Perceived intent of supervisor as a moderator of the relationships between abusive supervision and counterproductive work behaviours

Leader's Machiavellianism and employees' counterproductive work behavior: testing a moderated mediation model

Counterproductive work behavior wastes organizational resources and significantly damages organizational development. The importance of employees' counterproductive work behaviors in organizations is becoming increasingly obvious. This is directly related to the sustainable development and survival of organizations. This study believes that employee's behavior is closely related to leadership style. In particular, employees' in small- and medium-sized enterprises are often manipulated and deceived by leaders, resulting in dissatisfaction and counterproductive work behavior. In order to address this behavior, this study collected survey data from 289 employees from Chinese SMEs to explore the relationship between perceived abusive supervision and organizational political behavior in Machiavellian leadership and counterproductive work behavior. The results suggest that Machiavellian positive influence counterproductive work behavior through a mediating role of perceived abusive supervision. Furthermore, leader organizational political behavior moderates the indirect effect of perceived abusive supervision such that the effect is stronger when leader organizational political behavior is high. This study aimed to identify the variables that increase employees counterproductive work behavior, propose recommendations for reducing employees' counterproductive work behavior, expanded the scope of counterproductive work behavior research, and provided a theoretical basis for related studies.

Can qualitative job insecurity instigate workplace incivility? The moderating roles of self-compassion and rumination

Purpose

This study examines why and when qualitative job insecurity (JI) leads to instigated workplace incivility.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected data from 227 Chinese full-time employees from multiple organizations at two time points. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

Findings

Results show that qualitative JI is positively related to instigated workplace incivility through negative emotions; this indirect relationship is weaker among employees with higher self-compassion and stronger among employees with higher rumination.

Originality/value

The authors shift the predominant focus on the predictor of instigated workplace incivility from quantitative JI to qualitative JI. Based on the transactional model of stress and the stressor–emotion model of counterproductive work behavior (CWB), they provide new theoretical insights on why qualitative JI affects workplace incivility and identify new boundary conditions that affect employees' reactions to qualitative JI.

Abusive supervision: a systematic literature review

The interest generated by abusive supervision among researchers can be gauged from the fact that more than 140 articles on abusive supervision have been published by leading journals in the last five years alone. However, a comprehensive understanding of the same is lacking. As a result, we systematically reviewed 273 articles on abusive supervision published between 2000 and 2022. This enabled us to present five interrelated aspects of abusive supervision literature. First, we focus on the definitional issues associated with abusive supervision. Second, we examine two widely used abusive supervision scales. Third, we review and critique different research designs utilized in abusive supervision studies. Fourth, we look at the key theories underpinning abusive supervision research and map the nomological network of abusive supervision. Fifth, we suggest novel avenues for theoretical advancement. In sum, we endeavored to portray a detailed picture of research on abusive supervision.

Unbalanced, Unfair, Unhappy, or Unable? Theoretical Integration of Multiple Processes Underlying the Leader Mistreatment-Employee CWB Relationship with Meta-Analytic Methods

Although a litany of theoretical accounts exists to explain why mistreated employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), little is known about whether these mechanisms are complementary or mutually exclusive, or the effect of context on their explanatory strength. To address these gaps, this meta-analytic investigation tests four theoretically-derived mechanisms simultaneously to explain the robust relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWB: (1) a social exchange perspective, which argues that mistreated employees engage in negative reciprocal behaviors to counterbalance experienced mistreatment; (2) a justice perspective, whereby mistreated employees experience moral outrage and engage in retributive behaviors against the organization and its members; (3) a stressor-emotion perspective, which suggests that mistreated employees engage in CWBs to cope with their negative affect; and (4) a self-regulatory perspective, which proposes that mistreated employees are simply unable to inhibit undesirable behaviors. Moreover, we also examine whether the above model holds across cultures that vary on power distance. Our meta-analytic structural equation model demonstrated that all but the justice mechanism significantly mediated the relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWBs, with negative affect emerging as the strongest explanatory mechanism in both high and low power distance cultures. Given these surprising results, as the stressor-emotion perspective is less frequently invoked in the literature, this paper highlights not only the importance of investigating multiple mechanisms together when examining the leader mistreatment-employee CWB relationship, but also the need to develop more nuanced theorizing about these mechanisms, particularly for negative affect.

