Curtailing the Impact of Abusive Supervision on Counter-productive Work Behaviors: Using Conservation of Resource Lens to Analyze the Moderating Role of Work Engagement

Abstract

Destructive behaviors of leaders have the potential to cause severe damage to the organization by endangering the wellbeing of its internal stakeholders. Abusive supervision is one the most common type of destructive leadership that prevails within organizations and creates a high possibility for subordinates to respond negatively by demonstrating counter-productive work (CWB) behaviors. However, whether their high work engagement motivates them to lower their counterproductive work behaviors when they value their work, is overlooked in the literature. To answer this question, this study approached 304 junior doctors working in tertiary public hospitals, located in the provincial and federal capitals of Pakistan and analyzed the data using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS). The results supported the proposed hypotheses and suggested that interventions must be made to increase junior doctors' work engagement to reduce their CWB in the presence of abusive supervision. Moreover, the administration of the hospital must restrain the destructive behaviors of supervisors through strict monitoring and the creation of a grievance cell to protect the junior doctors from verbal abuse and exploitation from their seniors and enhance their engagement with work.