, authors with more publications, journals, journal quartiles, and scope of publication), as well as a co-word analysis using Atlas. ti v8. The results of the quantitative analysis indicate that the majority are empirical works. The qualitative analysis is a co-word analysis providing the following results: (i) classification of authors by major themes-categories (EI, leadership, team), (ii) classification of themes within each major theme: three subcategories in EI, 17 subcategories in leadership, and 19 subcategories in team and, lastly, (iii) classification according to the chronological development of main objectives from the most cited authors' articles we analyzed. Leadership (transformational, emergence, virtual, effective, health, effectiveness) is the major theme we studied. Our in-depth review of the articles has shown that emotionally intelligent leaders improve both behaviors and business results and have an impact on work team performance. It also highlighted a positive relationship between emotional competence and team members' attitudes about work. The new trends focus on the impacts of COVID19, the global crisis due to the Ukraine War, working in VUCA and BANI environments, comparative studies between generations, the application of artificial intelligence and the influence of mindfulness on organizations.

Using a Role-Based Approach to Develop a Comprehensive Typology of Follower Characteristics and Behaviors

Although numerous typologies, taxonomies, characteristics, and behaviors of followers have been proposed, there has been little systematic work to integrate these efforts. Guided by literature on follower role theory and expectations for those in follower roles, we propose a theoretical descriptive typology of follower characteristics and behaviors from the perspective of how leaders view followers within their role(s). Specifically, we constructed our typological model based on the three core tenets of follower role theory: (1) active versus passive characteristics and behaviors, (2) self-directed versus relationship-directed characteristics and behaviors, and (3) stability-focused versus change-focused characteristics and behaviors demonstrated in response to organizational constraints. We then conducted a systematic review of existing follower typologies, taxonomies, characteristics, and behaviors and synthesized 173 follower concepts from 36 Journal articles and book chapters to build out our typological model of 8 specific types of followers, labeled as follows: Politically strategic followers, independent followers, proactive followers, conforming followers, deviant followers, alienated followers, devoted followers, and submissive followers. This typology has important implications for scholars and practitioners. For scholars, this is the first effort to integrate prior attempts to classify follower in-role characteristics and behaviors, thus providing a useful framework to examine various ways in which followers interact with leaders in organizational frameworks. For practitioners, this typology can be used as a diagnostic tool to determine how to effectively engage subordinates.

Coproducing leadership: a reason to resist destructive leaders

Purpose

Follower's individual differences have been receiving increased attention in studying destructive leadership because followers may enable or disable it. One of these yet under-researched features is the role of followers' leadership coproduction beliefs (a role construal) in explaining their resistance to destructive leaders. Departing from the proactive motivation theory, this paper explores the robustness of coproduction beliefs by testing its ability to predict followers' resistance to destructive leaders across four situations – abusive supervision, exploitative leadership, organization directed behaviors and laissez-faire.

Design/methodology/approach

With a sample of 359 participants that answered a scenario-based survey, the present study tests the relationship between coproduction beliefs and resistance behaviors in the four mentioned groups, while controlling for alternative explanations. A multigroup analysis was conducted with PLS-SEM.

Findings

Constructive resistance is always favored by coproduction beliefs independently of the leader's type of destructive behavior. Dysfunctional resistance, however, is sensitive to the leader's type of destructive behavior.

Originality/value

This paper extends knowledge on the role of coproduction beliefs as an individual-based resource against destructive leaders.

The hot and the cold in destructive leadership: Modeling the role of arousal in explaining leader antecedents and follower consequences of abusive supervision versus exploitative leadership

Due to its devastating consequences, research needs to theoretically and empirically disentangle different sub-types of destructive leadership. Based on concepts derived from aggression research distinguishing re- and proactive aggression, we provide a process model differentiating abusive supervision and exploitative leadership. High versus low arousal negative affect is installed as the central mediating factor determining (1) whether perceived goal-blockage (leadership antecedents) leads to abusive supervision versus exploitative leadership and (2) whether a specific leadership behavior leads to active versus passive follower behavior (leadership consequence). Further, theoretical anchoring of individual and contextual moderators onto the model's process paths is provided and exemplary hypotheses for concrete moderation effects are deduced. Based on the provided process model, we highlight four recommendations to facilitate process-based construct differentiation in future research on destructive leadership. To precisely understand the differences and commonalities in different forms of destructive leadership will ultimately enable custom-tailored inter- and prevention.

