Relationship of abusive supervision and employees’ helping behaviors: moderated-mediation perspective

Abstract

Purpose This study, based on the conservation of resource theory, aims to investigate the negative impacts of abusive supervision on helping behaviors among employees by examining the mediating role of rumination and the moderating role of psychological flexibility. Design/methodology/approach A total sample of 282 reliable questionnaires are collected from 282 employees working in education and banking sectors of Pakistan. SPSS and AMOS are used for data analysis of the proposed model. Findings The findings reveal that rumination mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ helping behavior. In addition, the results show that higher levels of psychological flexibility negatively moderate the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ helping behaviors through mediation. Practical implications This study elucidates how and when abusive supervision deters helping behavior among employees and provides useful guidelines for banking/university’s administration to understand harmful consequences of abusive supervision and take appropriate policy measures to lessen their harmful effects upon employees. Originality/value By proposing a moderated mediation model, this study discovers rumination as a key mediator that links abusive supervision to employees’ helping behaviors and identifies the role of psychological flexibility in diminishing the negative impacts of abusive supervision upon employees’ helping behaviors through rumination.

A mindfulness perspective on the link between abusive supervision climate and team conflict

“…In addition, employees in teams with an abusive supervision climate can benefit from workplace programs that promote building coworker support (Rasheed et al , 2021) and friendship (Huh and Lee, 2022). They would also benefit from training in coping strategies (Srikanth, 2020), building psychological flexibility (Asim et al , 2023) and attribution training to focus on more positive attributions (Huh and Lee, 2022; Martinko et al , 2011).…”

Vicarious abusive supervision among restaurant frontline employees: the role of employee industry tenure

“…We collected data in Turkey, where the culture is characterized by high power distance and high collectivism. This cultural context may influence the patterns and types of employee behaviours and facilitate employee acceptance of the prevalent and unequal power distribution within organizations: that is, by only implicitly expressing dissatisfaction in favour of maintaining a superficial harmony (Asim et al , 2023; Vogel et al , 2015). When faced with VAS, subordinates are inclined to avoid confrontation by remaining silent and reducing helping behaviour.…”

Unraveling the link between innovative work behavior and despotic leadership: the roles of supervisor conflict and dispositional resistance to change trait

“…Interpersonal conflict is generally understood as a two-way process in which two parties express their mutual disagreements and oppositions to one another (Kundi et al, 2022;Liu et al, 2008;Ma and Liu, 2019). We aim to uncover whether teachers' IWB, such as trying out new teaching methods or classroom activities (Dar et al, 2022) may inadvertently trigger interpersonal conflict with the supervisor, and a desire for revenge in supervisor (Ahmad et al, 2023), subsequently leading to despotic leadership behaviors. Finally, we recognize the significance of the dispositional resistance to change trait of the leader as a moderator of the relationship of IWB, conflict with the supervisor and despotic leadership.…”