Why do supervisors abuse subordinates? Effects of team performance, regulatory focus, and emotional exhaustion

Abstract

Complementing previous studies on the antecedents of abusive supervision at the organizational and individual level, this study investigates how a team‐level factor (i.e., team performance) influences abusive supervision. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we propose that low team performance may elicit abusive supervision by making supervisors emotionally exhausted. Furthermore, when faced with low team performance, supervisors with a high prevention focus may experience greater emotional exhaustion and thus display more abusive behaviours, while supervisors with a high promotion focus may be less likely to feel emotionally exhausted and thereby exhibit fewer abusive behaviours. We tested our hypotheses using three‐wave survey data collected from 130 teams within an organization. Findings showed that supervisors' emotional exhaustion mediated the negative effect of team performance on abusive supervision, while only prevention focus moderated the indirect effect of team performance on abusive supervision via emotional exhaustion. This study contributes to the literature on antecedents of abusive supervision, the relationship between abusive supervision and performance, and leadership literature broadly.Practitioner points As abusive supervision results from psychological stress in a specific form of emotional exhaustion, organizations need to improve supervisors’ stress‐management skills by designing relevant training or education programmes, and help them handle or recover from stress. The study’s identification of the specific stressor (i.e., low team performance) fostering abusive supervision can increase organizations’ awareness of the issue and enable them to take appropriate interventions to reduce abusive supervision. Confronted with low team performance, highly prevention‐focused supervisors become more emotionally exhausted and are therefore more likely to abuse subordinates. Thus, in organizations where such a stressor (i.e., low team performance) is salient, practitioners can hire supervisors with a low prevention focus, or assess, select, and promote supervisors based on their prevention focus.