ANTECEDENTS OF ABUSIVE SUPERVISION

ANTECEDENTS OF ABUSIVE SUPERVISION

Comparatively little research has explored the antecedents of abusive supervision. One study revealed no consistent relationships between hostile supervisor behavior and supervisor disposition (e.g., theory X beliefs, low self-esteem, and low tolerance for ambiguity), situational factors (e.g., institutionalized norms, power, and stressors), or their interactions. A more promising line of inquiry has taken a victim precipitation perspective, the notion that some indi viduals may become at risk of being victimized by eliciting or provoking the hostility of potential perpe trators and that perpetrator and situational factors contribute more strongly to the occurrence of abusive supervision when a vulnerable target is available. 

The study in question found that supervisors who experienced procedural injustice (i.e., decision makers using unfair procedures during the process of rendering allocation decisions) were more abusive when they had a high negative-affectivity subordinate, one who was dispositionally inclined to experience high levels of distressing emotions and who was likely to be perceived as weak, vulnerable, and ripe for exploitation.

An implication of this finding is that supervisors inclined to hostility choose targets strategically, focusing their abuse on subordinates who appear to be “good” targets. This work also suggests that perpetrators may express their hostility against targets other than the source of their frustration (i.e., subordinates who are not responsible for the injustices supervisors experience) 

(Rogelberg, 2007)