Skip to main content
Log in

Finding the silver lining: why and when abusive supervision improves the objective service performance of abused employees

  • Published:
Asia Pacific Journal of Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The abusive supervision literature commonly suggests that employees who experience abuse from their supervisors may blame either the supervisors or the organization for the misconduct, leading to reduced job performance as a form of retaliation to ‘even the scales’. However, this study contributes to a recent stream of research that suggests one positive aspect of abusive supervision by highlighting the bright side of self-blame, where abused employees engage in prosocial behaviors to improve their situation, in order to negate any perception of themselves as victims. Drawing on the social cognitive theory of self-regulation, this study predicts a dual-stage moderated mediation pattern linking abusive supervision to objective service performance via abused employees’ self-blame, with interpersonal justice and work centrality as the first-stage moderators and core self-evaluation as a second-stage moderator. Using time-lagged and multi-source data collected from 411 employees, this study found that in a context of high interpersonal justice, work centrality, and core self-evaluation, abused employees blame themselves for the abusive supervision to negate any perception of themselves as victims, and subsequently make an attempt in the form of improving their objective service performance to prevent future supervisory misconduct. These findings challenge the predominant narrative by introducing circumstances in which abusive supervisors can elicit productive responses from their abused direct reports. This study also discusses the theoretical contributions and practical implications for managers, direct reports, and practitioners.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Sage.

  • Ali, A., Wang, H., & Boekhorst, J. A. (2023). A moderated mediation examination of shared leadership and team creativity: A social information processing perspective. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 40(1), 295–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aryee, S., Sun, L. Y., Chen, Z. X. G., & Debrah, Y. A. (2008). Abusive supervision and contextual performance: The mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of work unit structure. Management and Organization Review, 4(3), 393–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bahadur, W., & Ali, A. (2021). Linking leader humility with service performance: The role of service climate and customer mistreatment. Asian Business & Management, 22(2), 621–642.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bal, P. M., & Kooij, D. (2011). The relations between work centrality, psychological contracts, and job attitudes: The influence of age. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 20(4), 497–523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of self-regulation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 248–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bisht, N. S., & Mahajan, A. (2021). Shared stressors and core self-evaluations: A trait activation perspective on employee performance. Journal of Business Research, 131, 103–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bliese, P. D. (1998). Group size, ICC values, and group-level correlations: A simulation. Organizational Research Methods, 1(4), 355–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Booth, J. E., Shantz, A., Glomb, T. M., Duffy, M. K., & Stillwell, E. E. (2020). Bad bosses and self-verification: The moderating role of core self-evaluations with trust in workplace management. Human Resource Management, 59(2), 135–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowling, N. A., & Michel, J. S. (2011). Why do you treat me badly? The role of attributions regarding the cause of abuse in subordinates’ responses to abusive supervision. Work & Stress, 25(4), 309–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brockner, J., & Guare, J. (1983). Improving the performance of low self-esteem individuals: An attributional approach. Academy of Management Journal, 26(4), 642–656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, P. J. (1991). Identity processes and social stress. American Sociological Review, 56(6), 836–849.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burton, J. P., Taylor, S. G., & Barber, L. K. (2014). Understanding internal, external, and relational attributions for abusive supervision. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(6), 871–891.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y., Ferris, D. L., Kwan, H. K., Yan, M., Zhou, M., & Hong, Y. (2013). Self-love’s lost labor: A self-enhancement model of workplace incivility. Academy of Management Journal, 56(4), 1199–1219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, K., Wei, F., & Lin, Y. (2019). The trickle-down effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of leader-follower value congruence. Journal of Business Research, 102, 34–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, Y. N., Hu, C., Wang, S., & Huang, J. C. (2022). Political context matters: A joint effect of coercive power and perceived organizational politics on abusive supervision and silence. Asia Pacific Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-022-09840-x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chi, S. C. S., & Liang, S. G. (2013). When do subordinates’ emotion-regulation strategies matter? Abusive supervision, subordinates’ emotional exhaustion, and work withdrawal. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 125–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colquitt, J. A. (2001). On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 386–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eberly, M. B., Holley, E. C., Johnson, M. D., & Mitchell, T. R. (2011). Beyond Internal and External: A dyadic theory of relational attributions. Academy of Management Review, 36(4), 731–753.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eissa, G., & Lester, S. W. (2017). Supervisor role overload and frustration as antecedents of abusive supervision: The moderating role of supervisor personality. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(3), 307–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Estrada-Hollenbeck, M., & Heatherton, T. F. (1998). Avoiding and alleviating guilt through prosocial behavior. In J. Bybee (Ed.), Guilt and children (pp. 215–231). Academic Press.

