Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 8;16(18):3300.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16183300.

When Employees are Emotionally Exhausted Due to Abusive Supervision. A Conservation-of-Resources Perspective

Zubair Akram  1 , Yan Li  2 , Umair Akram  3
Affiliations

When Employees are Emotionally Exhausted Due to Abusive Supervision. A Conservation-of-Resources Perspective

Zubair Akram et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This study represents an important step towards understanding why supervisors behave abusively towards their subordinates. Building on the conservation of resources theory, this study investigates the impact of abusive supervision on counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) from a stress perspective. Furthermore, job demands play a significant moderating effect, and emotional exhaustion has a mediating effect on the relationship between abusive supervision and CWBs. A time-lagged design was utilized to collect the data and a total of 350 supervisors-subordinates' dyads are collected from Chinese manufacturing firms. The findings indicate that subordinates' emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and CWBs only when subordinates are involved in a high frequency of job demands. Additionally, emotional exhaustion and abusive supervision were significantly moderated by job demands. However, the extant literature has provided that abusive supervision has detrimental effects on employees work behavior. The findings of this study provide new empirical and theoretical insights into the stress perspectives. Finally, implications for managers and related theories are discussed, along with the boundaries and future opportunities of this study.

Keywords: China; abusive supervision; conservation of resources theory; counterproductive work behavior; emotional exhaustion; job demands.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A moderated-mediation model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Moderating effect of abusive supervision and job demands (JD) on emotional exhaustion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Baloch M.A., Meng F., Xu Z., Cepeda-Carrion I., Bari M.W. Dark Triad, Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Moderating Effect of Political Skills. Front. Psychol. 2017;8:1972. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01972. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fang T. Asian management research needs more self-confidence: Reflection on Hofstede (2007) and beyond. Asia Pac. J. Manag. 2010;27:155–170. doi: 10.1007/s10490-009-9134-7. - DOI
    1. Dalal R.S., Lam H., Weiss H.M., Welch E.R., Hulin C.L. A within-person approach to work behavior and performance: Concurrent and lagged citizenship-counterproductivity associations, and dynamic relationships with affect and overall job performance. Acad. Manag. J. 2009;52:1051–1066. doi: 10.5465/amj.2009.44636148. - DOI
    1. Moore C., Detert J.R., KlebeTreviño L., Baker V.L., Mayer D.M. Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Pers. Psychol. 2012;65:1–48. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01237.x. - DOI
    1. Li Y., Ahlstrom D., Ashkanasy N.M. A multilevel model of affect and organizational commitment. Asia Pac. J. Manag. 2010;27:193–213. doi: 10.1007/s10490-010-9193-9. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources