Does employees’ gender matter? Investigating the indirect effect of abusive supervision on employee creativity through job insecurity in Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effect of abusive supervision on employees’ creativity through the mediating role of job insecurity and the moderating role of subordinate gender in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from various sources using online recruitment methods. The abusive supervision scale, job insecurity scale and employee creativity scale were the three measures in this study. Participants completed a three-wave data collection procedure using an online survey platform. After removing participants with incomplete and careless responses, the final data set contained 515 usable responses. Findings The results suggested that the negative effect of abusive supervision on employees’ creativity was mediated by job insecurity, and employees’ gender moderated this adverse effect. Gender roles shaped how employees respond to their leader’s hostile behaviours. In Indonesia, abusive supervision increased employees’ job insecurity and consequently reduced their creativity. However, the damage was more profound for the male employees than the female employees. Practical implications Gender role theory and perspectives are essential in explaining leader–employee interactions and must be included in leadership strategies. Also, support and resources must be provided equally for both male and female employees. However, more attention must be given to male employees to ensure their security working in organisations. Finally, some interventions are necessary to mitigate the effect of abusive supervision. Originality/value This study offers insight into how male and female employees, in a traditional gender role culture like Indonesia, respond to their leader’s abusive behaviours.

Who wreaks more havoc? Gender and the detrimental effect of abusive supervision on interpersonal deviance

“…Tepper et al , 2017), while abusive supervision may not uniformly affect all outcomes for subordinates (Tepper et al , 2017). Previous research suggests that the gender differences between victims and perpetrators of abusive supervision moderate its effects (Ouyang et al , 2015; Wang et al , 2016; Pradhan et al , 2018; Stempel and Rigotti, 2018; Syamsidah et al , 2023). In particular, women are viewed as lower in status than men in workplace settings (Campbell and Hahl, 2022), which is consistent across cultures (Carli, 2010), especially in China (Steinfeld, 2014; Wang, 2016).…”

“…Accordingly, the literature suggests that women perceive lower insider status, experience greater emotional exhaustion and job insecurity and intend to quit the organization more often than their male counterparts when they perceive their supervisors to be abusive (e.g. Ouyang et al , 2015; Pradhan et al , 2018; Syamsidah et al , 2023; Wang et al , 2016). These findings suggest that female subordinates suffer from abusive supervision more than male subordinates.…”