Abusive supervision: a content analysis of theory and methodology

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yucheng Zhang ◽  
Zhongwei Hou ◽  
Xingxing Zhou ◽  
Yumeng Yue ◽  
Siqi Liu ◽  
...  

Purpose Despite recent organizational behavior studies have witnessed considerable progress in abusive supervision research; some demerits for both theory and methodology still remain in the past years. To clarify the current state of knowledge in the field, this study aims to analyze the current state of theories and methods on abusive supervision and provides a detailed future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducted a literature review for both theory and methodology of the abusive supervision research using a content analysis of 134 publications. Findings For the theory part, this paper summarized the theories that had been applied to explain the relationship between abusive supervision and its consequences as well as antecedents. For the methodology part, this paper outlined some critical issues regarding country of origin, research design, measurement, analysis strategy and also summarized with a discussion of the relationship between methodological issues and article impact. Finally, this paper concluded by presenting an agenda for future abusive supervision research regarding both theory and methodology. Originality/value First, this paper summarizes the main theories, antecedents and consequences often used in abusive supervision research to allow scholars to carry out theoretically driven research investigating abusive supervision in the future. Second, through a content analysis of the methods sections of abusive supervision research in the samples (i.e. country of origin, research design, measurement and analytical procedures), this paper identified the potential reasons underlying the inconsistency in the conclusions of abusive supervision research and provide some guidance for future empirical studies. Third, based on the qualitative review, this paper provides an agenda for future research investigating abusive supervision by developing a content-specific theoretical framework to benchmark abusive supervision research against other research related to leadership and offers an accurate response to scholars’ criticisms of abusive supervision research.

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 2473-2496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yitong Yu ◽  
Shi Xu ◽  
Gang Li ◽  
Haiyan Kong

Purpose This paper aims to provide researchers and practitioners with an understanding of abusive supervision in the context of hospitality. It seeks to conduct a comprehensive review of the area and offer recommendations for future research by exploring the antecedents, consequences, mechanisms and designs of research on abusive supervision. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis was conducted to review and analyze studies on abusive supervision in the context of hospitality. Previous studies were searched in the EBSCO, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar electronic databases. Findings In total, 36 referred articles related to abusive supervision in hospitality were reviewed across four key areas, namely, antecedents, consequences, mechanisms and research design. After reviewing the research on abusive supervision in the context of hospitality, this paper offers future research directions with respect to research focus and research design. Research limitations/implications This paper only included English articles from peer-reviewed journals on abusive supervision. The number of reviewed articles was relatively small. This limitation may have arisen because abusive supervision is a new research field and is still a sensitive topic. Practical implications The results of this study may encourage managers to minimize or even halt abusive supervision. From an organizational perspective, formal policies may be developed to regularize supervisors’ behavior. In turn, employees could use this paper to learn further about abusive behavior and how to handle it effectively. Social implications The review highlighted the negative consequences of abusive supervision. Managers should urgently realize the seriousness of abusive supervision and develop effective policies to minimize its negative effect. Originality/value This paper contributes to the emerging literature on abusive supervision in the context of hospitality by identifying key research trends and framing the outlines of empirical studies. It identifies research gaps, and as the first review of abusive supervision in hospitality, it may encourage researchers to explore the topic on the basis of the characteristics of the sector and offer suggestions for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Limin Guo ◽  
Hongdan Zhao ◽  
Ken Cheng ◽  
Jinlian Luo

PurposeBased on social exchange theory and research on proactive personality, this study aims to explore the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), taking proactive personality as a boundary condition.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a two-wave questionnaire survey and used data from 353 Chinese employees of a diversified company to test the research hypotheses.FindingsThe relationship between abusive supervision and UPB varied with proactive personality. Specifically, abusive supervision had an inverted U-shaped effect on UPB when proactive personality was high, while abusive supervision was negatively related to UPB when proactive personality was low.Research limitations/implicationsMore research are encouraged to replicate our study in different cultural contexts. Besides, future research can gather data from dyads (e.g. supervisor–subordinate dyad and coworker–subordinate dyad) so as to increase the objectivity and validity of the data.Practical implicationsManagers should reduce abusive supervision and elevate proactive employees' moral awareness.Social implicationsThis study hopes that the authors’ findings will help practitioners to devote greater attention to managing proactive personality, abusive supervision and UPB in the organization.Originality/valueFirst, this study enriches the abusive supervision literature by identifying UPB as a consequence of abusive supervision. Second, this study provides a better understanding of the coping tactics used to combat abusive supervision. Third, this study uncovers a dark side of proactive personality by verifying the moderating effect of proactive personality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-145
Author(s):  
Yu-Chen Wei ◽  
Chiung-Wen Tsao

