How abusive supervision affects unethical pro-organisational behaviour: A moderated mediation examination of exchange and proactive personality

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.

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Joint influences of individual and work unit abusive supervision on ethical intentions and behaviors: A moderated mediation model.

Journal of Applied Psychology ◽

10.1037/a0032809 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 98 (4) ◽

pp. 579-592 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

Sean T. Hannah ◽

John M. Schaubroeck ◽

Ann C. Peng ◽

Robert G. Lord ◽

Linda K. Trevino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Abusive Supervision ◽

Moderated Mediation ◽

Mediation Model ◽

Work Unit ◽

Ethical Intentions ◽

Moderated Mediation Model ◽

And Behaviors

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The relationship between abusive supervision and employee's reaction: the job demands-resources model perspective

Personnel Review ◽

10.1108/pr-01-2019-0002 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 49 (9) ◽

pp. 2035-2054

Author(s):

Liang-Chih Huang ◽

Cheng-Chen Lin ◽

Szu-Chi Lu

Keyword(s):

Emotional Exhaustion ◽

Process Model ◽

Discriminant Validity ◽

Job Demands ◽

Abusive Supervision ◽

Moderated Mediation ◽

Job Crafting ◽

Content Type ◽

Withdrawal Behavior ◽

The Relationship

PurposeBased on the job demands-resources model, the present study proposes viewing abusive supervision as one type of job demand causing employees' emotional exhaustion, which results in psychological withdrawal behavior. In addition, job crafting can be viewed as a means to acquire job resources, and it buffers the influence of abusive supervision on employees' emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the present study also proposes the moderating effect of job crafting on abusive supervision and psychological withdrawal behavior will be mediated by emotional exhaustion.Design/methodology/approachConsidering the issue of common method variance, data were not only collected in a multi-temporal research design but also tested by Harman's one-factor test. In addition, a series of confirmatory factor analyses was conducted to ensure the discriminant validity of measures. The moderated mediation hypotheses were tested on a sample of 267 participants.FindingsThe process model analysis showed that emotional exhaustion partially mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and psychological withdrawal behavior. Moreover, job crafting buffers the detrimental effect of abusive supervision on emotional exhaustion, and the less exhausted employees exhibit less psychological withdrawal behavior than those exhausted.Originality/valueThis study proposed a moderated mediation model to examine how and when abusive supervision leads to more employees' psychological withdrawal behaviors, and found that emotional exhaustion is one potential mechanism and job crafting is one potential moderator. Specifically, it was revealed that employees view abusive supervision as a kind of social and organizational aspect of job demands which will exacerbate emotional exhaustion, and, in turn, lead to more psychological withdrawal behavior. However, when employees view themselves as job crafter, they can adopt various job crafting behaviors to decrease the emotional exhaustion, and thus less psychological withdrawal behavior.

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