Examining the within‐person effects of abusive supervision on multifoci deviance: Ethical climate as a moderator

Abstract

We examine the dynamic mechanism by which daily abusive supervision affects daily multifoci deviance through daily negative emotion and investigate the boundary conditions of this mechanism. Using a daily diary sample from 73 employees completed with quantitative responses for five consecutive weekdays, we find that daily abusive supervision has a significant positive effect on daily organization‐, supervisor‐, coworker‐, and customer‐directed deviance and that daily negative emotion mediates these relationships. A supplementary study reveals that the indirect effect of daily abusive supervision on daily supervisor‐directed deviance mainly occurs via anger and that the indirect effect of daily abusive supervision on daily organization‐, coworker‐, and customer‐directed deviance mainly occurs via general negative emotions (distress and nervousness). The moderation results show that instrumental climate has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between negative emotion and customer‐ and coworker‐directed deviant behavior. A caring climate has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between negative emotion and organization‐, supervisor‐, and coworker‐directed deviant behavior. The other moderation effects are not supported. These findings can be used to manage deviant workplace behaviors.

How and When Daily Abusive Supervision Affects Daily Organizational Citizenship Behavior for the Environment

“…Furthermore, while self-report measures are more appropriate for daily diary studies because this methodology involves brief and practical measures that must be administered over several days, the approach is are costly in terms of time and other resources and increases both the burden placed on participants and dropout rates ( Ohly et al, 2010 ). Previous studies have confirmed that self-report measures are justified when examining abusive supervision and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment because individuals are most knowledgeable about their own behaviors and experiences ( Vogel and Mitchell, 2017 ; Kirrane et al, 2018 ; Wang and Xiao, 2021 ; Xiao et al, 2021 ). The one-factor test, the unmeasured latent methods factor test, and the significant interaction effects found that common method variance is unlikely to be a serious concern in our study.…”

“…As a much-drawn organizational contextual factor, psychological climate plays a critical role in driving individual behavior ( Rubel et al, 2021 ; Biswas et al, 2022 ). A specific psychological climate has a close effect on specific behaviors, such as the relationship between an ethical climate and ethical behavior ( Wang and Xiao, 2021 ), and the relationship between an innovation climate and innovative behavior ( Newman et al, 2020 ). Thus, it is necessary to consider the psychological green climate as a contextual factor when studying the formative mechanism of OCBE, which refers to employees’ perceptions and interpretations of organizational policies, procedures, and practices regarding environmental sustainability ( Dumont et al, 2017 ).…”

The role of leader favoritism, unfairness, and employability in employee psychological withdrawal behavior

“…Relationship building at work is one of the vital tenets of leadership to achieve organizational excellence (Bani‐Melhem et al, 2023; Yang et al, 2021). However, such effort can be marred by ethical challenges due to unequal power imbalances between a leader and the subordinate, which could affect how the latter is treated (Wang & Xiao, 2021; Yang et al, 2021). Poor treatment of employees has much been documented, anecdotally and empirically, and playing favorites among subordinates represents one such leader behavior.…”

“…Relationship building at work is one of the vital tenets of leadership to achieve organizational excellence Yang et al, 2021). However, such effort can be marred by ethical challenges due to unequal power imbalances between a leader and the subordinate, which could affect how the latter is treated (Wang & Xiao, 2021;Yang et al, 2021).…”

How customer incivility affects organization citizenship behavior: roles of depersonalization, resilience, and caring climate

“…Social support from a caring climate provides employees with an essential resource to cope with these feelings and replenish their emotional and psychological wellbeing. Therefore, a caring climate hinders the influence of depersonalization on OCB (Wang and Xiao, 2021). Furthermore, a caring climate is an ambient contextual resource that can positively influence employee behavior (Ali et al, 2022).…”