Plain Language Summary

Negative leadership—also named “destructive” leadership—has very bad effects on followers and organizations. There are not just one, but many forms of destructive leadership and it is important to understand where different sub-types come from (i.e., to understand their antecedents) and which specific effect they have (i.e., to understand their consequences). In this paper, we focus on better understanding two forms of destructive leadership, namely abusive supervision and exploitative leadership. These two forms are similar to the two main forms of aggression. Abusive supervision is similar to reactive aggression, an impulsive “hot blooded” form of aggression. Exploitative leadership is similar to proactive aggression, a premeditated “cold blooded” form of aggression. We explain the parallels between the two forms of aggression and the two forms of leadership and provide a model which allows to predict when one versus the other form of leadership occurs and to which follower behavior they lead. An important factor in this model is the physiological characteristic of the emotional reaction to an event (i.e., arousal). An emotional reaction can be high in arousal; for instance, anger is a high arousal negative emotional reaction. On the contrary, boredom, for instance, is a low arousal negative emotional reaction. Dependent on whether both a leader and a follower react to a negative event (e.g., not getting what they want, being treated badly by others) with high or low arousal, their behavior will be different. We explain how this mechanism works and how it can help us to better predict leaders' and followers' behavior. We also outline how individual characteristics of the leader and follower and characteristics of their environment and context interact with arousal and their behavior.

How Fear of External Threats Plays Roles: An Examination of Supervisors' Trait Anger, Abusive Supervision, Subordinate Burnout and CCB

In times of uncertainty, such as during COVID-19, many organizations experience profit decline, and employees develop a fear of external threats, such as organizational layoffs. However, most of the literature focuses on how people's fear influences their well-being. Less is known about how employees' fear of external threats influences their workplace behaviors. The current study proposes that supervisors' fear of external threats stimulates those who are high in trait anger to behave in a more abusive way. Simultaneously, subordinates' fear of external threats would strengthen the positive relationship between abusive supervision and their burnout and compulsory citizenship behaviors (CCB), as fear of external threats constrains their response options to abusive supervision. We tested the hypotheses with a multiwave and multisource survey study (N = 322 dyads) in China, and the results showed that supervisors' fear of external threats strengthened the positive effect of trait anger on abusive supervision. Subordinates' fear of external threats strengthens the positive relationships of abusive supervision with CCB and the mediating effect of abusive supervision in the relationship of supervisors' trait anger with subordinates' CCB. Our study enriches people's understanding of how supervisors' and subordinates' fear of external threats may play roles in workplace behaviors.

The Role of Personality and Top Management Support in Continuance Intention to Use Electronic Health Record Systems among Nurses

This study examines nurses' Continuance Intention (CI) to use electronic health records (EHRs) through a combination of three conceptual frameworks: the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the theory of expectation-confirmation (ECT), and the Five-Factor Model (FFM). A model is developed to examine and predict the determinants of nurses' CI to use EHRs, including top management support (TMS) and the FFM's five personality domains. Data were collected from a survey of 497 nurses, which were analyzed using partial least squares. No significant relationship was found between TMS and CI. The study revealed that performance expectancy significantly mediated the influences of two different hypotheses of two predictors: agreeableness and openness to testing CI. A significant moderating impact of conscientiousness was found on the relationship between performance expectancy and CI and the relationship between social influence and CI. The findings of this study indicated that rigorous attention to the personality of individual nurses and substantial TMS could improve nurses' CI to use EHRs. A literature gap was filled concerning the mediating effects of performance expectancy on the FFM-CI relationship, and the moderation effects of Conscientiousness on UTAUT constructs and CI are another addition to the literature. The results are expected to assist government agencies, health policymakers, and health institutions all over the globe in their attempts to understand the post-adoption use of EHRs.

Will Abusive Supervision Promote Subordinates’ Voluntary Learning Behavior?

Abusive supervision was traditionally viewed as a unidimensional construct and found detrimental in various fields, while there may be subdimensions associating with different consequences. This study aims to justify two subdimensions of abusive supervision, namely overt abusive supervision and covert abusive supervision, and investigate their effects on subordinates’ voluntary learning behavior, with public self-consciousness as a moderator. Data was acquired from a sample of 443 employees from China through a two-wave survey, and hypotheses were tested by hierarchical regression analysis. The empirical results demonstrated that overt abusive supervision promotes subordinates’ voluntary learning behavior at lower levels of public self-consciousness and hinders it otherwise, while covert abusive supervision promotes subordinates’ voluntary learning behavior homogeneously at different levels of public self-consciousness. The results suggest that supervisors could be mean and critical when encouraging subordinates to improve themselves, with subordinates’ public self-consciousness taken into consideration. However, abusive supervision should never be overused, not only because it is unethical and detrimental in many other fields, but also because the abused subordinates may just be preparing for leaving.

