Abusive leadership and proactive behaviours: Role of family motivation as a moderator

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Negative impact of abusive leadership has always been the focus of attention for researchers, however, the asymmetrical relationship of abuse with its outcomes has never been studied. OBJECTIVE: Drawing on Affective Events Theory (AET), this study investigates the moderating role of family motivation (FM), a prosocial intent, in yielding positive behavioural reactions among individuals facing workplace abuse. Negative emotions (NE) are taken as a unique mediating factor between abusive leadership (AL) and proactive behaviours (PB). METHODS: Data were collected from 309 employees of Pakistani manufacturing organizations. SEM is used for studying the proposed relationships and Smart PLS is used for data analysis. RESULTS: Results of the study suggest that negative emotions mediate the indirect relationship between abusive leadership and proactive behaviours. Family motivation strongly moderates and strengthens the positive direct relationship of negative emotions and proactive behaviours, concluding that it has a strong influence in altering behavioural reactions in response to negative triggers. CONCLUSIONS: This research study adds to the body of knowledge in suggesting FM as a strong intrinsic factor to be considered while creating synergy between organizational and human resource strategies.