Abusive Supervision (Moderating Factors )

MODERATING FACTORS

Abusive supervision does not affect all employees the same way. In three studies, it was found that the deleterious effects of abusive supervision on employees’ attitudes and psychological health were more pronounced when the subordinate has less job mobility (i.e., when the subordinate is trapped in a job because he or she has few attractive alternatives to the current position), when the abuse is selective rather than distributed (i.e., when subordinates are singled out for abuse as opposed to being targeted along with others),

and when the target attributes the abusive behavior to stable characteristics of the supervisor (e.g., meanness, incompetence, or indifference) rather than to characteristics of the organization (e.g., time pressures or competitive work climates).

Another study found that subordinates’ personalities influenced how they responded to abusive supervision. This study suggested that abused subordinates were more likely to engage in dysfunctional forms of resistance (i.e., nonconformity to downward influence attempts that involves outright refusal and ignoring the supervisor’s requests) and that this effect was more pronounced among subordinates who were dispositionally disagreeable (i.e., unconcerned about the quality of their interpersonal relationships with

coworkers) and dispositionally low in conscientiousness (unconcerned about fulfilling task-related obligations). 

This research provides support for the idea that subordinates’ personalities influence the extent to which they engage in retaliation behaviors against abusive supervisors; employees retaliate against abusive supervisors by actively refusing to do what their supervisors want them to do, but only when they are unconcerned about the relational and task-related consequences associated with noncompliance.

(Rogelberg, 2007)