Coping With Perceived Abusive Supervision: The Role of Paranoia

Abstract

Two studies (a cross-sectional survey of 90 UK workers and an experiment with 100 UK workers) examined the cognitive and behavioral effects of abusive supervision. Both studies confirmed the hypothesis that workers who experience abusive supervision show paranoia and this makes them more prone to a type of cognitive error called the "sinister attribution error". This is where workers misattribute innocent workplace events such as tripping over something or hearing colleagues laughing to malevolent motives such as wanting to harm or mock them. Study 1 also showed that abusive supervision is associated with lower wellbeing. Perceived organizational support buffers these effects, and this is associated with workers making less sinister attribution errors, thereby protecting wellbeing. Study 2 explored the role of contextual cues by exposing workers to images of abusive supervision. This increased their paranoia and contributed to workers making sinister attribution errors when they were asked to interpret workplace events. Moreover, depending on the types of contextual cues, workers were more likely to express intention of workplace deviance after thinking about past experiences of abusive supervision. We recommend that corporate ethical responsibilities include training managers and workers about the negative cognitive and mental health effects of abusive supervision.

Revisiting the Dichotomy between Abusive Supervision and Work Performance of Subordinates in Private Organizations in Kenya: An Empirical Search for Correspondence between Theory and Practice

“…From the multiple linear analysis, it was therefore clear that Y=a -β 1 +β 2 +β 3 -β 4 where Y=dependent variable, a = constant, β= independent variables (β 1 = supervisor attitude, β 2 = organizational leadership structures, β 3 = supervisor mindfulness, and β 4 = supervisor hostility all together had a positive effect on the dependent variable. This further suggests that, a unit increase in supervisor attitude causes a decreased change in work performance equivalent to -0.619, a unit increase in organizational leadership structure attracts a positive change in work performance equivalent to 0.755, a unit increase in supervisor mindfulness attracts a positive increase equal to 0.879 and finally a unit increase in supervisor hostility will cause a decrease in work performance equivalent to -0.712.…”

“…There is compelling evidence that abusive supervision results in negative employee attitudes, behaviors, and psychological health [4]. However, recipients of abusive supervision hold the organization itself partly responsible as majority tend to assume that it's their duty to safe guard the integrity of the organization through this inhuman approach [5].…”

The Positive Relationships Between Paranoia, Perceptions of Workplace Bullying, and Intentions of Workplace Deviance in United Kingdom and French Teachers: Cross-Cultural Aspects

“…Recent studies with UK and French samples of workers show that paranoid thoughts are common in the workplace in both UK and French contexts and that those thoughts are then related to workers' own perceptions of workplace bullying (i.e., being subjected to harassment, intimidation, and acts negatively affecting one's work) (4) and of workplace deviance (i.e., voluntary behaviors that violate the organizations' norms and breach the assigned duties of the job role, e.g., stealing, spreading rumours, consistently arriving late to work or class, etc.) (5) as retaliation against the perceived harm/bullying/persecution of others against the workers (6)(7)(8). Moreover, there is an increasing recognition in clinical research that workplace conditions, such as, a threatening workplace environment characterized by the bullying of the employees constitutes a high risk factor for poor mental health in employees (7,8) and that certain professions may be more at risk of developing specific psychiatric conditions and symptoms e.g., paranoid personality disorder, depression, and depressive symptoms and paranoia, than others (7).…”

“…(5) as retaliation against the perceived harm/bullying/persecution of others against the workers (6)(7)(8). Moreover, there is an increasing recognition in clinical research that workplace conditions, such as, a threatening workplace environment characterized by the bullying of the employees constitutes a high risk factor for poor mental health in employees (7,8) and that certain professions may be more at risk of developing specific psychiatric conditions and symptoms e.g., paranoid personality disorder, depression, and depressive symptoms and paranoia, than others (7).…”

“…Although some effort has been done in the past to study the prevalence of paranoia and its associations with both perceptions of workplace bullying and workplace deviance in samples of workers mostly from Anglo-saxonic countries, e.g., the UK (7,8), there is still a lack of studies that focus on specific professions, like teaching, and have cross-cultural samples, which will be addressed in this study. Added to this, most studies in the literature on workplace bullying and on workplace deviance focusing on teachers only have been conducted with samples of teachers from Eastern Europe and Turkey (9)(10)(11)(12) and not with samples of countries from central and northern Europe, e.g., France and the UK.…”