Supervisor bottom-line mentality, workaholism, and workplace cheating behavior: the moderating effect of employee entitlement

How Bottom-Line Mentality Leads to Abusive Supervision? Investigating the Mediating Effects of Anxiety

Purpose

By integrating the theory of workplace anxiety with a self-regulatory theory, this study investigates the mediating role of workplace anxiety in the relationship between leader bottom-line mentality and abusive supervision targeting the follower, as well as the moderating effect of rules climate on leaders' emotion-behavior process.

Methods

A total of 393 employees and 91 supervising managers participated in the multi-source, two-wave survey. To test our hypotheses, we performed the regression analysis and conducted bootstrapping analyses using the Hayes PROCESS Model.

Results

Findings indicated that leader bottom-line mentality has a positive indirect relationship with abusive supervision via workplace anxiety. In addition, rules climate weakens abusive supervision for workplace anxiety, revealing a significant moderate effect.

Conclusion

Leaders with high BLM encapsulate apprehension and tension, which are deficient in fostering workplace anxiety as an important affect process that facilitates abusive supervision. During this process, we identify rules climate as an important boundary condition for our model and theorization.

Working in times of COVID-19: investigating the effect of daily risk perception of COVID-19 infection on goal progress

Purpose

Based on the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study aims to understand the daily impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on employee goal progress. In particular, the authors explore how COVID-19 induces anxiety related to task setbacks that consequently influences one's goal progress.

Design/methodology/approach

A daily diary study was conducted with a total of 558 observations from 60 participants. The data were analyzed using multilevel path analysis with random slopes.

Findings

The perceived risk of COVID-19 infection was positively associated with COVID-19 task setback anxiety, which in turn improved end-of-day goal progress. Lower employee conscientiousness strengthened the relationship between perceived risk of COVID-19 infection and COVID-19 task setback anxiety, and lower supervisor bottom-line mentality strengthened the relationship between COVID-19 task setback anxiety and end-of-day goal progress.

Practical implications

Although COVID-19 task setback anxiety results in higher end-of-day goal progress, the authors recommend caution as the cost of coping exists. Thus, supervisors should focus on supporting the employees rather than having a bottom-line mentality.

Originality/value

This study advances stress and coping literature by examining how employees appraise and cope with COVID-19 in work context. The authors demonstrate that a perceived risk of COVID-19 induces task setbacks related to anticipatory anxiety, which in turn influences employee outcomes. In addition, the authors identify employee conscientiousness and supervisor bottom-line mentality as a boundary condition of this process.

Sharing or hiding? The influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality on employee knowledge behaviors

Purpose

Drawing on the dual-strategies theory of social rank and leader distance theory, this paper aims to investigate the influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) on employee knowledge-related behaviors by considering the mediating role of perceived leader prestige or dominance and the moderating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG).

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected survey data from 185 research and development employees in East China at three-time points. The authors conducted path analysis and bootstrapping-based analytic approach to test the hypotheses by Mplus7.0.

Findings

The results showed that supervisor BLM has a negative effect on employee knowledge sharing and a positive effect on knowledge hiding. Besides, perceived leader prestige or dominance mediated the relationship between supervisor BLM and employee knowledge hiding. Furthermore, SSG moderated the relationship between supervisor BLM and perceived leader prestige or dominance, as well as the indirect effects of supervisor BLM on knowledge hiding via perceived leader prestige or dominance.

Originality/value

There is limited research on investigating the influence of supervisor BLM in the field of knowledge management. The authors carried out this study to provide evidence of how and when supervisor BLM affects employee knowledge sharing and hiding.

The Influence of Leader Bottom-Line Mentality on Miners' Safety Behavior: A Moderated Parallel Mediation Model Based on the Dual-System Theory

As a high-risk industry that is always struggling with unsafe factors, coal mine enterprises must prioritize safety in their operation and management, but there are still some short-sighted coal mine managers who choose to leave safety behind in the desperate pursuit of financial benefits, resulting in coal mine accidents from time to time. Unfortunately, this leadership style, known as leader bottom-line mentality, has not yet received sufficient attention in the safety field. Based on dual-system theory, this study aimed to explore the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and safety consciousness between leader bottom-line mentality and miners' safety behavior, as well as the moderating role of Chinese traditionality. Using a sample of 422 frontline miners in China, the results of the data analysis showed that emotional exhaustion and safety consciousness played parallel mediating roles between leader bottom-line mentality and miners' safety behavior, and Chinese traditionality moderated the effect of leader bottom-line mentality: the higher the Chinese traditionality, the weaker the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion and the stronger the mediating effect of safety consciousness. Present research explains the mechanisms and boundaries of the influence of leader bottom-line mentality on miners' safety behavior, contributing to the emerging literature on safety management and bottom-line mentality.

