Abusive Supervision and Employee Participation in Decision Making as Moderators of Subordinate Silence and Innovative Work Behaviour among Civil Servants in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Background The increase in poor service delivery in Nigerian public service and the growing culture of silence have increased the cost of governance and affected national development. In view of this concern, this study examined abusive supervision and employee participation in decision making as predictors of subordinate silence and innovative work behaviour among middle-level civil servants in Southeast Nigeria. Method A multistage sampling technique was applied to select 524 middle-level civil servants aged between 36 and 59 years (M = 43.50 years; SD = 3.20). Four instruments were used for data collection: the Subordinate Silence Scale, the Innovative Work Behaviour Scale, the Abusive Supervision Scale and the Employee Participation in Decision Making Scale. A correlation design and moderated regression statistics were used to examine the seven hypotheses of the study. Results The results showed that abusive supervision significantly predicted subordinate silence (β = .98, p < .05, n = 524), whereas employee participation in decision making negatively predicted subordinate silence (β = − .18, p < .05, n = 524). Abusive supervision also negatively predicted innovative work behaviour (β = − .93, p < .05, n = 524), while employee participation positively predicted it (β = .63, p < .05, n = 524). Subordinate silence negatively predicted innovative work behaviour (β = − .589*, p < .05, n = 524). In the moderation model, abusive supervision in decision making had a significant effect (β = -1.6*, p < .05, n = 524), as did employee participation (β = 1.2*, p < .05, n = 524), on the relationship between subordinate silence and innovative work behaviour. Conclusion The findings imply that supervision abuse accelerated the negative effects of subordinate silence, which hampered innovative work behaviour, while employee participation in decision making reduced the negative effects and improved innovative work behaviour. We recommend that the civil service code be revised to protect bottom-level workers from abuse, while proactive measures are taken for civil service ethical violations.