Rethinking abusive supervision: antecedents and reparative mechanisms of abusive supervision, including supervisor frustration, coworker support, guilt, and supervisor OCB in a mediated-moderation model.
| Autor | Kashif, Muhammad |
1 Introduction
Frustrating experiences at work trigger negative work outcomes (Bernd & Beuren, 2021; Fischer et al., 2021). One of the negative work outcomes is abusive supervision, which has been extensively studied by organizational behavior researchers (Afshan et al., 2022; Kashif et al., 2020; Mannan & Kashif, 2019). Abusive supervision involves continuous and aggressive supervisory behaviors that might or might not be non-physical (Tepper, 2000). It is a holistic concept that includes actions such as scorning subordinates, displaying aggression, and much more. Abusive supervision can result from triggers beyond the control of an abusive supervisor, neglected by organizational behavior researchers (Afshan et al., 2022). Considering the increased frequency of aggressive behaviors at work, scholars and practitioners are interested in abusive supervision (Kashif et al., 2022). However, the dominant research revolves around investigating the destructive impact of abusive supervision, highlighting abusive supervisors as the culprits in an organizational system (Kashif et al., 2020; Mannan & Kashif, 2019; Moin et al., 2021). It is not always the fault of abusive supervisors. Researchers have recommended exploring some of the factors (beyond the control of abusive supervisors) that push supervisors to abuse subordinates (Fischer et al., 2021). Some recent studies have even explored the positive outcomes of abusive supervision (Arain et al., 2020).
One explanation for supervisory abuse could be the amount of work supervisors have to perform (i.e., role overload) (Eissa & Lester, 2017), which might cause frustration. Role overload is when employees are expected to fulfill duties beyond their normal work routine (Rizzo et al., 1970). Employees experiencing role overload feel they do not have enough time to perform other duties because they are assigned additional tasks that go well beyond their job descriptions (Shultz et al., 2010). Role overload frustrates employees. It might result in negative work outcomes, i.e., prohibiting employees from engaging in extra-role behaviors (Montani & Dagenais-Desmarais, 2018), causing stress among family members (Halinski & Duxbury, 2022), and causing frustration among individuals at work (Rafique, 2022). When employees are frustrated, it can lead to supervisor incivility and abuse (Eissa & Lester, 2017; Rafique, 2022), thus threatening positivity at work. Some workplace events can minimize the impact of workplace frustration, i.e., coworker support that minimizes the negative impact of destructive workplace behaviors (De Clercq et al., 2020; Kashif et al., 2021). A balanced yet positive relationship among peers strengthens trust and increases task performance (Rodrigues & Rebelo, 2021). There is evidence that coworker support can strengthen interpersonal relationships at work, thus increasing retention rates (De Clercq et al., 2020). This way, coworker support has the potential to minimize the supervisory frustration arising from role overload perceptions.
Abusive supervision leads to negative work outcomes, and ample research supports this notion (Eissa & Lester, 2017; Fischer et al., 2021; Mannan & Kashif, 2019). However, sometimes abusive supervisors try to recover from a negative perception of abuse and perform some positive actions, i.e., organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Ballalis, 2018; Carpenter et al., 2014; McClean et al., 2021). OCB is a voluntary action performed by members of an organization that goes beyond traditional job duties (Ocampo et al., 2018). Supervisors perform OCB to support their subordinates, i.e., to support their families (Yin et al., 2021), thus increasing employees' perceptions of job satisfaction (Ballalis, 2018). The dominant stream of recent research presents perceptions about OCB (Tripathi et al., 2023), which can potentially repair damaged relationships at work (Arshad et al., 2021; Rave et al., 2022). Thus, OCB can be positioned as a reparative mechanism, but research in this direction is scarce (Wuttaphan, 2022).
Abusive supervisory behaviors adversely affect employees' tendency to engage in OCB (Zhang et al., 2019). However, can supervisors who abuse engage in OCB to repair perceptions of abuse? There is some evidence that abusive supervisors try to repair an abusive image by demonstrating a positive attitude towards others (Ilies et al., 2013). This is when supervisors are conscious of their past behaviors and engage in OCB (Lin et al., 2016). One of the explanations for this action could be moral cleansing. The arousal of negative emotional experiences and perceptions might encourage supervisors to perform reparative actions to compensate for their past mistakes (McClean et al., 2021). In this regard, guilt is positioned as a negative emotion. We propose that supervisors might feel guilty after an episode of abuse with their subordinates as it violates the ethics and threatens the moral character of the individuals as supervisors (Liao et al., 2018). When they feel guilt, supervisors are often reported to feel ashamed, thus the desire to repair the negative perceptions in the mind of their subordinates (Ilies et al., 2013). Supervisory guilt is perceived as a justification for abusive behavior (Shen et al., 2022) as well as an enacted cost, thus it has the potential to trigger positive actions as a reparative mechanism (Shum et al., 2020).
