Abusive Supervision, Employee Well-Being and Ill-Being: The Moderating Role of Core Self-Evaluations

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter investigates the relationship between abusive supervision and employee well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, engagement) and ill-being (i.e., burnout, workaholism) and examines whether follower core self-evaluations (CSE) moderate this relationship.

Methodology/approach

The study uses cross-sectional survey data collected from 111 professional employees across a range of industry sectors.

Findings

Results show that abusive supervision is negatively related to employee well-being (i.e., engagement and job satisfaction) and positively related to employee ill-being, namely burnout. In addition, employees low in CSE are less engaged and less satisfied than employees high in CSE.

Research limitations/implications

The study’s cross-sectional design limits the strength of its conclusions.

Practical implications

This chapter notes the ethical and legal obligations of organizations to provide a safe working environment and identifies the policies and procedures that will signal a commitment to employee well-being.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the leadership and well-being literatures by exploring the influence of abusive leaders on follower well-being and engagement. It also goes beyond merely identifying correlations between leadership style and follower well-being outcomes to investigate how leader and follower attributes can combine to influence these outcomes.

Citation

O’Donoghue, A., Conway, E. and Bosak, J. (2016), "Abusive Supervision, Employee Well-Being and Ill-Being: The Moderating Role of Core Self-Evaluations", Emotions and Organizational Governance (Research on Emotion in Organizations, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1746-979120160000012001