Abusive supervision

Form of workplace bullying by a supervisor

Abusive supervision is most commonly studied in the context of the workplace, although it can arise in other areas such as in the household and at school. Abusive supervision has been investigated as major cause of negative outcomes in managing employees.[1][2] Studies have been conducted to investigate the link between abusive supervision and different workplace events.[3]

## Workplace bullying

[edit]

Main article: Workplace bullying

Abusive supervision overlaps with workplace bullying in the workplace context. Research suggests that 75% of workplace bullying incidents are perpetrated by hierarchically superior agents. Abusive supervision differs from related constructs such as supervisor bullying and undermining in that it does not describe the intentions or objectives of the supervisor.[4]

## Workplace deviance

[edit]

Main article: Workplace deviance

Workplace deviance is closely related to abusive supervision. Abusive supervision is defined as the "subordinates' perceptions of the extent to which their supervisors engage in the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors".[5] This could be when supervisors ridicule their employees, give them the silent treatment, remind them of past failures, fail to give proper credit, wrongfully assign blame or blow up in fits of temper.[6] It may seem like employees who are abused by their supervisor will either directly retaliate or withdraw by quitting the job but in reality many strike out against their employer by engaging in organizational deviant behaviors. Since employees control many of the organization's resources, they often use or abuse anything they can. This abuse of resources may come in the form of time, office supplies, raw materials, finished products or the services that they provide. This usually occurs in two steps. First step is that commitment is destroyed and employees stop caring about the welfare of the employer. The second step is that the abused employee will get approval (normally implied) of their coworkers to commit deviant acts.[6]

Workplace experiences may fuel the worker to act out. Research has been conducted demonstrating that the perception of not being respected is one of the main causes for workplace deviance; workplace dissatisfaction is also a factor. According to Bolin and Heatherly,[7] "dissatisfaction results in a higher incidence of minor offenses, but does not necessarily lead to severe offense". An employee who is less satisfied with his or her work may become less productive, as their needs are not met. In the workplace, "frustration, injustices and threats to self are primary antecedents to employee deviance".[8] Although workplace deviance does occur, the behavior is not universal. There are two preventive measures that business owners can use to protect themselves.[9] The first is strengthening the employee's commitment by reacting strongly to abusive supervision so that the employee knows that the behavior is not accepted. Holding the employee at high esteem by reminding them of their importance, or setting up programs that communicate concern for the employee may also strengthen employee commitment. Providing a positive ethical climate can also help. Employers can do this by having a clear code of conduct that is applied to both managers and employees alike.[6]

### Dark Triad

[edit]

Main article: Dark_triad § In_the_workplace

In research, the presence of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism was positively associated with subordinate perceptions of abusive supervision.[10]

## Social undermining

[edit]

Main article: Social undermining

Social undermining can arise from abusive supervision, such as when a supervisor uses negative actions, and it leads to "flow downhill"; a supervisor is perceived as abusive.

Research has shown that "abusive supervision is a subjective assessment made by subordinates regarding their supervisors" behavior towards them over a period of time.[11] For example, abusive supervision includes a "boss demeaning, belittling, or invading privacy of the subordinate".[12]

Hostile attribution bias is an extra punitive mentality where individuals tend to project blame on others. Researchers wanted to see how hostile attribution bias can moderate the relationship between perceptions of psychological contract violation and subordinates' perceptions of abusive supervision. Undermining does arise with abusive supervision, which affects families and aggression; they believe that there is a stronger positive relationship between experiences of psychological contract violation and subordinates' reports of abuse. It suggests that when someone has a negative work environment, it will affect their emotional training ground where this would result in negative home encounters. The findings from this study show that abused subordinates' family members reported a higher incidence of undermining in their home. When this occurs, complications arise at both home and work. Workplace abuse may be spawning negative interpersonal relations in the home, which may contribute to a downward spiral of relationships in both spheres.[13]

When a subordinate is being abused, it can lead to negative affect towards their family, where the subordinate starts undermining their family members. The undermining can arise from displaced aggression, which is "redirection of a [person's] harm doing behavior from a primary to a secondary target" (Tedeschi & Norman, 1985, p. 30). Family undermining arises from a negative work environment: when someone above a person puts them down, that person starts to think that one should be put down by one's family members.[14]

## Context and outcome correlates

[edit]

Abusive supervision has been investigated primarily in corporate and education contexts.

