Tracing an unyielding work compulsion in an organizational setting

Abstract

This research examines the formation of compulsory citizenship behaviour in the employees of the insurance sector. For this purpose, active-aggressive abusive supervision, passive-aggressive abusive supervision, perceived support of coworkers, emotional exhaustion and compulsory citizenship behaviour are articulated in a conceptual framework for empirical testing. Data were collected from 205 managerial level employees working in the insurance sector of Pakistan. Both aspects of abusive supervision have direct as well as indirect effects through emotional exhaustion on compulsory citizenship behaviour. Active-aggressive abusive supervision, coupled with low perceived coworkers’ support causes emotional exhaustion that culminates into increased compulsory citizenship behaviour of employees. Interestingly, when perceived support of coworkers is high then the indirect link between active aggressive abusive supervision and compulsory citizenship behaviour through emotional exhaustion decreases. The dimensionality of abusive supervision has been a vexing issue for scholars. The dearth of empirical evidence coupled with inconsistent findings warrants further studies to probe into the dimensionality of abusive supervision. Most of the studies have explored the consequences of compulsory citizenship behaviour, whereas few have looked at the mechanism through which this phenomenon occurs. Therefore, primarily with the help of JD-R theory and COR theory, this study would facilitate the ongoing research on compulsory citizenship behaviour by investigating the impact caused by two dimensions of abusive supervision on CCB.