Excess and Defect: How Job-Family Responsibilities Congruence Effect the Employee Procrastination Behavior

Purpose

Prior work suggests that responsibility is negatively associated with employee procrastination behavior. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we suggest this view is oversimplified and propose that procrastination can be induced when employees have congruent job and family responsibilities via the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion.

Methods

This is a quantitative study of the configurational approach. Survey data were collected from 323 employees at two stages in southern Chinese internet enterprises in September 2020. A randomized cluster sample was used and an anonymous self-assessment questionnaire was distributed to all selected respondents (employees). Samples involved different departments, and the procrastination phenomenon is more significant among them. SPSS20.2 and MPLUS 8.3 software and Response Surface Analysis Strategy were used to test the hypotheses.

Results

The data analysis results indicated that: a) employee procrastination behavior is higher when employees’ job responsibility and family responsibility are congruent than the incongruent configurations. b) Procrastination is lower when job-family dyads are congruent at high levels of responsibility compared the low levels. c) Procrastination decreases as employees’ job and family responsibilities become more discrepant (ie, incongruent); employees with low job-high family responsibilities procrastinate more than those with high job-low family responsibilities. d) Additionally, employee-experienced emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship in four configurations between job-family responsibilities congruence and procrastination behavior.

Conclusion

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we proposed a model clarifying how varying combinations of job and family responsibilities affect employee procrastination behavior. The results showed that there are significant differences in the impact of different job-family responsibility combinations on employee procrastination behavior. Employee procrastination behavior is higher when employees’ job-family responsibility are congruent than the incongruent configurations. Additionally, employee-experienced emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship in four configurations between job-family responsibilities congruence and procrastination behavior.

Abusive Supervision and Supervisor-Directed Deviance: A Social Network Approach

Supervisor-directed deviance is a well-established consequence of abusive supervision. However, prior accounts of the abuse–deviance relationship have overlooked the role played by power embedded in subordinates’ informal social context. To address this gap, we draw on power-dependence theory and use a social network approach to explain the link between abusive supervision and supervisor-directed deviance. In doing so, we propose a three-way interaction in which the abuse–deviance relationship is impacted by two components of informal power: subordinate social network centrality and subordinate influence. In particular, we propose that the relationship will be the strongest when subordinates have high betweenness centrality and high influence. We gathered full social network data, as well as self-report surveys from 272 primary school teachers and government contract workers in Northern China. Our results provide support for the notion that supervisor-directed deviance emerges most strongly as a consequence of abusive supervision for employees who wield informal power in their organization.

Implicit followership theories and resistance to leaders’ unethical requests: the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior

Purpose

This study aims to adopt a follower-centric approach in leadership and ethics research by investigating the impact of implicit followership theories (IFTs) on followers’ constructive resistance to leaders’ unethical requests. Specifically, it analyzes the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior in the relationship between IFTs and constructive resistance. Indeed, this study aims to examine whether followers with more positive beliefs about the characteristics that a follower should have IFTs are more likely to resist unethical leadership and whether this relationship is mediated by organizational citizenship behavior as volunteering acts that exceed the formal job requirements.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed hypotheses were tested using survey data from 273 employees working in a steel manufacturer company in Iran. The variance-based structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze data.

Findings

The results show that followership antiprototype negatively affects both follower’s constructive resistance and organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, organizational citizenship behavior mediates the relationship between IFTs and follower’s constructive resistance. Also, both followership prototype and organizational citizenship behavior have a positive effect on follower’s constructive resistance.

Originality/value

Contrary to the dominant leader-centric approach in leadership and organizational ethics research, few studies have examined the role of followers and their characteristics. The results of this study provide important insights into the role of followers in resistance against the leader’s unethical request.

Abusive supervision: a content analysis of theory and methodology

Purpose

Despite recent organizational behavior studies have witnessed considerable progress in abusive supervision research; some demerits for both theory and methodology still remain in the past years. To clarify the current state of knowledge in the field, this study aims to analyze the current state of theories and methods on abusive supervision and provides a detailed future research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducted a literature review for both theory and methodology of the abusive supervision research using a content analysis of 134 publications.

Findings

For the theory part, this paper summarized the theories that had been applied to explain the relationship between abusive supervision and its consequences as well as antecedents. For the methodology part, this paper outlined some critical issues regarding country of origin, research design, measurement, analysis strategy and also summarized with a discussion of the relationship between methodological issues and article impact. Finally, this paper concluded by presenting an agenda for future abusive supervision research regarding both theory and methodology.

