Tilting the Scales of Abuse: How Adiposity Augments the Effects of Abusive Supervision

Abstract

Both researchers and practitioners have recently been are interested in understanding and preventing the harmful effects of bad bosses. Americans have also recently been interested in solving the “obesity epidemic” in the United States resulting in the recent “Let’s Move” initiative from the White House. A majority of American workers are overweight or obese, it follows then, that research may shed light on the effects of this in the workplace. One area of effect may be in the perceptions and reactions to negative leader behaviors. In this study, we explore the effects supervisor adiposity (an excess of body fat) combined with abusive supervision have on two important employee outcomes—intent to turnover and job performance. Results from 106 supervisor-subordinate dyads show that abusive supervision acts to increase turnover intentions and decrease job performance by lowering organizational commitment. This relationship only holds, though, when the supervisor is adipose. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.