Recently, there has been a growing interest in ‘abusive supervision’ as the dark side of leadership. Destructive and generally negative behavior of supervisors are cited as the reasons behind the numerous negative emotions including deviant behavi...
Recently, there has been a growing interest in ‘abusive supervision’ as the dark side of leadership. Destructive and generally negative behavior of supervisors are cited as the reasons behind the numerous negative emotions including deviant behavior and incivility towards members of an organization, decline of job and organizational satisfaction, and even turnover. It is critical to have an understanding of the negative aspects of leadership in terms of human resources development which is in charge of building productive and efficient work environment, leadership development, and shaping organization culture.
In this study, the following topics are targeted focusing on the abusive supervision of supervisors. First, do the supervisory emotional intelligence and power distance in the organization have a significant effect on abusive supervision of supervisors? Second, does abusive supervision of supervisors have a significant effect on organizational effectiveness? Third, does trust in supervisors show mediating effect in the relationship of abusive supervision of supervisors and organizational effectiveness? Fourth, does the subordinates’ resilience show moderating effect in the relation between abusive supervision of supervisors and organizational effectiveness?
For this research, a self-reporting online survey was conducted for two months from November 27, 2011 to January 27, 2012, targeting members of large domestic companies. After eliminating incomplete and insincere responses, 393 out of 489 responses were used for data analysis.
The results of this empirical study are as follows: Firstly, emotional intelligence(EI) of supervisor as a personal characteristic showed a negative(-) effect on abusive supervision of supervisors. In particular, the emotional regulation amongst emotional intelligence was identified to affect abusive supervisionary behaviors the most. Second, it was shown that the power distance in organization level had a positive(+) effect on abusive supervision of bosses. Third, the abusive supervision of supervisors had negative(-) effects on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and innovative behavior. Fourth, the analysis of the mediating effect of the trust in supervisor in the influence of abusive supervisionary behavior on the organizational effectiveness revealed the mediating effect on the organizational commitment and innovative behavior, but only the main effect on the job satisfaction without mediating effect. Particularly, trust in supervisor showed perfect mediating effect in relation to abusive supervisionary behaviors and innovative behavior. Fifth, the analysis result of the moderating effect of subordinates’ resilience in the effect of abusive supervisionary behaviors on the organizational effectiveness shows that the moderating effect of the member’s resilience was verified regarding job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but does not indicate the moderating effect by member’s resilience regarding innovative behavior.
This research suggests the following implications and proposals for the protection of the organization and its members from the abusive supervisionary behaviors and for the development of effective leadership from the point of view of human resources development. First, it is necessary to share clear awareness of the negative leadership behaviors to beware and keep off as a leader as well as the desirable leadership philosophy value that businesses aim at. Second, leadership assessment and feedback are required to provide for the clear understanding of destructive and negative leadership behaviors as well as the leadership strength of one's own on the assumption that the development of leadership begins from the thorough self awareness of the leader. Third, considering abusive supervisionary behaviors are not exposed while they are easily generated in such organizations as the ones in Korea having high power distance, continuous monitoring is required against abusive supervisionary behaviors along with active efforts for the organizational culture innovation. Fourth, persistent understanding and response of the perception of trust in supervisor is required during the execution of the supervisory leadership. Fifth, with the widespread abusive supervisionary behaviors in most organizations considered, organizational effort to support development is needed to enhance the subordinates’ resilience. Sixth, organizational culture, institution, and system need to be aligned in one direction for the continuous maintenance of virtuous cycle of desirable and sound leadership development and for the prevention of negative and destructive leadership in the organization.