Abusive Supervisory Behavior Aimed at Raising Work Group Performance

Perceived abusive supervision implies detrimental human consequences and negative performance effects. However, paradoxically, there are numerous anecdotal reports on managers who appear to deliberately mistreat most of their subordinates in an effort to enhance work group performance, preferring abusive methods of influence over more constructive motivational approaches. Because destructive leadership theory does not provide a compelling explanation for this perplexing phenomenon, I conducted an inductive, longitudinal case study at the executive level of a large corporation to explore antecedents of performance-oriented abusive supervisory behavior. The analysis of rich, contextualized data reveals that empathic incompetence of superiors to consider the emotions, goals, and limitations of inferiors can imply a belief in the efficacy of harsh management tactics, resulting in abrasive supervisory conduct and an abusive supervision climate collectively perceived by subalterns. The findings suggest social dominance orientation (SDO) of upper-level managers to moderate these relationships through cognitive activation of abusive supervisory values.