  • Garnefski, N., Kraaij, V., & Spinhoven, P. (2001). Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems. Personality and Individual Differences, 30(8), 1311–1327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han, G. H., Harms, P. D., & Bai, Y. (2017). Nightmare bosses: The impact of abusive supervision on employees’ sleep, emotions, and creativity. Journal of Business Ethics, 145(1), 21–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, K. J., Kacmar, K. M., & Zivnuska, S. (2007). An investigation of abusive supervision as a predictor of performance and the meaning of work as a moderator of the relationship. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(3), 252–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, P., Stoner, J., Hochwarter, W., & Kacmar, C. (2007). Coping with abusive supervision: The neutralizing effects of ingratiation and positive affect on negative employee outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(3), 264–280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2015). An index and test of linear moderated mediation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 50(1), 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2018). Partial, conditional, and moderated moderated mediation: Quantification, inference, and interpretation. Communication Monographs, 85(1), 4–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoobler, J. M., & Brass, D. J. (2006). Abusive supervision and family undermining as displaced aggression. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(5), 1125–1133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, Y., Wang, M., Kwan, H. K., & Yi, J. (2021). Mentorship quality and mentors’ work-to-family positive spillover: The mediating role of personal skill development and the moderating role of core self-evaluation. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(9), 1899–1922.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard Business Review, 90(4), 92–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, L. R. (1982). Aggregation bias in estimates of perceptual agreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67(2), 219–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James, L. R., Demaree, R. G., & Wolf, G. (1984). Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(1), 85–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janoff-Bulman, R. (1982). Esteem and control bases of blame:Adaptive strategies for victims versus observers. Journal of Personality, 50(2), 180–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jian, Z., Kwan, H. K., Qiu, Q., Liu, Z. Q., & Yim, F. H. (2012). Abusive supervision and frontline employees’ service performance. The Service Industries Journal, 32(5), 683–698.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, L., & Johnson, M. J. (2018). Meaningful work and affective commitment: A moderated mediation model of positive work reflection and work centrality. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(4), 545–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. A., Erez, A., & Bono, J. E. (1998). The power of being positive: The relation between positive self-concept and job performance. Human Performance, 11(2–3), 167–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, A. K., Quratulain, S., & Crawshaw, J. R. (2013). The mediating role of discrete emotions in the relationship between injustice and counterproductive work behaviors: A study in Pakistan. Journal of Business and Psychology, 28, 49–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, A. K., Moss, S., Quratulain, S., & Hameed, I. (2018). When and how subordinate performance leads to abusive supervision: A social dominance perspective. Journal of Management, 44(7), 2801–2826.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klaussner, S. (2013). Engulfed in the abyss: The emergence of abusive supervision as an escalating process of supervisor–subordinate interaction. Human Relations, 67(3), 311–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lapierre, L. M., Li, Y., Kwan, H. K., Greenhaus, J. H., DiRenzo, M. S., & Shao, P. (2018). A meta-analysis of the antecedents of work–family enrichment. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(4), 385–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lian, H., Ferris, D. L., Morrison, R., & Brown, D. J. (2014). Blame it on the supervisor or the subordinate? Reciprocal relations between abusive supervision and organizational deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(4), 651–664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lian, H., Brown, D. J., Ferris, D. L., Liang, L. H., Keeping, L. M., & Morrison, R. (2014a). Abusive supervision and retaliation: A self-control framework. Academy of Management Journal, 57(1), 116–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liao, Z., Lee, H. W., Johnson, R. E., Song, Z., & Liu, Y. (2021). Seeing from a short-term perspective: When and why daily abusive supervisor behavior yields functional and dysfunctional consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(3), 377–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim, S., & Tai, K. (2014). Family incivility and job performance: A moderated mediation model of psychological distress and core self-evaluation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(2), 351–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lind, E. A. (2001). Fairness heuristic theory: Justice judgments as pivotal cognitions in organizational relations. In J. Greenberg, & R. Cropanzano (Eds.), Advances in organizational justice (pp. 56–88). Stanford University Press.