Against this background, some important research gaps require our academic attention and set the stage to determine the theoretical contribution of this study. First, there is limited research that investigates role overload and supervisor frustration as antecedents of abusive supervision (Eissa & Lester, 2017; Fischer et al., 2021; Zhang & Bednall, 2016). Much of the research has focused on portraying the ill effects of abusive supervision (Afshan et al., 2022; Fischer et al., 2021; Moin et al., 2021; Zhang & Bednall, 2016). Also, there is extensive research that investigates employee-led abuse, but the process by which individuals become abusive supervisors is unclear (Eissa & Lester, 2017; Zhang & Bednall, 2016). Some researchers have positioned the arousal of negative emotional responses as a consequence of abusive supervision (Afshan et al., 2022; Kashif et al., 2022; Shen et al., 2022). However, what triggers abuse is a question that remains unanswered (Fischer et al., 2021). This is where we position supervisor frustration and role overload as antecedents of abusive supervision. Supervisor frustration as a consequence of role overload, resulting in abusive behaviors by supervisors, is an interesting topic to advance our understanding in this field (Rafique, 2022).
Second, we question if coworker support rendered by peers of a supervisor reduces supervisor frustration, ultimately preventing abusive behaviors. The answer to this question could be another important theoretical contribution to the growing body of knowledge on abusive supervision. There is notable research where coworker support is positioned as resulting in a significant reduction in individual stress (De Clercq et al., 2020; Kashif et al., 2021). However, co worker support might minimize the impact of supervisor frustration resulting from role overload. Thus, minimizing the probability of abusive behavior among supervisors is an important intervention. Recent studies on coworker support have shown promise in minimizing the stress caused by negative work events (De Clercq et al., 2020). More recently, coworker support has been studied from employees' perspectives to mitigate the effects of abusive supervision (Abi Aad et al., 2021; Hao et al., 2022). However, supervisors also need support from their peers. This might intervene between supervisor frustration and abusive supervision. In this study, we reposition coworker support from the perspective of supervisors, which is missed by contemporary researchers (Zhang et al., 2022).
Third, there is limited research to explain how supervisors make some reparative arrangements to minimize the destructive effects of their abusive behaviors (Liao et al., 2018; Shum et al., 2020). Why do supervisors engage in OCB after an abusive episode? What triggers abusive supervisors to engage in OCB? Researchers have tried to address this question and have highlighted that abusive supervisors tend to repair their damaged reputation by performing positive actions (McClean et al., 2021). However, why supervisors perform positive actions is unexplored and is a notable contribution of this study. We contribute to this gap by positioning guilt as a mediating emotion that links abusive supervision with supervisor-led OCB targeted towards employees. The study of guilt as an emotion is important but is restricted to an emotion resulting from ethical judgments and roles (Becker, 2021). In a service context, helping each other is common and efficient for strengthening relationships at work (Kashif et al., 2020). Also, all supervisors are not evil. They are conscious of their actions and tend to recover from a perception of abuse (Ilies et al., 2013; Liao et al., 2018). Abusive supervision can negatively affect OCB among employees (Zhang et al., 2019). However, there is also increasing contradictory evidence that abusive supervision can lead to positive outcomes (Shum et al., 2020). We elaborate on the idea that abusive supervision can lead to positive work outcomes and position guilt as an emotion that links abusive supervision and supervisor-led OCB. This way, we contribute to the limited yet growing body of knowledge in the study of negative emotions and their positive role in improving performance at work (Afshan et al., 2022; Hao et al., 2022; Ilies et al., 2013; Shum et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2022). Based on these gaps, we aim to contribute to knowledge by studying the reparatory mechanism of abusive supervision.
In summary, this study makes three significant contributions. First...
Para continuar a ler
PEÇA SUA AVALIAÇÃOCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
