Pan Wen, Sun Li-Yun
Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao 999078, China.
School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao 999078, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2023 Oct 3;13(10):815. doi: 10.3390/bs13100815.
Do victims really help their abusive supervisors? Does abusive supervision have any positive consequence? The study aims to address this concern through extending the work by Tröster and Van Quaquebeke (2021). Using subordinates' self-reports, Tröster and Van Quaquebeke (2021) found that abusive supervision in high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship motivates subordinates to blame themselves, subsequently making them feel guilty and make up for it by being more helpful. By integrating both subordinates' and supervisors' perspectives, and using multi-wave, multi-source, and multi-level data collected in China, we obtain three major findings. First, as a replication of their findings, LMX moderates the direct effect of abusive supervision on workplace self-blame, and the indirect effect of abusive supervision on workplace guilt via workplace self-blame. The positive direct and indirect effects are stronger when LMX quality is higher. Second, different from their findings, LMX moderates the indirect effect of abusive supervision on supervisor-directed helping (evaluated by supervisors) via workplace self-blame and workplace guilt such that the negative indirect effect is stronger when LMX quality is higher. Third, as an extension, supervisor-evaluated LMX (SLMX) moderates the effect of workplace guilt on supervisor-directed helping such that the negative effect is stronger when SLMX is lower-quality. Put together, LMX and SLMX moderate the indirect effect of abusive supervision on supervisor-directed helping via workplace self-blame and workplace guilt. The negative indirect effect is stronger when LMX quality is higher, but SLMX quality is lower. Our study challenges previous speculations on the positive or beneficial consequences of abusive supervision, and thus contributes to the literature on abusive supervision.
受害者真的会帮助他们具有虐待行为的上司吗？虐待式监督会产生任何积极后果吗？本研究旨在通过扩展特罗斯特和范·夸克贝克（2021年）的研究来解决这一问题。特罗斯特和范·夸克贝克（2021年）利用下属的自我报告发现，在高质量的领导-成员交换（LMX）关系中，虐待式监督会促使下属自责，随后让他们感到内疚，并通过提供更多帮助来弥补。通过整合下属和上司的观点，并使用在中国收集的多波次、多来源和多层次数据，我们获得了三个主要发现。首先，作为对他们研究结果的重复，LMX调节了虐待式监督对工作场所自责的直接影响，以及虐待式监督通过工作场所自责对工作场所内疚的间接影响。当LMX质量较高时，积极的直接和间接影响更强。其次，与他们的研究结果不同的是，LMX调节了虐待式监督通过工作场所自责和工作场所内疚对上司导向型帮助（由上司评估）的间接影响，即当LMX质量较高时，负面间接影响更强。第三，作为一种扩展，上司评估的LMX（SLMX）调节了工作场所内疚对上司导向型帮助的影响，即当SLMX质量较低时，负面影响更强。综合来看，LMX和SLMX调节了虐待式监督通过工作场所自责和工作场所内疚对上司导向型帮助的间接影响。当LMX质量较高但SLMX质量较低时，负面间接影响更强。我们的研究挑战了之前关于虐待式监督的积极或有益后果的推测，从而为虐待式监督的文献做出了贡献。
