Purpose Synthesizing theories of prosocial motivation and action identification, the purpose of this paper is to test several hypotheses associating abusive supervisory behavior with employees’ work behaviors via intervening variables, i.e., intrinsic motivation and family motivation. Design/methodology/approach The two-study examination of outcomes of abusive supervision stands in contrast to prior research, which has primarily focused on family motivation that influences supervisor-subordinate relationship. A lagged survey study at a Fortune 500 company and an experience sampling study at multi-organizations located in Anhui province of People’s Republic of China (PRC) support the moderated-mediation motivational model. Findings In the first study, designed as a lagged survey study, the authors found that abusive supervision is negatively associated with employees’ job performance and positively associated with employees’ turnover intentions. As anticipated, the results also found that family motivation moderates the direct relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ work behaviors. Furthermore, these results were then replicated and expanded in an experience sampling study. Consistent with the predictions, the authors found that intrinsic motivation acts as a mediator between abusive supervision and employees’ work behaviors and family motivation has the capacity to compensate for the absence of intrinsic motivation. Research limitations/implications Although the paper contributes to leadership and motivation literature, there are several noteworthy limitations to be discussed in the future. The subjective measurement, the validity of abusive supervision in the Chinese context and generalizing of the study in western countries are the key limitations of the study. Moreover, the authors measure abusive supervision only on high/low frequency based rather than high/low intensity. Hence, there is a possibility that intensity and frequency have dissimilar effects. Originality/value The study with meaningful implications on motivation and leadership research concludes that family as a powerful source of motivation encourages subordinates’ job performance and discourages employees’ turnover intentions at the workplace, even under abusive supervision.

Purpose This study aims to explore an interpersonal predictor of coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior – the leader–member exchange social comparison (LMXSC). This study integrates leader–member exchange literature with social comparison theory to hypothesize that an individual’s upward LMXSC is positively correlated with coworkers-directed knowledge hiding and that an individual’s feelings of envy are mediated by the relationship between upward LMXSC and coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. Also, this study proposes two-way and three-way interaction patterns of goal interdependence, which can influence LMXSC–envy relationships. Design/methodology/approach Two independent studies are conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. In Study 1, the authors collected multi-wave data from a large public sector university in China (N = 1,131). The authors then replicated the Study 1 findings by collecting multi-source and multi-wave data from a telecom company based in China (n = 379). Findings The authors found support across both studies for the idea that upward LMXSC is a possible interpersonal predictor of coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. More specifically, it was found that feelings of envy ensue from upward LMXSC, resulting in further coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. Further, this study shows that the influence of upward LMXSC on knowledge hiding behavior via feelings of envy was weaker (stronger) when employees have high (low) cooperative goal interdependence with coworkers, respectively, and when employees have low (high) competitive goal interdependence with the coworkers, respectively. Originality/value This study extends current knowledge management literature by introducing LMXSC as an interpersonal predictor of coworkers-directed knowledge hiding behavior. This will help practitioners to curb such counterproductive behavior.

Prior research linking employee performance to abusive supervision suggests that supervisors have instrumental and non‐instrumental reasons for engaging in abuse while dealing with low performers in the workplace. Drawing on social comparison theory, we argue that high‐performing subordinates can make supervisors envious, which in turn leads to abusive supervisory behavior. Furthermore, we hypothesize supervisor social comparison orientation as a key boundary condition for the indirect positive effect of subordinate performance on abusive supervision through supervisor envy; that is, supervisors are more likely to abuse high performers when the supervisors’ social comparison orientation is high. A multi‐source, multi‐wave field study was conducted with data collected from supervisor‐subordinate dyads (N = 95 supervisors and 385 subordinates). The data supported a positive indirect effect of employee performance on abusive supervision through supervisor envy. Moreover, the indirect effect was statistically significant for supervisors with high social comparison orientation but it was not significant for supervisors with low social comparison orientation. Implications of these findings for reducing abusive supervision are discussed.

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