Originality/value

First, this paper summarizes the main theories, antecedents and consequences often used in abusive supervision research to allow scholars to carry out theoretically driven research investigating abusive supervision in the future. Second, through a content analysis of the methods sections of abusive supervision research in the samples (i.e. country of origin, research design, measurement and analytical procedures), this paper identified the potential reasons underlying the inconsistency in the conclusions of abusive supervision research and provide some guidance for future empirical studies. Third, based on the qualitative review, this paper provides an agenda for future research investigating abusive supervision by developing a content-specific theoretical framework to benchmark abusive supervision research against other research related to leadership and offers an accurate response to scholars’ criticisms of abusive supervision research.

Stress, anxiety and depression among gastronomes: association with workplace mobbing and work-family interaction

INTRODUCTION

The work in commercial restaurant kitchens is characterized by many labor´s demands and strict commands that can cause damage to the mental health of gastronomes. The aim of this study was to verify the presence of stress, anxiety, and depression among gastronomy workers and associate them with the presence of mobbing at work. Still, it sought to evaluate the work-family interference and test its mediating role in the relationship between mobbing and psychopathology indicators.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This is an observational-analytical, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, in which 160 gastronomes participated (59.4% women), with an average age of 30.81 years. All answered a Sociodemographic and Labor Data Questionnaire, Negative Acts at Work Questionnaire, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, and Work-Family Interaction Scale, whose data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

RESULTS

A positive association was found between bullying and indicators of stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as negative interference between work-family and family-work with the same indicators. It was also observed the mediating effect of negative interference from work in family, in the relationship between mobbing and indicators of stress, anxiety, and depression.

CONCLUSION

It was concluded, therefore, that the experience of mobbing affects the family and intensifies the psychological illness in gastronomes.

Is it Laissez-Faire Leadership or Delegation? A Deeper Examination of an Over-Simplified Leadership Phenomenon

Characterized simply as “the absence of leadership,” scholars have generally written off “laissez-faire leadership” as the inaction of poor managers disinterested in their followers and organizational outcomes. In this study, we question whether this simple understanding of the construct is always true, arguing that delegation, a conceivably positive behavior, is sometimes perceived as laissez-faire leadership by subordinates. We examine how perceived leader competence and subordinate gender determine how delegation affects perceptions of laissez-faire leadership and, indirectly, dysfunctional subordinate resistance. Our test of this model reveals a significant three-way interaction between delegation, perceived leader competence, and gender in influencing perceptions of laissez-faire leadership and dysfunctional resistance. We conclude that laissez-faire leadership is a more complex phenomenon than is often assumed in research. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in this study.

How and when abusive supervision influences knowledge hiding behavior: evidence from India

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the differential roles of self-esteem and co-rumination in the mediated relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding via psychological safety.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a three-wave time-lagged design and data were collected from 388 full-time employees in India.

Findings

The results show that psychological safety mediated the impact abusive supervision had on knowledge hiding. Further, this impact was weakened by higher self-esteem as employees with higher self-esteem were less affected by the impact of abusive supervision on psychological safety and knowledge hiding; but this impact was amplified by more co-rumination as employees who co-ruminated more were also more affected by abusive supervision in psychological safety and knowledge hiding.

Research limitations/implications

A cross-sectional design and the use of self-reported questionnaires are a few limitations of this study.

Originality/value

This study took a purposeful deviation from the traditional path of organizational justice to the study of abusive supervision and psychological safety and endeavored an alternate route, one of resource conservation. Further, employees have diverse reasons that heighten or dampen their inclination to hide knowledge from others in the workplace. The study examines co-rumination and self-esteem as possible boundary conditions.

Harmful Leader Behaviors: Toward an Increased Understanding of How Different Forms of Unethical Leader Behavior Can Harm Subordinates

Research on unethical leadership has predominantly focused on interpersonal and high-intensity forms of harmful leader behavior such as abusive supervision. Other forms of harmful leader behavior such as excessively pressuring subordinates or acting in self-centered ways have received less attention, despite being harmful and potentially occurring more frequently. We propose a model of four types of harmful leader behavior (HLB) varying in intensity (high vs low) and orientation (people/relationships or tasks/goals): Intimidation, Lack of Care, Self-Centeredness, and Excessive Pressure for Results. We map out how these relate to other constructs in the unethical leader behavior field in order to integrate the existing work on how leaders can cause harm to followers. Next, in five studies (N = 35, N = 218, N = 352, N = 160, N = 1921 in 196 teams), we develop and test a new survey instrument measuring the four proposed types of perceived HLB. We provide initial validity evidence for this new measure, establish its psychometric properties, and examine its nomological network by linking the four types of HLB to related leadership constructs and soft and hard outcome correlates at the individual and team level. We find that HLB is negatively related to constructive forms of leadership (e.g., ethical and transformational) and positively to unethical ones (e.g., abusive supervision). HLB is also related in the expected direction to job satisfaction, engagement, psychological safety, knowledge sharing, knowledge hiding, deviance, and objectively recorded team-level stress-related absenteeism.