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the moderating effects of employee commitment, customer loyalty and corporate reputation on the relationship between family influence and international expansion. Design/methodology/approach A cross-national research design was conducted using both survey and secondary data of 119 firms taken from the top 1,000 Taiwanese enterprises. Findings This study found moderating effects in the positive impact of family influence on international expansion. Specifically, the study found the relationship between family influence and international expansion stronger for companies with greater relational support from employees, customers and the public. Research limitations/implications Multi-level data collection and a longitudinal research design in future research could help in further understanding the relationships between the variables in this study. Practical implications This paper suggests that family business should establish enduring relationship with their employees and customers and have a plan to improve family reputation that will benefit international market expansion. Originality/value This study draws on the relational perspective to investigate how family influence results in different international expansion.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Kathrin Hinze ◽  
Franziska Sump

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to systematise the current state of research on the association between companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and financial analysts’ company assessment. Additionally, it aims to identify fruitful directions for future research that contribute to a further exploration of the link between CSR and financial analysts.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews and synthesises existing research on CSR and financial analysts. Based on the research question, “What is the relationship between CSR engagement and financial analysts’ metrics?,” the authors conduct a systematic literature review. The authors search three major databases and use an extensive search term to ensure exhaustive coverage of the field. The paper then systemises the current state of research and identifies knowledge gaps and potential directions for future research.FindingsThe review of existing research shows that several studies confirm a positive link between CSR performance and analyst coverage, suggesting that external monitoring through analysts incentivises companies to enhance their CSR engagement. Further, results indicate that a company’s involvement in “sin” industries is linked to lower analyst coverage. Besides, a higher level of CSR disclosure is positively associated with analyst forecast accuracy, thus indicating that the provision of CSR-related information is linked to an enhanced information environment. High levels of CSR performance are associated with more positive recommendations from analysts. However, recent surveys and interview studies on analysts’ perceptions of CSR fail to uniformly support an increasing interest in CSR.Research limitations/implicationsFor a better understanding of the link between CSR engagement and financial analysts, two fruitful directions for future research are observed. First, future research designs should clearly differentiate between CSR disclosure and CSR performance and take account of interdependencies between them. Second, studies should address behavioural insights into how analysts process information and the influence of individual analyst characteristics on the link between CSR engagement and an analyst’s assessment of a company.Originality/valueThis study is the first to review the literature on the relationship between CSR and financial analysts. The association between CSR and financial analysts is particularly interesting given the pivotal role financial analysts play as information intermediaries in financial markets. This study delivers an in-depth understanding of existing studies and their theoretical underpinnings. Based on the existing literature, this paper develops innovative directions for future research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 1083-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Antero Luoma

Purpose – The linkage between strategy and performance is central to strategic management. Empirical studies have nevertheless produced mixed results on the nature of this relationship, and in recent decades, very little advancement has been made in research aimed at elucidating this relationship. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to identify the approaches to the strategy-performance linkage in previous studies and defines five principles that should characterize future research on this relationship. The paper develops a novel research design that follows these principles and tests the usefulness of this research design in practice. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is exploratory in nature and its empirical methods include content analysis, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis. The primary difference between this paper and studies in the mainstream literature on the linkage between strategy and performance relates to the application of an endogenous strategy typology instead of predefined strategy categories. Findings – The analysis shows that the adopted research design based on five principles is applicable to research on the linkage between strategy and performance and that such a research design produces meaningful results. The results support the findings of earlier studies regarding the potential of “hybrid” strategies for achieving superior firm performance. Research limitations/implications – This paper challenges the dominance of generic strategies in research on the strategy-performance linkage and provides statistical data that lay the foundation for more detailed investigation on this relationship. The paper argues for a contextually bound view of strategic management. Originality/value – This paper invigorates the discussion on the linkage between strategy and performance, which has long been diminishing as a research topic in the literature because of contradictory results and the lack of fresh research opportunities. This paper further introduces a methodology that has been underutilized in the study of strategic management.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oana Alexandra Albertsen ◽  
Rainer Lueg

