The Dark Side of Leadership: Abusive Supervision Research at Team- or Cross-Level of Analysis

Dear Colleagues,

Abusive supervision is defined as “subordinates’ perceptions of the extent to which supervisors engage in the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors, excluding physical contact” (Tepper, 2000: 178). Since the construct was introduced (see Tepper, 2000), a significant body of relevant empirical work has accumulated (Tepper et al., 2017). Abusive supervision is viewed as a dark side leadership that has negative practical implications (Aryee et al., 2007). 

Fischer and colleagues’ (2021) review suggests that studies of abusive supervision using multilevel and team-level design only account for 3.27% of total number of samples (n=490). Considering the main effects and boundary conditions of organization- or unit-factors is an area where additional research would be helpful (Martinko et al., 2013; Tepper, 2007). Future work can further explore the effect of cross-level factors in this line of research (Zhang and Liao, 2015). Examples of contextual factors are organic versus mechanistic organizational structure (Aryee et al., 2008) and hostile work climates (Mawritz et al., 2012). In social science research, data tend to be characterized by a nested structure, and multilevel modeling allows the analysis of nested data (Yu et al., 2020). Similarly, relatively few studies have examined team-level abusive supervision, such as abusive supervision climate (e.g., Priesemuth et al., 2014) and abuse supervision differentiation (e.g., Ogunfowora et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2017). Briefly, cross-level and team-level empirical studies on abusive supervision are the topics and concerns of this Special Issue. 

Studies submitted to this Special Issue are required to use data collected from multisource (e.g., both subordinates and supervisors) over multiple time periods (e.g., time 1 and time 2) if authors rely on surveys to obtain their data.

References

Aryee, S., Chen, Z. X., Sun, L.-Y., & Debrah, Y. A. 2007. Antecedents and outcomes of abusive supervision: Test of a trickle-down model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92: 191-201.

Aryee, S., Sun, L.-Y., Chen, Z. X. G., & Debrah, Y. A. 2008. Abusive supervision and contextual performance: The mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of work unit structure. Management and Organization Review, 4: 393–411.

Fischer, T., Tian, A.W., Lee, A., & Hughes, D.J. 2021. Abusive supervision: A systematic review and fundamental rethink. The Leadership Quarterly, 32: 101540.  

Martinko, M., Harvey, P., Brees, J., & Mackey, J. 2013. A review of abusive supervision research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34 (S1): S120–S137.

Mawritz, M. B., Mayer, D. M., Hoobler, J. M., Wayne, S. J., & Marinova, S. V. 2012. A trickle-down model of abusive supervision. Personnel Psychology, 65:325–357.

Ogunfowora, B., Weinhardt, J.M., & Hwang, C.C. 2021. Abusive supervision differentiation and employee outcomes: the roles of envy, resentment, and insecure group attachment, Journal of Management, 47: 623-653.

Priesemuth, M., Schminke, M., Ambrose, M. L., & Folger, R. 2014. Abusive supervision climate: a multiplemediation model of its impact on group outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 57:1513–1534.

Sun, L-Y., Li, CW., & Leung, A. 2017. Abusive supervision differentiation and team performance: Exploring main and contingent effects. Academy of Management Proceedings.

Tepper, B. J. 2000. Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal, 43: 178–190.

Tepper, B. J. 2007. Abusive supervision in work organizations: Review, synthesis, and research agenda. Journal of Management, 33: 261–289.

Tepper, B. J., Simon, L., & Park, H. M. 2017. Abusive supervision. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4: 123–152.

Yu, Y., Xu, S., Li, G., & Kong, H. 2020. A systematic review of research on abusive supervision in hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32; 2473-2496.

Zhang, Y., & Liao, Z. 2015. Consequences of abusive supervision: A meta-analytic review. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 32: 959–987.

Dr. Li-Yun Sun
Guest Editor

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• abusive supervision
• cross-level of analysis
• team level