The Power of Followers That do not Follow: Investigating the Effects of Follower Resistance, Leader Implicit Followership Theories and Leader Negative Affect on the Emergence of Destructive Leader Behavior

This study focuses on follower resistance as a potential antecedent of destructive leader behavior and examines leader-related moderators and mediators to help explain the relationship between follower resistance and destructive leader behavior. Drawing from implicit followership theories, we propose that the relationship between follower resistance and destructive leader behavior is moderated by leaders’ Theory X schema. Furthermore, we build on affective events theory to hypothesize that follower resistance increases destructive leader behavior via leaders’ negative affect. We tested our hypotheses in a within-subjects online field experiment. Our study findings demonstrate that follower resistance increases destructive leader behavior and that this relationship is mediated through leaders’ negative affect and moderated by leaders’ Theory X schema. We discuss theoretical implications regarding the impact of (resistant) follower behavior on destructive leadership and offer methodological advances in terms of research design and analytical approaches to deal with endogeneity issues and derive causal inferences. Lastly, we derive practical implications for utilizing follower resistance.

Exploring job crafting as a response to abusive supervision

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to investigate the capacity of job crafting to serve as a viable response to abusive supervision. Although considerable literature has emerged on employee reactions to abusive supervision, the role of job crafting as a coping mechanism has received relatively little attention.

Design/methodology/approach

Using qualitative exploration, we conducted semi-structured interviews to examine how individuals engage in job crafting as a means to respond to or cope with abusive supervision. Critical Incident Interview Technique (CIIT) was used to obtain in-depth details of this topic. We analyzed the interview-based data using the thematic analysis (TA) technique. We also integrated topic modeling to cluster the identified categories of job crafting behaviors within our TA. The cultural context of our findings was further analyzed using interpretive phenological analysis (IPA).

Findings

The results of our thematic analysis led to four recurring themes in the interview-data: (1) Job crafting as a viable coping response to abusive supervision; (2) The type of coping relates to the type of crafting: Approach and Avoidance; (3) The role of perceived control; (4) Emotions play a role in the type of crafting employed. Findings from our IPA generated the following super-ordinate themes. (1) Job crafting fluidity, (2) effectiveness of job crafting, (3) resilience and (4) cultural dynamics.

Research limitations/implications

This research reveals the ways in which individuals may turn to job crafting behaviors as a means to cope following instances of abusive supervision. Given the qualitative exploration of our research approach, we identify generalizability to be an issue.

Practical implications

Job crafting is a proactive phenomenon that equips employees with coping abilities in the workplace. While Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001) suggested that job crafting behaviors tend to be hidden from management, there may be merit in organizations explicitly acknowledging the benefits of allowing employees to be active agents in their work, capable of using multiple domains of job crafting to improve their personal and professional lives (Petrou et al., 2017).

Originality/value

The current research reveals the ways in which individuals may turn to job crafting behaviors as a means to cope, following instances of abusive supervision. We further fine-grained our analysis to explicate employee job crafting behaviors in response to abusive supervision within a cross-cultural domain.

Can you be a follower even when you do not follow the leader? Yes, you can

In the ongoing debate in the area of critical leadership studies, the nature of leader–follower relationships is a thorny issue. The nature of followership has been questioned, especially whether followers can display resistance behaviours while maintaining their follower position. Addressing this issue requires a dialectical approach in which followers and leaders alike are primary elements in leadership co-production. Followers who face destructive leaders are of special interest when leadership is studied as a co-creational process. This context favours the emergence of a full range of behavioural profiles in which passives and colluders will illustrate the destructive leadership co-production process, and those who resist demonstrate that followers may not follow the leader and still keep a followership purpose. A two-step data analysis procedure was conducted based on the behaviour descriptions of 123 followers having a destructive leader. A qualitative analysis (i.e. content analysis) showed a set of behaviours and their antecedents that suggest three main groups of followers: resisters, obedient and mixed behaviour. Treating these data quantitatively (i.e. latent class analysis), six followers’ profiles emerged: active resistance, passive resistance, passive obedience, conflict avoidance, support and mixed. Our findings provide evidence that followers who resist may do it for the sake of the organisation. We discuss our findings in light of followership theory, whereby joining role-based and constructionist approaches allows us to argue that followers may still be followers even when they do not invariably follow their leader.

