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Dealing with an abusive boss in China: The moderating effect of promotion focus on reward expectancy and organizational citizenship behavior

Wei Zeng (School of Business Administration, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Ying Zhou (School of Business Administration, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Zhengyu Shen (School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai, China)

International Journal of Conflict Management

ISSN: 1044-4068

Article publication date: 17 May 2018

Issue publication date: 13 August 2018

946

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how reward expectancy mediates the effect of abusive supervision on organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, drawing upon regulatory focus theory, this paper proposes and tests the moderating role of promotion focus in the proposed mediating effect.

Design/methodology/approach

Both hierarchical regression and PROCESS macro are conducted to analyze longitudinal data collected from 142 MBA students in different industries in the People’s Republic of China.

Findings

Results reveal that abusive supervision was negatively related to both organization-directed citizenship behavior (OCBO) and individual-directed citizenship behavior (OCBI) through undermining individual reward expectancies. Results also show that promotion focus moderated the negative effect of abusive supervision on reward expectancy, such that the relationship was stronger when promotion focus was higher. In addition, the indirect effect of abusive supervision on OCBO and OCBI carried through reward expectancy was also stronger among individuals with higher promotion focus.

Originality/value

It contributes to the literature on abusive supervision by offering a new perspective regarding the mechanism of abusive supervision influence on organizational citizenship behavior. The findings thus shed insights into cognitions and motivations that are associated with organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, it is the first to link abusive supervision with regulatory focus theory to examine the decrease of organizational citizenship behavior.

Keywords

Citation

Zeng, W., Zhou, Y. and Shen, Z. (2018), "Dealing with an abusive boss in China: The moderating effect of promotion focus on reward expectancy and organizational citizenship behavior", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 500-518. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-02-2018-0026

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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