  • Liu, J., Kwong Kwan, H., Wu, L., & Wu, W. (2010). Abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor-directed deviance: The moderating role of traditional values and the mediating role of revenge cognitions. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83(4), 835–856.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, D., Liao, H., & Loi, R. (2012). The dark side of leadership: A three-level investigation of the cascading effect of abusive supervision on employee creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5), 1187–1212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, C., Yang, J., Liu, J., & Zhu, L. (2021). The effect of abusive supervision on employee deviant behaviors: An identity-based perspective. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(4), 948–978.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, S., Wang, L., Ni, D., Shapiro, D. L., & Zheng, X. (2022). Mitigating the harms of abusive supervision on employee thriving: The buffering effects of employees’ social-network centrality. Human Relations, 76(9), 1441–1473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, D. M., Aquino, K., Greenbaum, R. L., & Kuenzi, M. (2012). Who displays ethical leadership, and why does it matter? An examination of antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1), 151–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ouyang, K., Lam, W., & Wang, W. (2015). Roles of gender and identification on abusive supervision and proactive behavior. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 32(3), 671–691.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peng, A. C., Schaubroeck, J. M., & Li, Y. (2014). Social exchange implications of own and coworkers’ experiences of supervisory abuse. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1385–1405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piccolo, R. F., Bardes, M., Mayer, D. M., & Judge, T. A. (2008). Does high quality leader–member exchange accentuate the effects of organizational justice? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 17(2), 273–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porath, C. L., & Erez, A. (2007). Does rudeness really matter? The effects of rudeness on task performance and helpfulness. Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1181–1197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K. J., Rucker, D. D., & Hayes, A. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42(1), 185–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pryor, R. G., & Davies, R. (1989). A comparison of conceptualizations of work centrality. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 10(3), 283–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rank, J., Carsten, J. M., Unger, J. M., & Spector, P. E. (2007). Proactive customer service performance: Relationships with individual, task, and leadership variables. Human Performance, 20(4), 363–390.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schat, A. C., Frone, M. R., & Kelloway, E. K. (2006). Prevalence of workplace aggression in the US workforce: Findings from a national study. In E. K. Kelloway, J. Barling, & J. J. Hurrell (Eds.), Handbook of workplace violence (pp. 47–89). Sage.

  • Schilpzand, P., Leavitt, K., & Lim, S. (2016). Incivility hates company: Shared incivility attenuates rumination, stress, and psychological withdrawal by reducing self-blame. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 133, 33–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, B., White, S. S., & Paul, M. C. (1998). Linking service climate and customer perceptions of service quality: Tests of a causal model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(2), 150–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shoss, M. K., Eisenberger, R., Restubog, S. L. D., & Zagenczyk, T. J. (2013). Blaming the organization for abusive supervision: The roles of perceived organizational support and supervisor’s organizational embodiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(1), 158–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spell, C. S., & Arnold, T. (2007). An appraisal perspective of justice, structure, and job control as antecedents of psychological distress. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(6), 729–751.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tariq, H., & Ding, D. (2018). Why am I still doing this job? The examination of family motivation on employees’ work behaviors under abusive supervision. Personnel Review, 47(2), 378–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tariq, H., Weng, Q., Ilies, R., & Khan, A. K. (2021). Supervisory abuse of high performers: A social comparison perspective. Applied Psychology, 70(1), 280–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tariq, H., Almashayekhi, A., Ali, A., Burhan, M., & Butt, H. P. (2023). All stressors are not bad: An affect-based model of role overload–the supervisor-level antecedent of abusive supervision. International Journal of Conflict Management, 34(3), 545–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tepper, B. J. (2000). Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal, 43(2), 178–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tepper, B. J., Duffy, M. K., Henle, C. A., & Lambert, L. S. (2006). Procedural injustice, victim precipitation, and abusive supervision. Personnel Psychology, 59(1), 101–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tepper, B. J., Moss, S. E., Lockhart, D. E., & Carr, J. C. (2007). Abusive supervision, upward maintenance communication, and subordinates’ psychological distress. Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1169–1180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tepper, B. J., Moss, S. E., & Duffy, M. K. (2011). Predictors of abusive supervision: Supervisor perceptions of deep-level dissimilarity, relationship conflict, and subordinate performance. Academy of Management Journal, 54(2), 279–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tepper, B. J., Duffy, M. K., & Breaux-Soignet, D. M. (2012). Abusive supervision as political activity: Distinguishing impulsive and strategic expressions of downward hostility. Politics in organizations (pp. 225–246). Routledge.