Forgiveness and attribution: when abusive supervision enhances performance

Purpose

While much research shows that abusive supervision reduces employee performance, the purpose of this study is to reverse the lens to question how and under what circumstances abusive supervision leads to enhanced employee performance. The authors argue that the linkages between abusive supervision and employee performance occurs via performance-promotion attributions and that employee levels of dispositional forgiveness alter the relationship between abusive supervision and employee interpretations of abuse, such that more forgiving individuals interpret abuse as more benign behavior designed to help them perform better (i.e. are performance promoting).

Design/methodology/approach

In a three-wave field survey of 318 employees matched with 89 supervisors, employees completed measures of dispositional forgiveness (Time 1) abusive supervision (Time 1), and performance-promotion attributions of abusive supervision's motives (Time 2). Supervisors rated the job performance of their employees (Time 3). Multilevel structural equation modeling was employed to test a multilevel moderated mediation model.

Findings

The findings indicate abusive supervision predicts diminished employee performance only when employees are low in dispositional forgiveness, explained by lowered performance-promotion attributions for abusive supervision.

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore the mechanism (i.e. attribution of abusive supervision's motives to be performance-promoting) and the condition (i.e. employee's high forgiveness) under which abusive supervision may be performance enhancing. It extends the research of abusive supervision on employees' constructive reactions, as well as the effect of dispositional forgiveness on how it reframes employees' attributions of workplace mistreatment.

How despotic leadership jeopardizes employees' performance: the roles of quality of work life and work withdrawal

Purpose

This study contributes to the leadership literature by examining how and when despotic leadership jeopardizes employees' performance. Specifically, we examine whether employees' job performance could be harmed by despotic supervision through employees' work withdrawal behaviour. Moreover, we investigate whether the quality of work-life (QWL) helps in toning down the harmful effects of despotic supervision on work withdrawal.

Design/methodology/approach

We used a multi-wave research design with data collected from 195 employees and their supervisors working in Pakistan's manufacturing sector. At time 1, we measured the independent variable (i.e. despotic leadership) and moderator (QWL), whereas, at time-2, the mediator (work withdrawal) was tapped by the same respondent with a time interval of three weeks between them. At time 3, the outcome (supervisor-rated job performance) was assessed directly by the supervisors.

Findings

The results support the mediating effect between despotic leadership and employees' performance through an enhanced level of work withdrawal behaviour. The effect of despotic leadership on job performance via work withdrawal behaviour was found to be weaker among employees with a higher level of QWL.

Practical implications

For individuals, QWL serves as an enhancement of personal resources to deal with despotic leaders at the workplace; for organizations, our study results alert managers and leaders at the workplace to address employees' need for QWL as this positive resource may discourage work withdrawal behaviour and stimulate employees to perform well in their jobs despite facing despotic supervision.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the leadership literature by introducing work withdrawal as an underlying mechanism to explain the despotic leadership – job performance relationship. Further, we examined how the harmful effects of despotic leadership can be toned down through the moderating variable of QWL thus having practical implications for both employers and employees.

The Effects of Abusive Supervision and Motivational Preference on Employees’ Innovative Behavior

Individual innovative behavior has an important relationship with the sustainable development of an organization. Thus, mostly drawing on social cognitive theory, this study examined the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ innovative behavior, focusing on the mediating role of creative self-efficacy and the moderating role of motivational preference. In an analysis of time-lagged data from three technological, innovation-based enterprises in Shenzhen, this study found that abusive supervision was negatively related to employees’ innovative behavior and that this relationship was mediated by creative self-efficacy. Moreover, motivational preference was found to moderate this relationship as well as that between abusive supervision and creative self-efficacy. Employees with higher levels of motivational preference (i.e., intrinsic motivational preference weighs more than extrinsic motivational preference) are more vulnerable to abusive supervision, causing lower creative self-efficacy performance and less innovative behavior. Alternately, employees with lower levels of motivational preference (i.e., extrinsic motivational preference weighs more than intrinsic motivational preference) are less vulnerable to abusive supervision, thus resulting in a weaker negative relationship between abusive supervision and their creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior.

General Self-Efficacy and Body Weight: The Role of Race and Gender

Overweight and obesity have become a prominent concern for policymakers, the Surgeon General, scholars, and for work organizations. The estimated annual cost of obesity in terms of lost productivity is in the tens of billions of dollars, and the estimated annual medical cost of obesity is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Psychologists have become increasingly interested in issues related to body weight, such as ways to help people reduce body weight. The aims of our study are twofold. First, based on social cognitive theory, we offer the first study of the relationship between general self-efficacy (GSE) and body weight based on a large, representative sample. Second, we also offer an understanding of the role of race and gender as potential boundary conditions of this relationship. Findings indicate that race moderates the relationship between GSE and body weight (both BMI and perceived weight) such that this relationship is positive for Blacks but negative for Whites. Gender did not moderate the relationship between GSE and body weight. These results suggest that body weight is unrelated to general self-efficacy in the population writ large and that body weight is differentially related to self-efficacy based on race but not gender.

