Unveiling abusive supervision antecedents: exploring the interplay of supervisor and subordinate trait anger, and workgroup climates
摘要
In this paper, we integrate both actor-focused and target-focused perspectives of aggression with trait activation theory to examine the interplay of supervisor trait anger, subordinate trait anger, and their interaction in predicting abusive supervision toward the whole team (referred to as abusive supervision) and specific subordinates (referred to as subordinates’ perceived abusive supervision). Then, we explore how these processes are shaped by two workgroup contextual factors, namely group interpersonal justice climate and positive group emotional climate. Based on multiwave and multisource data from 113 teams, our findings showed that: Supervisor trait anger was positively related to abusive supervision, and this relationship was weakened by group interpersonal justice climate and positive group emotional climate. Subordinate trait anger was positively related to subordinates’ perceived abusive supervision, and this positive relationship was strengthened by supervisor trait anger, while the strengthening effect of supervisor trait anger was constrained by the group interpersonal justice climate. When the group interpersonal justice climate was high, while the supervisor trait anger and subordinate trait anger were both low, subordinates’ perceived abusive supervision occurred at its lowest level.