Effects of Abusive Supervision on Employee Work Performance

Subject: Employee Management
Pages: 2
Words: 674
Reading time:
3 min
Study level: PhD

Greenbaum, R. L., Hill, A., Mawritz, M. B., & Quade, M. J. (2017). Employee Machiavellianism to unethical behavior. Journal of Management, 43(2), 585-609. Web.

The present article deals with the relationship between abusive supervision and victims’ unethical behaviors. Greenbaum et al. (2017) utilized the trait activation theory to examine the specific effects of abusive supervision. The authors concentrated on employees’ Machiavellianism as an example of unethical conduct. Machiavellianism involved such dimensions as amoral manipulation, distrust of others, desire for status, and desire for control. The data for the article in question was collected during two studies that involved the participation of 1134 people. It was also found that amoral manipulation and desire for control were the most common types of unethical behavior in employees exposed to abusive supervision. The researchers emphasized that their study was specifically relevant for practitioners who pay considerable attention to the ethical behavior of their employees.

The value of this source is manifold as the article represents the findings that depict an exact way abusive supervision affects employees. Specific dimensions of unethical behavior are examined, which enriches the knowledge base on the link between abusive supervision and low workplace performance. In addition, the researchers used the trait activation theory, which proved to be an effective approach. Therefore, this theoretical framework can be employed in similar studies.

Kluemper, D. H., Mossholder, K. W., Ispas, D., Bing, M. N., Iliescu, D., & Ilie, A. (2019). When core self-evaluations influence employees’ deviant reactions to abusive supervision: The moderating role of cognitive ability. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(2), 435-453. Web.

This article provides insights into the impact abusive supervision has on employees with low core self-evaluation (CSE). Kluemper et al. (2019) found that people low in CSE responded to abusive supervision by engaging in job-related deviance. It was also identified that the employees with the traits mentioned above received more abusive supervision compared to their peers. The negative effects of abusive supervision were stronger among employees with lower cognitive abilities. The study involved participants employed in diverse industries, but the number of people who took part was 355, which is quite a limited sample size. Nevertheless, the researchers identified a direct link between the behavioral patterns of the employees low in CSE and abusive supervision.

This article is a valuable source for the present project because it sheds light on the influence of abusive supervision on employees characterized by certain traits. The link between workplace deviance, as a response to abusive supervision, and employees’ self-evaluations and cognitive abilities are identified and explored. The article serves as sound evidence of the particular effects of abusive behaviors in terms of people’s psychological peculiarities.

Zhang, Y., Liu, X., Xu, S., Yang, L. Q., & Bednall, T. C. (2019). Why abusive supervision impacts employee OCB and CWB: A meta-analytic review of competing mediating mechanisms. Journal of Management, 45(6), 2474-2497. Web.

This article is concerned with the effects of abusive supervision on workplace performance with a focus on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The researchers implemented an analysis of 427 primary studies on the matter. The findings suggested that work stress and organizational justice mediated the negative impact of abusive supervision on employees’ OCB and CWB. The authors also found that the adverse influence of abusive supervision on CWB was more pronounced in masculine cultures. The authors noted that the victims were more likely to underperform and engage in counterproductive behaviors if they were exposed to high work-related stress. At the same time, the response to injustice was milder, which was explained by the employees’ ability to control their deviant conduct under certain circumstances.

This source is valuable for the present project due to its focus on the influence of abusive supervision on employees’ workplace performance and the utilized methodology. This meta-analysis is instrumental in obtaining a clear picture of the major findings related to the matter. Counterproductive work behavior is one of the most common responses of the victims, and it is also clear that certain organizational characteristics serve as mediators of negative effects.