Comportamiento antisocial en las organizaciones; una revisión y análisis conceptual

Tomando en cuenta la diversidad conceptual existente para el estudio de los comportamientos antisociales dentro de las organizaciones, se realiza el presente texto, una revisión y análisis teórico. A partir del panorama conceptual mostrado, se realizan algunas críticas sobre la tendencia a ser estudiado bajo el nombre de comportamientos contraproducentes en el trabajo y comportamiento desviado en el trabajo y sus implicaciones en cuanto a una visión que divide a la organización y a sus miembros o trabajadores, en donde es marcada la dirección en la que ocurren estos comportamientos; trabajador hacia la organización, atribuida principalmente a los rasgos de personalidad expuestos a ciertas condiciones laborales. Finalmente se plantean consideraciones para futuros trabajos en relación a los comportamientos antisociales en las organizaciones desde una perspectiva social, en el cual se contemplen formas que no solo tomen en cuenta las cuestiones individuales de la problemática.

Who influences employees’ dark side: A multi-foci meta-analysis of counterproductive workplace behaviors

We adopt a multi-foci perspective to provide a theory-driven quantitative review of employee counterproductive workplace behaviors (CWBs) by meta-analyzing the relationships between CWB and four groups of antecedents. Specifically, CWB antecedents stemming from four sources—supervisors, organization, coworkers, and private life—were included to investigate differences in their relationships with employee CWB. Based on the Conservation of Resources Theory, we argue that favorable and unfavorable correlates relate to employee CWB to different degrees. The meta-analysis included 181 field studies with 223 independent samples. Results indicated that unfavorable antecedents correlate more strongly with CWB than favorable antecedents. We also found that supervisor- and organization-related antecedents have stronger relationships with CWB than those from the two other groups. Implications include a deeper understanding of which situational factors relate the most—or least—to CWB which can help better address CWB in the workplace.

The Impact of Abusive Supervision on Job Insecurity: A Moderated Mediation Model

This paper explores the impact of abusive supervision on job insecurity under the frameworks of the social cognitive theory and the leader-member exchange theory; additionally, it explores the mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) and the moderating role of power distance. In this study, 944 employees from two state-owned enterprises located in China were surveyed via questionnaires. Results of the correlation analysis and statistical bootstrapping showed that (i) abusive supervision was significantly and positively related to job insecurity, (ii) LMX played a mediating role in the impact of abusive supervision on job insecurity, and (iii) power distance played a moderating role in the relationship between LMX and job insecurity. Based on the social cognitive theory, this study broadens the perspective of studies regarding job insecurity. It also provides practical suggestions for avoiding abusive supervision and for alleviating employees' insecurities about management.

Three Motives for Abusive Supervision: The Mitigating Effect of Subordinates Attributed Motives on Abusive Supervision’s Negative Outcomes

We have learned a great deal about the negative consequences of abusive supervision, but little attention has been paid to supervisors’ motives for engaging in abusive behavior. This is an important gap in the literature because the consequences of abusive supervision are likely to differ depending on its attributed motive. The current study extends the literature on abusive supervision by refining the attributed motives of abusive supervision and by examining how the attributed motives influence the negative effects of abusive supervision on leader–member exchange (LMX) and withdrawal behaviors (work withdrawal and job withdrawal). Specifically, we develop a conditional process model of abusive supervision which suggests that the negative relationship between abusive supervision and LMX is moderated by the attributed motives of abusive supervision (three motives: injury initiation, performance pressure, and personal disposition to abuse). Our results also suggest that lowered LMX resulting from abusive supervision increases victims’ work withdrawal and job withdrawal behaviors as moderated by organizational tenure. Using quantitative and qualitative data from 139 victims of abuse, we test the proposed model.