  • Tong, J., Chong, S., & Johnson, R. E. (2019). The indirect relations of workplace incivility with emotional exhaustion and supportive behaviors via self-blame: The moderating roles of observed incivility and trait emotional control. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(8), 931–946.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tröster, C., & Van Quaquebeke, N. (2021). When victims help their abusive supervisors: The role of LMX, self-blame, and guilt. Academy of Management Journal, 64(6), 1793–1815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogel, R. M., Mitchell, M. S., Tepper, B. J., Restubog, S. L. D., Hu, C., Hua, W., & Huang, J. C. (2015). A cross-cultural examination of subordinates’ perceptions of and reactions to abusive supervision. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(5), 720–745.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, K., & Gordon, J. R. (2008). Creating an individual work identity. Human Resource Management Review, 18(1), 46–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walter, F., Lam, C. K., Van Der Vegt, G. S., Huang, X., & Miao, Q. (2015). Abusive supervision and subordinate performance: Instrumentality considerations in the emergence and consequences of abusive supervision. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(4), 1056–1072.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walumbwa, F. O., Wu, C., & Orwa, B. (2008). Contingent reward transactional leadership, work attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior: The role of procedural justice climate perceptions and strength. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(3), 251–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Z., & Xu, H. (2019). When and for whom ethical leadership is more effective in eliciting work meaningfulness and positive attitudes: The moderating roles of core self-evaluation and perceived organizational support. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(4), 919–940.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wayne, S. J., Shore, L. M., & Liden, R. C. (1997). Perceived organizational support and leader-member exchange: A social exchange perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 40(1), 82–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wei, F., & Si, S. (2013). Tit for tat? Abusive supervision and counterproductive work behaviors: The moderating effects of locus of control and perceived mobility. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 30(1), 281–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weng, Q., Butt, H. P., Almeida, S., Ahmed, B., Obaid, A., Burhan, M., & Tariq, H. (2022). Where energy flows, passion grows: Testing a moderated mediation model of work passion through a cross-cultural lens. Current Psychology, 41(9), 5817–5831.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, L. Z., Kwan, K., Liu, H., J., & Resick, C. J. (2012). Work-to‐family spillover effects of abusive supervision. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27(7), 714–731.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, C. H., Liu, J., Kwan, H. K., & Lee, C. (2016). Why and when workplace ostracism inhibits organizational citizenship behaviors: An organizational identification perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(3), 362–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, X., Kwan, H. K., Ma, Y., Lai, G., & Yim, F. H. (2020). Lone wolves reciprocate less deviance: A moral identity model of abusive supervision. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(7), 859–885.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xing, L., Sun, J., & Jepsen, D. (2021). Feeling shame in the workplace: Examining negative feedback as an antecedent and performance and well-being as consequences. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(9), 1244–1260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, Q., Zhang, G., & Chan, A. (2019). Abusive supervision and subordinate proactive behavior: Joint moderating roles of organizational identification and positive affectivity. Journal of Business Ethics, 157(3), 829–843.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Y., & Liao, Z. (2015). Consequences of abusive supervision: A meta-analytic review. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 32, 959–987.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, J., & Liu, J. (2018). Is abusive supervision an absolute devil? Literature review and research agenda. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 35(3), 719–744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, H., Kwan, H. K., Zhang, X., & Wu, L. Z. (2014). High core self-evaluators maintain creativity: A motivational model of abusive supervision. Journal of Management, 40(4), 1151–1174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72001186) and Research startup fund of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (11212932612215).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yanling Wang.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ali, A., Tariq, H. & Wang, Y. Finding the silver lining: why and when abusive supervision improves the objective service performance of abused employees. Asia Pac J Manag (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09927-z

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09927-z

Keywords

Navigation