Supervisor Undermining Research Articles

Why and When Subordinates’ Creative Behavior Evokes Supervisor Undermining

This study investigates the effect of subordinates’ creative deviance on supervisor undermining as well as the associated mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions. Two separate studies were adopted to test the hypotheses. A field study (Study 1) based on a sample of 123 dyads of subordinates and their supervisors in China showed that subordinates’ creative deviance was positively related to supervisor undermining. This relationship was partially mediated by supervisor perceived identity threat. Furthermore, supervisors’ managerial self- efficacy moderated the relationship between creative deviance and identity threat, such that this relationship was stronger when supervisors’ managerial self-efficacy was low rather than high. These findings were confirmed in a follow up experimental study (Study 2) using a sample of 137 students. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Supervisor undermining and driving errors in truck drivers: A moderated mediation model

The present study focuses on the detrimental impact of supervisor undermining behaviors at work on driving errors for truck drivers, arguing for the mediating role of burnout. Moreover, this research highlights the moderating role of general self-efficacy in the relationships between supervisor undermining and burnout, and between burnout and driving errors, respectively. The data collected from a sample of 190 Romanian drivers supported a moderated mediation model in which burnout partially mediates the relation between supervisor undermining and driving errors, while self-efficacy moderates both aforementioned relationships. The conditional indirect effect of supervisor undermining on driving errors was significant when self-efficacy was low and non-significant when self-efficacy was high. Overall, our results emphasize the negative impact that supervisor undermining and burnout have on driving errors, while also highlighting the buffering effect of self-efficacy.

A concise, content valid, gender invariant measure of workplace incivility.

The authors present a short, valid, gender invariant measure of workplace incivility that should have a high degree of utility in a variety of research designs, especially those concerned with reducing participant burden such as experience sampling and multiwave longitudinal designs. Given ongoing concerns about the psychometric properties of workplace mistreatment constructs, they validated a 4-item measure of experienced incivility based on series of 3 independent field studies (N = 2,636). In addition to retaining items on the basis of employee rated conceptual alignment (i.e., judgmental criteria) with a standard incivility definition (i.e., ambiguous intent to harm), items were also chosen based on external criteria in terms of their ability to explain incremental variance in outcomes of interest (e.g., role overload, interpersonal deviance). Items with large systematic relationships with other mistreatment constructs (i.e., abusive supervision, supervisor undermining) were excluded. In turn, the authors demonstrated that the 4-item measure is gender invariant, a critical issue that has received limited attention in the literature to date. They also experimentally investigated the effect of recall window (2 weeks, 1 month, 1 year) and found a differential pattern of effect sizes for various outcomes of interest. A fourth independent field study was conducted as a practical application of the measure within a longitudinal framework. An autoregressive model examining experienced incivility and counterproductive work behaviors was tested. Data was collected from a sample of 278 respondents at 3 time points with 1 month between assessments. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Supervisor Support: Does it Buffer or Exacerbate the Adverse Effects of Supervisor Undermining?

Empirical investigations concerning the interplay between supervisor support and supervisor undermining behaviors and their effects on employees yielded contradictory findings; with some studies su...

Support, Undermining, and Newcomer Socialization: Fitting in During the First 90 Days

While much organizational socialization occurs through interpersonal interactions, evidence regarding how these processes unfold over time has not been forthcoming. Results from a 14-wave longitudinal study with a sample of 264 organizational newcomers show that support of newcomers from coworkers and supervisors declines within the first 90 days of employment. Early support and undermining had more significant relationships with work outcomes assessed after 90 days of employment than did increases or decreases in support and undermining over that time period, suggesting early support and undermining may lay a foundation for later work outcomes. Proactive behavior partially mediated the relationship between support and more distal work outcomes, including withdrawal behaviors. Supervisor undermining was uniquely associated with higher turnover (exit) hazard.

Age and innovation‐related behavior: The joint moderating effects of supervisor undermining and proactive personality

SummaryPrevious research has yielded mixed results regarding the effects of age on innovation‐related behavior (IRB; i.e., generating, disseminating, and implementing new ideas). This paper hypothesizes that the relationship of age with IRB is jointly moderated by undermining behavior on the part of the supervisor and the extent to which the employee possesses a proactive personality. We collected data from 196 employees at three points in time over a one‐year period. Results supported the hypothesized 3‐way interaction of age, supervisor undermining, and proactive personality on IRB. As predicted, highly proactive older workers responded to high supervisor undermining with more IRB, whereas older workers low on proactive personality responded to high supervisor undermining with less IRB. On the other hand, when supervisor undermining was low, proactive personality did not moderate the relationship of age with IRB. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

When Leaders Fail to “Walk the Talk”

This research examines a condition under which supervisor undermining is related to perceptions of leader hypocrisy that then lead to employee turnover intentions. Drawing on behavioral integrity theory and arguments from the social cognition literature, the authors argue that subordinates compare supervisor undermining to an interpersonal justice expectation, as a salient social cue, to draw conclusions regarding leader hypocrisy. In turn, the cognitive conclusion that the leader is indeed a hypocrite generates uncertainty that subordinates are motivated to manage by increasing turnover intentions. The authors examine perceptions of leader hypocrisy as the mediator of their proposed theoretical model while controlling for psychological contract breach and trust in supervisor. Results from a scenario-based experiment ( N = 202) and a survey-based study ( N = 312) provide general support for the authors’ hypotheses.

Voice Climate, Supervisor Undermining, and Work Outcomes

This study draws from social information processing theory and the climate literature to examine an antecedent to and the consequences of voice climate, defined as shared group member perceptions of the extent to which they are encouraged to engage in voice behaviors. The authors test their hypotheses using data collected from a sample of 374 full-time employees nested in 54 work groups. Their results indicate that group perceptions of supervisor undermining have a negative effect on group perceptions of voice climate. In addition, voice climate predicts group voice behavior and also has a significant influence on group performance beyond the influence through group voice behavior. These findings provide additional evidence for the predictive validity of the voice climate construct and provide future research opportunities for researchers.

An Exploratory Examination of Supervisor Undermining, Employee Involvement Climate, and the Effects on Customer Perceptions of Service Quality in Quick-Service Restaurants

Customer retention has become a continuous focus of service organizations and is especially salient in the quick-service restaurant industry due to the short time with the consumer. Restaurant employees being part of the product play imperative role in keeping customers happy and coming back. However, there is no complete understanding of factors that make employees perform their best and satisfy customers. The aim of this article is to explore how employee involvement climate, a construct composed of power, information, rewards and knowledge, and supervisor undermining are related to customer perceptions of service quality. Additionally, the interaction between employee involvement climate and supervisor undermining is tested. Results suggest that a significant interaction exists between these two constructs and are key predictors in increasing or decreasing customer perceptions of service quality.