Although destructive consequences for subordinates have featured prominently in the abusive supervision literature, scholars have insinuated that supervisory abuse may temporarily yield functional results. Drawing from research on motive attribution tendencies that underlie abusive supervision and the control perspective of repetitive thought, we develop and test a multilevel theory that delineates both functional and dysfunctional subordinate responses to daily abusive supervisor behavior. We posit that when subordinates generally attribute abusive supervision to performance promotion motives, abusive supervisor behavior during the day leads to task reflexivity that night, translating into within-subordinate increases in next-day task performance. In contrast, when subordinates generally attribute abusive supervision to injury initiation motives, abusive supervisor behavior during the day instead leads to rumination that night, resulting in within-subordinate increases in next-day leader-directed deviance. Results from 2 experience-sampling studies provide support for these predictions. By providing a more fine-grained understanding of both the adaptive and maladaptive consequences of daily abusive supervisor behavior, our research, together with prior studies, suggests that the short-lived instrumental outcomes of abusive supervisor behavior carry a substantial price, despite managers’ illusion that acting in an abusive manner could be a feasible influence tactic.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Ingratiation is regarded as a powerful impression tactic that helps ingratiator achieve their intended goals. Although there is evidence that the consequences of ingratiation are not always positive, little research considers the dark effect of ingratiation on the ingratiator. Based on conservation of resources theory, we develop and test a model that links employees’ ingratiation to their counterproductive work behaviors. Data were collected from 216 supervisor-employee dyads. The results of examination with Mplus showed that ingratiation had a positive effect on counterproductive work behaviors, and emotional exhaustion played a mediating role in this relationship. Power distance orientation negatively moderated the relationship between ingratiation and emotional exhaustion and the indirect effect of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between ingratiation and counterproductive work behaviors. Our findings raise attention on the consequences of ingratiation for employees and the dark side of ingratiation for organization.