Abusive supervision as a trigger of malevolent creativity: do the Light Triad traits matter?

Purpose

Drawing on affective events theory, the authors investigated whether exposure to abusive supervision triggers malevolent creativity among victims and the role of psychological contract violation (PCV) as a mediator in this relationship. The authors also examined the moderating effects of the Light Triad personality traits comprising Kantianism, humanism and faith in humanity.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample comprised 297 junior doctors working at various clinical departments of public sector hospitals in three major cities of Pakistan. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and the hypothesized model was tested using the covariance-based structural equation modeling in Mplus.

Findings

Results demonstrated that abusive supervision influences malevolent creativity directly and indirectly mediated through PCV. Further, results showed that individuals high on the Light Triad traits are less likely to engage in malevolently creative acts in response to abusive supervision and feelings of violation than those low on the Light Triad.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the literature by demonstrating that exposure to abusive supervision influences the generation of malevolently creative ideas among subordinates. Further, the authors showed that subordinates high on the Light Triad handle abusive supervisory behaviors and negative emotional reactions more productively and are less likely to retaliate against perceived mistreatment compared to their counterparts.

How do the Employees’s Perceptions of Abusive Supervision Affect Customer Satisfaction in the Chain Restaurants? Employee-Customer Level Analysis

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of chain restaurant employees’ perception of abusive supervision on employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The sample for the survey was collected from 228 customers and 93 employees in a chain restaurant. The results showed a negative relationship between abusive supervision and employee satisfaction. However, abusive supervision did not have a significant, direct effect on customer satisfaction, but showed an indirect effect via employee satisfaction. In addition, employee satisfaction was positively associated with customer satisfaction.

Destructive leadership in organizational research: a bibliometric approach

The dark side leadership literature remains a highly relevant yet fragmented and ambiguous literature stream. Therefore, we conduct a bibliometric analysis using co-citation and pathfinder analysis to describe and visualize the intellectual origins of the field by combining predefined word lists with expert validation. Our results suggest that there are key authors as well as other distinctive characteristics of research that also guides future research. Thematic clusters of the dark side literature suggest heightened emphasis on single dark traits such as narcissism while other constructs such as psychopathy receive little attention. Articles by Tepper can be linked to a central position in the network. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Goal Commitment Buffers the Negative Effects of Perceived Abusive Supervision

The effects of abusive supervision may be more intricate than what reason would suggest. To examine why individuals may respond differently to perceptions of supervisor abusive, this study relies on goal-setting theory to present a model that accounts for the influence of abusive supervision on job performance and organizational deviance. To be precise, motivation control and self-defeating cognition are proposed to mediate the interaction of perceived abusive supervision with goal commitment in predicting organizational deviance and job performance. In particular, the extent to which goal commitment alleviates the deleterious effects of abusive supervision is examined such that when goal commitment is high, the indirect effects of perceived abusive supervision on job performance and organizational deviance via motivation control and self-defeating cognition were predicted to be weaker. The proposed model was supported by multisource and multiwave data. The understanding of when the deleterious effects of supervisor abuse as perceived by followers are likely might help the human resource personnel to adopt measures that buffer against such outcomes.

Abusive Supervision and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Role of Networking Behavior

Abusive supervision has been recognized as a serious threat to the health of affected employees and to the sustainable development of organizations. Yet, the mechanism through which abusive supervision affects organizational performance is not well understood. We suggest that abusive supervision restricts important workplace behavior, especially networking behavior and organizational citizenship behavior, which is crucial for building social capital within organizations. We test our hypothesis using a new data set constructed from a questionnaire survey among Chinese employees in various firms. The results show that perceived abusive supervision affects both networking behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, networking behavior partially mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and organizational citizenship behavior. The results provide important insights into the role of abusive supervision in building social capital within organizations.

Can subordinate voice prevail with abusive supervision?

Purpose

Drawing from conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aims to explain why certain voice types prevail while other voice types are inhibited in the presence of abusive supervision.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper surveys extant literature on abusive supervision, employee voice and COR theory and provides propositions linking abusive supervision and types of voice behaviours.

Findings

The paper develops a conceptual model linking abusive supervision and three types of subordinate voice behaviours – prosocial, defensive and acquiescent voices. It identifies psychological distress as a mediator and locus of control as a moderator to this relationship.