In the corporate context, abusive supervision has been found to be negatively related to followers’ attitudes towards the leader, job satisfaction, job-related attitudes, justice, commitment, positive self-evaluation, and well-being. In addition, such corporate abusive supervision is positively associated with undesirable consequences such as follower resistance, turnover intention, counterproductive work behaviour, negative affectivity, and stress.[15][16]

In the education context, abusive supervision has been investigated in instructor–student relationships, and these studies found that such supervision is adversely related to anxiety and psychological well-being.[17][18]

## See also

[edit]

* Psychology portal

* Controlling behavior in relationships
* Bullying culture
* Culture of fear
* Gaslighting
* Kick the cat
* Kiss up kick down
* Micromanagement
* Narcissism in the workplace
* Occupational health psychology
* Overwork
* Petty tyranny
* Psychopathy in the workplace
* Toxic leader
* Toxic workplace

* v
* t
* e

Aspects of workplaces

Topics|

* Absenteeism
* Abusive supervision
* Aggression
* Anti-pattern
* Artificial intelligence
* Bullying
* Climate
* Culture
* Computer surveillance
* Conflict
* Control freak
* Counterproductive behaviour
* Coworking
* Culture of fear
* Democracy
* Deviance
* Discrimination
* Diversity
* Divide and rule
* Drug tests
* Effects of overtime
* Emotional labor
* Emotions
* Employee assistance
* Employee engagement
* Employee experience
* Employee monitoring
* Employee morale
* Employee recognition
* Employee silence
* Employee surveys
* Empowerment
* Evaluation
* Feminisation
* Generations
* Goofing off
* Gossip
* Happiness
* Harassment
* Health promotion
* Health surveillance
* Hostile work environment
* Humor
* Incivility
* Inequality
* Intervention
* Jargon
* Kick the cat
* Kiss up kick down
* Listening
* Machiavellianism
* Menopause
* Micromanagement
* Mobbing
* Narcissism
* Office politics
* Overwork
* Parkinson's law
* Performance appraisal
* Personality clash
* Phobia
* Positive psychology
* Privacy
* Probation
* Profanity
* Psychopathy
* Quality of working life
* Queen bee syndrome
* Rat race
* Relationships
* Revenge
* Robotics safety
* Role conflict
* Sabotage
* Spirituality
* Strategy
* Stress
* Toxic workplace
* Toxic leader
* Training
* Turnover
* Undermining
* Violence
* Virtual
* Wellness
* Work–family conflict
* Workload
* Workplace harassment
* Workwear

See also|

* Corporation
* Employment
* Factory
* Headquarters
* Job
* Job sharing
* Labour movement
* Labor rights
* Office
* Organization
* Remote work
* Strike action
* Trade union
* Whistleblower

Templates|

* Aspects of corporations
* Aspects of jobs
* Aspects of occupations
* Aspects of organizations
* Employment

* v
* t
* e

Bullying

Types|

* Abusive supervision
* Cyberbullying
* Disability bullying
* Displaced aggression
* Doxing
* LGBTQ bullying
* Hazing
* Military bullying
* Mobbing
* Parental bullying of children
* Peer victimization
* Prison bullying
* Rank
* Relational aggression
* School bullying
* Higher education
* Sexual bullying
* Workplace harassment
* Workplace bullying
* Academia
* Information technology
* Legal aspects
* Legal profession
* Medicine
* Nursing
* Teaching
* Toxic leader
* Toxic workplace

Elements|

* Betrayal
* Blacklisting
* Bullying and emotional intelligence
* Cancel culture
* Character assassination
* Coercion
* Culture of fear
* Defamation
* Destabilisation
* Discrediting
* Embarrassment
* False accusation
* Gaslighting
* Gossip
* Harassment
* Humiliation
* Incivility
* Intimidation
* Kiss up kick down
* Mind games
* Moving the goalposts
* Nagging
* Name calling
* Personal attacks
* Physical abuse
* Psychological abuse
* Rudeness
* Sarcasm
* Screaming
* Shame
* Smear campaign
* Social exclusion
* Social undermining
* Swatting
* Taunting
* Workplace incivility
* Verbal abuse

Organizations|

* Act Against Bullying
* Ban Bossy
* Bullying UK
* Bystander Revolution
* Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity
* Ditch the Label
* GRIN Campaign
* It Gets Better Project
* Kidscape
* Society Against Violence in Education

Experts|

| Academics|

* Anna Costanza Baldry
* Wendy Craig
* Dorothy Espelage
* David P. Farrington
* Shelley Hymel
* Heinz Leymann
* Gary Namie
* James O'Higgins Norman
* Dan Olweus
* Debra Pepler
* Christina Salmivalli
* Kenneth Westhues

|

Activists|

* Andrea Adams
* Louise Burfitt-Dons
* Tim Field
* SuEllen Fried
* Liam Hackett
* Lizzie Velásquez

Actions|

* Anti-Bullying Day
* Anti-Bullying Week
* Anti-bullying legislation
* International Day of Pink
* International Stand Up to Bullying Day
* Think Before You Speak

