Social Exchange Implications of Own and CoWorkers' Experiences of Supervisory Abuse

Abstract

This study examines how the quality of individuals’ social exchange relationships with their leaders and separately, their work unit peers, mediate the interactive effects of abusive supervision directed toward themselves (own abusive supervision) and toward their work unit peers (peer abusive supervision) on individual task performance and helping behavior directed toward coworkers. Testing the model using a sample of 358 workers from 25 organizations, we found support for our hypotheses that leader– member exchange (LMX) and affect-based trust in peers each partially mediated the interactive effects of own and peer abusive supervision. Workers that exhibited high levels of task performance and engaged in more helping behaviors tended to have both low own abusive supervision and low peer abusive supervision. Own abusive supervision was unrelated to the behavioral outcomes among workers whose peers were victims of supervisory abuse. We discuss the implications of relational dynamics with peers and the immediate supervisor for understanding the scope of the impact of abusive supervision on follower outcomes.