Relationship of abusive supervision and employees’ helping behaviors: moderated-mediation perspective
International Journal of Conflict Management
ISSN: 1044-4068
Article publication date: 6 January 2023
Issue publication date: 10 March 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This study, based on the conservation of resource theory, aims to investigate the negative impacts of abusive supervision on helping behaviors among employees by examining the mediating role of rumination and the moderating role of psychological flexibility.
Design/methodology/approach
A total sample of 282 reliable questionnaires are collected from 282 employees working in education and banking sectors of Pakistan. SPSS and AMOS are used for data analysis of the proposed model.
Findings
The findings reveal that rumination mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ helping behavior. In addition, the results show that higher levels of psychological flexibility negatively moderate the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ helping behaviors through mediation.
Practical implications
This study elucidates how and when abusive supervision deters helping behavior among employees and provides useful guidelines for banking/university’s administration to understand harmful consequences of abusive supervision and take appropriate policy measures to lessen their harmful effects upon employees.
Originality/value
By proposing a moderated mediation model, this study discovers rumination as a key mediator that links abusive supervision to employees’ helping behaviors and identifies the role of psychological flexibility in diminishing the negative impacts of abusive supervision upon employees’ helping behaviors through rumination.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Fund No. 71472172).
Citation
Asim, M., Liu, Z., Nadeem, M.A., Ghani, U., Khalid, J. and Xu, Y. (2023), "Relationship of abusive supervision and employees’ helping behaviors: moderated-mediation perspective", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 367-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-11-2021-0185
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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