Notable suicides
(List)|

* William Arthur Gibbs (1877)
* Kelly Yeomans (1997)
* Hamed Nastoh (2000)
* Dawn-Marie Wesley (2000)
* Nicola Ann Raphael (2001)
* Ryan Halligan (2003)
* Megan Meier (2006)
* Sladjana Vidovic (2008)
* Phoebe Prince (2010)
* Tyler Clementi (2010)
* Jamey Rodemeyer (2011)
* Jamie Hubley (2011)
* Kenneth Weishuhn (2012)
* Audrie Pott (2012)
* Amanda Todd (2012)
* Jadin Bell (2013)
* Rehtaeh Parsons (2013)
* Rebecca Sedwick (2013)
* Leelah Alcorn (2014)
* Conrad Roy (2014)
* Tyrone Unsworth (2016)

Murder–suicides
(incidents)|

* Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
* Columbine, 1999
* Jeff Weise
* Red Lake, 2005
* Seung-Hui Cho
* Virginia Tech, 2007
* Pekka-Eric Auvinen
* Jokela High School, 2007
* Matti Juhani Saari
* Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, 2008
* Jose Horacio Reyes
* Sparks Middle School, 2013
* Elliot Rodger
* Isla Vista, 2014

Related topics|

* Emotional blackmail
* Just-world fallacy
* List of LGBT-related suicides
* Machiavellianism in the workplace
* Narcissism in the workplace
* Personal boundaries
* Personality disorders
* Playing the victim
* Psychopathy in the workplace
* Scapegoating
* Self-esteem
* Social dominance orientation
* Suicide among LGBTQ people
* Victim blaming
* Victimisation
* Victimology

