Abstract
Since Tepper (2000) introduced the concept of abusive supervision, scholars (Aryee et al., 2008; Carlson et al., 2012; Brees et al., 2016) have initiated in-depth research on this destructive leadership style, which has resulted in an expanded understanding of negative leadership behaviors. According to my own experience of being a manager for over twenty years, I have found that there is a higher percentage of managers acting with what could be termed as abusive supervision. These managers lead their teams in a simple but brutal way. They criticize their subordinates openly, fail to keep their promises and even sneer at their subordinates. This brings immense psychological stress to their employees and their team members. Although abusive supervision cannot function very effectively in most cases, some teams and organizations appear to weather the storm, surprisingly achieving good results. This suggests that abusive supervision might generate some positive consequences. However, there are a few unanswered questions. Specifically, what is the actual influence of abusive supervision on team performance, under what circumstances does abusive supervision have positive outcomes and, under what circumstances do negative outcomes occur? Identifying the underlying mechanisms of abusive supervision on team performance is also of interest.
Existing studies on abusive supervision have mainly focused on the individual level, exploring its influences on individual psychological and behavioral aspects, as well as its influences on employees’ family life and work performance. Much less empirical study at the team and organizational levels has been conducted. It is to this end that this research contributes by exploring the influences of abusive supervision on team performance and by examining the mediating effects of two different aspects - fear of future abuse and performance avoidance orientation.
The hypothesis of this research is that abusive supervision will lead to fear of future abuse among team members. Abused employees will not want to be further abused and will therefore adjust their work attitudes and work styles, shifting towards leadership expectations, in turn promoting team performance. Conversely, it is also proposed that abusive supervision may induce a performance-avoidance orientation among team members, resulting in employees adopting behaviors, such as avoiding challenging work, not engaging in creative behaviors, and holding a work attitude which is characterized by the notion that the less you do, the fewer mistakes you could make. All of the above-mentioned behaviors serve to negatively impact team performance. In addition, this research analyzes the moderating effects of team member exchange and performance pressure on these relationships. Here it is proposed that team member exchange will negatively moderate the effects of abusive supervision on fear of future abuse, while performance pressure will moderate the effects of performance avoidance on team performance albeit in a negative direction.
To test the model and hypotheses proposed in this research, data were collected from 74 teams (i.e., matched restaurant managers and staff) working in a large Chinese catering chain enterprise. Results show that abusive supervision negatively influences team performance and positively influences fear of future abuse, with this positive influence being moderated by team member exchange. That is, when team member exchange was at higher levels, the influence of abusive supervision on fear of future abuse was weaker, whereas when team member exchange was at lower levels, the influence of abusive supervision on fear of future abuse was stronger. In addition, performance avoidance orientation had a significant negative influence on team performance.
This research makes both theoretical and practical contributions, especially for understanding abusive supervision in Chinese context. For example, it validates the negative influence of abusive supervision on team performance, with findings revealing abusive supervision to have a positive influence on fears of team members, with this influence negatively moderated by team member exchange. There are several limitations related to the design of this research. These include the sample being sourced from one enterprise whose team sizes were relatively small.