Why is your boss making you sick? A longitudinal investigation modeling time‐lagged relations between abusive supervision and employee physical health

Abstract

SummaryAlthough an abundance of cross‐sectional data have linked abusive supervision with employees' experience of health‐related problems, further research accounting for the temporal dynamics of these variables is needed to establish causality. Furthermore, the process by which abusive supervision relates to subordinate health problems requires greater clarification. In a 1‐year longitudinal cross‐lagged investigation, we sought to test the time‐lagged relationship between abusive supervision and employee physical health; additionally, we test rumination as a cognitive process that mediates this time‐lagged relationship while modeling other relevant social and motivational mediators. Our results indicate that subordinate ruminative thinking about their experiences of abusive supervision mediates the time‐lagged association between abusive supervision and physical health problems. These findings suggest that reducing ruminative thinking may limit the long‐term impact of abusive supervision on employees' physical health.