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Tepper, B. J. (2000). "Consequences of abusive supervision". Academy of Management Journal. 43 (2): 178–190\. doi:10.2307/1556375. JSTOR 1556375.
2. ^ Hoobler, J. M., Tepper, B. J., & Duffy, M. K. (2000). Moderating effects of coworkers' organizational citizenship behavior on relationships between abusive supervision and subordinates' attitudes and psychological distress. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Management Association, Orlando, FL.
3. ^ Inness, M.; LeBlanc, M.; Mireille; Barling, J. (2008). "Psychosocial predictors of supervisor-, peer-, subordinate-, and service-provider-targeted aggression". Journal of Applied Psychology. 93 (6): 1401–1411\. doi:10.1037/a0012810. PMID 19025256.
4. ^ Tepper B. J. Abusive supervision in work organizations: Review, synthesis, and research agenda. Journal of Management, June 2007, vol. 33, no. 3, p. 261–289.
5. ^ Mitchell, M.; Ambrose, M. L. (2007). "Abusive Supervision and Workplace Deviance and the Moderating Effects of Negative Reciprocity Beliefs". Journal of Applied Psychology. 92 (4): 1159–1168\. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1159. PMID 17638473. S2CID 1419014.
6. ^ a b c James Larsen. Abusive Supervision. Article No. 309, Business Practice Findings.
7. ^ Bolin, A.; Heatherly (2001). "Predictors of Employee Deviance: The Relationship between Bad Attitudes and Bad Behaviors". Journal of Business and Psychology. 15 (3): 405. doi:10.1023/A:1007818616389. S2CID 142780116.
8. ^ The past, present, and future of workplace deviance research. Bennett, Rebecca J.; Robinson, Sandra L. Greenberg, Jerald (ed.), (2003). Organizational behavior: The state of the science (2nd ed.), pp. 247–281.
9. ^ "Workplace Deviance: Understanding, Preventing, and Resolving Toxic Behaviour". Segal Conflict Solutions. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
10. ^ Kohyar Kiazada, Simon Lloyd D. Restubog, Thomas J. Zagenczyk, Christian Kiewitz, Robert L. Tang. In pursuit of power: The role of authoritarian leadership in the relationship between supervisors’ Machiavellianism and subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervisory behavior.
11. ^ Hoobler, J. M.; Brass, D. J. (2006). "Abusive supervision and family undermining as displaced aggression". Journal of Applied Psychology. 91 (5): 1125–1133\. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1125. PMID 16953773.
12. ^ Adams, S. H.; John, O. P. (1997). "A hostility scale for the California Psychological Inventory: MMPI, observer Q-sort, and Big-five correlates". Journal of Personality Assessment. 69 (2): 408–424\. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa6902_11. PMID 9392898.
13. ^ Andersson, L. M.; Pearson, C. M. (1999). "Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace". Academy of Management Review. 24 (3): 452–471\. doi:10.5465/amr.1999.2202131.
14. ^ Hoobler, J. M.; Brass, D. J. (2006). "Abusive supervision and family undermining as displaced aggression". Journal of Applied Psychology. 91 (5): 1125–1133\. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1125. PMID 16953773.
15. ^ MacKey, Jeremy D.; Frieder, Rachel E.; Brees, Jeremy R.; Martinko, Mark J. (2017). "SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research". Journal of Management. 43 (6): 1940–1965\. doi:10.1177/0149206315573997. S2CID 145636185.
16. ^ Schyns, Birgit; Schilling, Jan (2013-02-01). "How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes". The Leadership Quarterly. 24 (1): 138–158\. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.09.001. ISSN 1048-9843.
17. ^ Goodyear, Rodney K.; Crego, Clyde A.; Johnston, Michael W. (1992). "Ethical issues in the supervision of student research: A study of critical incidents". Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 23 (3): 203–210\. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.23.3.203. ISSN 1939-1323.
18. ^ Hobman, Elizabeth V.; Restubog, Simon Lloyd D.; Bordia, Prashant; Tang, Robert L. (2009). "Abusive Supervision in Advising Relationships: Investigating the Role of Social Support". Applied Psychology. 58 (2): 233–256\. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00330.x. ISSN 1464-0597.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Aryee, S; Chen, ZX; Sun, L Debrah Y (2007). "A Antecedents and outcomes of abusive supervision: Test of a trickle-down model". Journal of Applied Psychology. 92 (1): 191–201\. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.191. PMID 17227160.
* Burton, JP; Hoobler, JM (2006). "Subordinate self-esteem and abusive supervision". Journal of Managerial Issues. XVIII (3): 340–355.
* Harris, KJ; Kacmar, KM; 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\. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.007.
* Harris, KJ; Harvey, P; Harris, RB; Cast, M (2013). "An Investigation of Abusive Supervision, Vicarious Abusive Supervision, and Their Joint Impacts". The Journal of Social Psychology. 153 (1): 38–50\. doi:10.1080/00224545.2012.703709. PMID 23421004. S2CID 22346318.
* Harvey, P; Stoner, J; Hochwarter, W; Kacmar, C (2007). "Coping with abusive supervision: The neutralizing effects of ingratiation and positive effect on negative employee outcomes". The Leadership Quarterly. 18 (3): 264–280\. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.008.
* Liu D, Liao H, Loi R The dark side of leadership: A three-level investigation of the cascading effect of abusive supervision on employee creativity Academy of Management Journal July 20, 2012
* Martinko, MJ; Harvey, P; Brees, JR; Mackey, J (2013). "A review of abusive supervision research". Journal of Organizational Behavior. 34: S1. doi:10.1002/job.1888.
* Mitchell, MS; Ambrose, ML (2007). "Abusive supervision and workplace deviance and the moderating effects of negative reciprocity beliefs". Journal of Applied Psychology. 92 (4): 1159–1168\. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1159. PMID 17638473. S2CID 1419014.
* Tepper, BJ; Duffy, MK; Shaw, JD (2001). "Personality moderators of the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinates' resistance". Journal of Applied Psychology. 86 (5): 974–983\. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.5.974. PMID 11596813.
* Tepper, BJ; Duffy, MK; Henle, CA; Lambert, LS (2006). "Procedural injustice, victim precipitation, and abusive supervision". Personnel Psychology. 59 (1): 101–123\. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00725.x.
* Tepper, BJ; Henle, CA; Lambert, LS; Giacalone, RA; Duffy, MK (2008). "Abusive supervision and subordinates' organization deviance". Journal of Applied Psychology. 93 (4): 721–732\. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.93.4.721. PMID 18642979.
* Tepper, BJ; Carr, JC; Breaux, DM; Geider, S; Hu, C; Hu, W (2009). "Abusive supervision, intentions to quit, and employees' workplace deviance: A power/dependence analysis". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 109 (2): 156–167\. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.03.004.
* Thau, S; Bennett, RJ; Mitchell, MS; Marrs, MB (2009). "How management style moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace deviance: An uncertainty management theory perspective". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 108 (1): 79–92\. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.06.003. S2CID 9532547.
* Zellars, KL; Tepper, BJ; Duffy, MK (2002). "Abusive supervision and subordinates' organizational citizenship behavior". Journal of Applied Psychology. 87 (6): 1068–1076\. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.532.7969. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.87.6.1068. PMID 12558214.
* Hamrish Kumar Rajakumar, Gaman, M.-A., Puyana, J. C., & Bonilla-Escobar, F. J. (2024). Transforming Toxic Research Cultures: Protecting the Future of Medical Students and Early Career Researchers – Part I. International Journal of Medical Students, 12(2), 128–132. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2024.2763

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