A stress perspective on antecedents of abusive supervision: Blaming the organisation when exhausted supervisors abuse

Drawing on the stress literature (transactional theory of stress, job demands-resources model and conservation of resources theory), this study aims to provide new insights into the antecedents of abusive supervision. We collected data from 95 supervisors with matched responses from 358 subordinates working across various industries in China using a time-lagged survey. We tested our moderated mediation model using path analyses. Results revealed that perceived workplace competitiveness triggered supervisors’ felt stress and psychological strain, resulting in abusive supervision. Two workplace constraints (climate of error aversion and organisational sanctions against aggression) were examined as moderators: a high climate of error aversion intensified the positive relationship between supervisors’ perceived competition and supervisors’ felt stress; while high organisational sanctions against aggression mitigated the positive relationship between supervisors’ psychological strain and abusive supervision. Together, these findings highlight the importance of workplace constraints and explicate how they influence resource-drained supervisors to displace their aggression onto subordinates.