Linking supervisors’ bottom-line mentality to workplace cheating behavior: examining the mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and moral identity

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how and when supervisors’ bottom-line mentality (BLM) influences workplace cheating behavior. Specifically, the authors draw upon social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the negative reciprocity norm (Gouldner, 1960) argument, to explain that supervisor BLM is likely related to organizational cynicism and subsequently those employees may engage in cheating behavior as a way to make things even with the organization. Furthermore, the authors theorized that organizational cynicism and supervisors’ BLM via organizational cynicism, increase cheating behavior among employees with a weak moral identity.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the current model, the authors collected data from 232 employees working in various Pakistani firms.

Findings

The results affirmed the authors’ moderated-mediation model. The positive indirect effects of supervisors’ BLM on workplace cheating behavior, through organizational cynicism, are moderated by employees’ moral identity.

Originality/value

This is the first study that examine the mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and employees’ moral identity in the relationship between supervisors’ BLM and workplace cheating behavior.

Striving for the bottom line: the impact of supervisor bottom-line mentality on employees' work effort and helping behavior

Purpose

This study aims to advance the bottom-line mentality (BLM) literature by drawing on goal-setting theory to examine the positive effects of supervisor BLM on employees' behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected survey data from 291 full-time employees from various Chinese organizations at three different points in time.

Findings

The authors found that supervisor BLM and employees' collectivism orientation interacted to influence employees' bottom-line goal commitment such that the positive relationship between supervisor BLM and employees' bottom-line goal commitment was stronger when employees' collectivism orientation was high rather than low. Furthermore, they found that employees' collectivism orientation moderated the positive indirect effects of supervisor BLM on employees' work effort and helping behavior via bottom-line goal commitment such that the indirect effects were stronger when employees had a high rather than a low collectivism orientation.

Originality/value

The authors explored the “bridge side” of supervisor BLM on employees' behavior, especially after being moderated by collectivism orientation. Our results can help managers develop a comprehensive understanding of BLM.

Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality, Performance Pressure, and Workplace Cheating: Moderating Role of Negative Reciprocity

Employee cheating at the workplace has reached epidemic proportions and is putting a significant dent on the revenues of corporations. This study evaluates workplace cheating behavior as a consequence of supervisor bottom-line mentality with performance pressure as the mediating mechanism. Most importantly, it scrutinizes the moderating function of negative reciprocity belief in the relation between bottom-line mentality, performance pressure, and cheating in a moderated-mediation model, through the lens of displaced aggression theory. We systematically conduct time-lagged studies in two different populations (Pakistan and United States). Data analysis reveals that (1) bottom-line mentality positively influences workplace cheating behavior through performance pressure and (2) negative reciprocity moderated this indirect relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Cheating Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Organizational Identification and Perceived Supervisor Moral Decoupling

Previous corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies at the employee level have focused on the influence of CSR on employees' positive attitudes and behavior. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between CSR and unethical behavior and the underlying mechanism. Based on social information processing theory, this study investigates how CSR affects employee cheating via employees' organizational identification and perceived supervisor moral decoupling. Additionally, this study discusses the moderating effect of employee bottom-line mentality on these relationships. We test this two-path model using a sample of MBA students in China. The results indicate that both organizational identification and perceived supervisor moral decoupling mediate the relationship between CSR and cheating, and employee bottom-line mentality moderates the effect of CSR on perceived supervisor moral decoupling. Specifically, for employees low in bottom-line mentality, CSR has a significantly negative impact on perceived supervisor moral decoupling, but the same relationship is insignificant for employees with a strong bottom-line mentality. Overall, our results uncover the relationship between CSR and employee cheating and extend the understanding of the influence of CSR on employees.