Originality/value

This paper deepens our present understanding of abusive supervision and voice relationship by explaining why only certain voice types prevail with abusive supervision while others do not. While extant literature concluded abusive supervision only as an inhibitor of voice behaviours, the present study identifies how abusive supervision could both inhibit and motivate different voice behaviours. Further, it links abusive supervision to multiple voice types, diverting from extant literature linking abusive supervision to only constructive voice. Lastly, this study contributes to resource acquisition strategies within COR theory.

The (In)voluntary follower

An important assumption when it comes to leader–follower relationships is that compliance and subordination are basically voluntary. In this article, we problematize and develop this assumption and discuss different circumstances in which voluntariness in terms of followership may be compromised. Based on this discussion, we also suggest a tentative model of follower voluntariness, indicating dimensions in which voluntariness can be infringed upon and followership corroded and when it might be more productive to depict an asymmetrical relationship as something else than followership.

Effect of abusive supervision on subordinates’ discretionary behaviors

Although previous studies provide diverse perspectives on subordinate's deviant behavior as a reaction to abusive supervision (ABS), the influence of ABS on subordinates’ inter-personal relations received little attention. Grounded on social exchange theory, this study proposes that subordinates who are being abused by the same supervisor develop a bond among each other. That further provides strength to each of the abused group member to exhibit deviant behaviors against supervisor and non-abused peer group. Data were collected and analyzed through mediation analysis using AMOS. Using a sample of 920 employees from multi-sector organizations it was found that abused employees show citizenship behavior toward other abused peer-group members and counter-productive behavior toward supervisor and non-abused peer-group members. Moreover, citizenship behaviors created among the abused peer-group members partially mediate the relationship of ABS and counter-productive work behavior.

Effects of abusive supervision on employees' innovative behavior: The role of job insecurity and locus of control

Drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory by Hobfoll, we examined the relationships between abusive supervision, job insecurity, locus of control, and employees' innovative behavior. Using self-reported data collected from employees among four enterprises in China (N = 641), we found that abusive supervision was positively correlated with job insecurity. In contrast, both job insecurity and abusive supervision were negatively correlated with employees' innovative behavior, with the impact of abusive supervision on innovative behavior being mediated by its effect on job insecurity. Having an external locus of control that served as a buffering factor for employees, mitigating the relationship between abusive supervision and job insecurity. These findings complement the existing research on the impacts of abusive leadership, providing practical information for enterprises on how to enhance levels of innovation and vitality among employees.

Three Nightmare Traits in Leaders

This review offers an integration of dark leadership styles with dark personality traits. The core of dark leadership consists of Three Nightmare Traits (TNT)—leader dishonesty, leader disagreeableness, and leader carelessness—that are conceptualized as contextualized personality traits aligned with respectively (low) honesty-humility, (low) agreeableness, and (low) conscientiousness. It is argued that the TNT, when combined with high extraversion and low emotionality, can have serious (“explosive”) negative consequences for employees and their organizations. A Situation-Trait-Outcome Activation (STOA) model is presented in which a description is offered of situations that are attractive to TNT leaders (situation activation), situations that activate TNT traits (trait activation), and the kinds of outcomes that may result from TNT behaviors (outcome activation). Subsequently, the TNT and STOA models are combined to offer a description of the organizational actions that may strengthen or weaken the TNT during six career stages: attraction, selection, socialization, production, promotion, and attrition. Except for mainly negative consequences of the TNT, possible positive consequences of TNT leadership are also explored, and an outline of a research program is offered that may provide answers to the most pressing questions in dark leadership research.

Abusive supervision and job outcomes: a moderated mediation study

Purpose

Based on the conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the linkage between abusive supervision (a workplace stressor) and subordinate’s intention to quit by focusing on the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. The study also explores the conditional mediation model by testing the moderational role of perceived coworker support on the mediated abusive supervision-intention to quit relationship via emotional exhaustion.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the proposed hypotheses, the study draws data from 382 healthcare employees working in several hospitals and clinics in the eastern and north-eastern states of India. The authors collected data on the predictor and criterion variables at two time points with a separation of three to four weeks in a reversed order to counter priming effect.

Findings

The findings of the study reported that emotional exhaustion partially mediated the abusive supervision-intention to quit relationship. The result also supported the assertion that perceived coworker support will moderate the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinate’s intention to quit. The authors also found support to the moderated mediation hypothesis, that suggest perceived coworker support will reduce the mediating effect of abusive supervision-intention to quit relationship via emotional exhaustion.

Originality/value

This study is among few empirical investigations to investigate and report the interactional effect of perceived coworker support (a buffer) on the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and subordinate’s intention to quit via emotional exhaustion.