Ineffective leadership and employees' negative outcomes: The mediating effect of anxiety and depression.

LS Pyc, DP Meltzer, C Liu�- International journal of stress�…, 2017 - psycnet.apa.org
LS Pyc, DP Meltzer, C Liu
International journal of stress management, 2017psycnet.apa.org
Past research has shown that abusive supervision is linked to negative outcomes for
employees, chiefly employees' counterproductive work behaviors directed at organizations.
This study examined the relationships between two types of ineffective supervision (abusive
supervision and authoritarian leadership style) and employees' distal negative outcomes
(eg, exhaustion, physical symptoms, job dissatisfaction, intention to quit, and poor job
performance) in a sample of 232 nurses and 24 supervisors. In addition, this study examined�…
Abstract
Past research has shown that abusive supervision is linked to negative outcomes for employees, chiefly employees’ counterproductive work behaviors directed at organizations. This study examined the relationships between two types of ineffective supervision (abusive supervision and authoritarian leadership style) and employees’ distal negative outcomes (eg, exhaustion, physical symptoms, job dissatisfaction, intention to quit, and poor job performance) in a sample of 232 nurses and 24 supervisors. In addition, this study examined how emotional reactions (anxiety and depression) mediated the negative relationships between ineffective leadership and employees’ distal outcomes. The results suggested that both types of ineffective leadership were related to similar negative employee outcomes, and anxiety and depression mediated these relationships. The conclusions from this study contribute to the ineffective leadership literature through connecting previous findings on abusive supervision with those of authoritarian leadership style. Organizations can utilize these results to raise awareness among supervisors about the implications their behaviors in the workplace have on employees’ welfare and on organizational effectiveness.
American Psychological Association