Why do you treat me badly? The role of attributions regarding the cause of abuse in subordinates' responses to abusive supervision

Abstract

This study examined the relationships between attributions of targets regarding the causes of abusive supervision and their responses. Following Bowling and Beehr's (2006) Attribution-Based Model of Workplace Harassment, we hypothesized that the relationships between abusive supervision and (a) subordinate well-being, (b) behaviours directed at harming the supervisor, and (c) behaviours directed at harming the organization would be moderated by self-directed, supervisor-directed, and organization-directed attributions, respectively. Data collected in two waves from a sample of 381 participants employed in a variety of different work settings were analysed using moderated regression analysis. These analyses suggest that abusive supervision was more strongly related to counterproductive work behaviour directed at the organization among subordinates who attributed the abuse to the organization than among those who did not attributed it to the organization. Contrary to our predictions, abusive supervision was more strongly related to employee well-being among subordinates who were low in self-directed attributions than in subordinates who were high in self-directed attributions. We conclude that subordinate attributions play a potentially important role in how workers respond to abusive supervision.