CONSEQUENCES OF ABUSIVE SUPERVISION

CONSEQUENCES OF ABUSIVE SUPERVISION

Compared with nonabused subordinates, abused subordinates have higher quit rates, and among those who stay in the job, abusive supervision is negatively related to subordinates’ job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and trust in the supervisor, and positively related to psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, and burnout) and conflict between work and family obligations. The cost per serious case of abuse in the workplace has been estimated at between $17,000 and $24,000 in terms of absenteeism, turnover, legal costs, and reduced productivity, and the total cost to organizations has been estimated to be more than $23.8 billion in the United States alone.

Abusive supervision is not strongly related to Bottom-line measures of productivity such as sales volume, number of units produced, and work quality. The most likely reason for this is that employees cannot easily modify these kinds of performance contributions, regardless of how they might feel about their boss. For example, assembly-line workers cannot simply stop producing when they do not like something at work, and salespeople on commission cannot stop selling to get back at their boss, at least not without hurting themselves. 

But research suggests that abused subordinates will retaliate against their supervisor and their organization by withholding citizenship behaviors, contributions such as being helpful and courteous, and showing initiative. Abused subordinates can express their resentment by modifying their citizenship behavior, because these contributions are to a large extent discretionary, meaning that they fall beyond the job requirements. These kinds of contributions are very important because they provide organizations with flexibility and the capacity to cope with uncertainty. Hence, organizations may be at a competitive disadvantage when a substantial percentage of subordinates withhold citizenship because their supervisors are abusive.

Although abused subordinates tend to perform fewer acts of citizenship than do nonabused subordinates, some abused subordinates will nevertheless do so. However, there are differences in the ways abused subordinates respond to their coworkers’ citizenship performance. Intuitively, we would expect that employees will have more favorable attitudes toward their job when their coworkers perform more acts of citizenship. This notion is rooted in the assumption that good citizenship makes the workplace a more attractive and comfortable environment. However, it was found that this was not the case for work groups in which the supervisor was more abusive. In those instances, employees were less satisfied when their coworkers engaged in greater citizenship behavior.

Subsequent inquiry explained why this was so. In groups led by abusive supervisors, subordinates performed citizenship behaviors not out of a genuine desire to benefit the organization, but to portray themselves in a favorable light, to make their coworkers look less dedicated by comparison, and to direct their supervisors’ hostility at others. Consequently, acts of citizenship may cause fellow coworkers to experience unfavorable attitudes when the supervisor is abusive.

(Rogelberg, 2007)