Purpose – This paper aims to review the literature on the balanced scorecard (BSC) system. The BSC may well be one of the most popular performance measurement systems, but this is not synonymous with successful. The inventors of the BSC, Kaplan and Norton, actually emphasize that a BSC can only really impact the organizational performance if it is linked to the actors’ intrinsic and extrinsic incentives. As BSC has existed for more than 20 years, the authors find it relevant to survey the extant literature which elaborates on the BSC-incentives link within organizations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper identifies 117 empirical studies from leading academic journals published between 1992 and 2012 and then assesses 30 of these studies, which present the BSC-compensation link within the BSC literature. The authors analyze both research design (authors’ perspective) and the actual findings in the field (organizations’ perspective). Findings – First, it was found that only 30 of 117 empirical studies have a research design that is comprehensive enough to capture a full BSC as suggested by Kaplan and Norton, and only six of these studies elaborate on the link between the BSC and compensation. Second, extant research lacks valid constructs for the BSC and focuses too much on planning (ex-ante) with the BSC and not sufficiently on evaluation and control (ex-post). Third, the authors demonstrate that empirical BSC literature relies very strongly on field research in small and medium enterprises compared to similar research. Overall, the authors claim that the “relevance” of the BSC remains unproven. Originality/value – The authors synthesize the empirical BSC literature and derive a future research agenda.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Thompson ◽  
Samuel Lane

Purpose – This study aims to evaluate both intelligence and job satisfaction of workers in the USA and China. Each topic will be studied individually, first, to determine the relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction. The statistics between China and the USA will then be compared and contrasted to assess how different cultures will affect emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of those in the workforce. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the empirical studies on intelligence and job satisfaction was performed and used to develop a model to guide future research. Findings – There is a negative relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction in the USA, but no studies have been done to compare both constructs cross-culturally. Research limitations/implications – The proposed study can be used to gain an understanding of the relationship between intelligence and job satisfaction across different cultures. Practical implications – The link between job satisfaction and intelligence can be used by employers to determine information about other aspects of their business, such as turnover rates of productive employees. Originality/value – Although there has been some research on the relation between intelligence and job satisfaction, notably by Ganzach (1998), very little has been done across cultures.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guglielmo Faldetta

Purpose This study aims to explore the process that, from abusive supervision, leads to the different kinds of workplace deviant behaviors, using the norm of negative reciprocity as the main mechanism that can trigger this process. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a literature review from organizational behavior and reciprocity fields and builds a theoretical model on the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace deviance within organizations. Findings This study develops a theoretical model where abusive supervision causes a feeling of injustice, which can motivate employees to seek revenge in the form of workplace deviant behaviors. Moreover, negative direct balanced reciprocity will moderate the relationship between the desire for revenge and minor interpersonal workplace deviance; negative direct non-balanced reciprocity will moderate the relationship between the desire for revenge and severe interpersonal workplace deviance; negative generalized balanced reciprocity will moderate the relationship between the desire for revenge and minor organizational workplace deviance; negative generalized non-balanced reciprocity will moderate the relationship between the desire for revenge and severe organizational workplace deviance. Originality/value Previous studies have used negative reciprocity as a moderator, but for the first time, it is split in direct and generalized and in balanced and non-balanced. In particular, when direct negative reciprocity is present, the revenge will take the form of interpersonal workplace deviance; when generalized negative reciprocity is present, the revenge will take the form of organizational workplace deviance. On the other side, when balanced reciprocity is present, revenge will take the form of minor workplace deviance, while when non-balanced reciprocity is present, revenge will take the form of severe workplace deviance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 977-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khuram Shahzad ◽  
Pia Arenius ◽  
Alan Muller ◽  
Muhammad Athar Rasheed ◽  
Sami Ullah Bajwa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the black box between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and innovation performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through application of the ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO) framework, the study examines the mediating roles of innovation-specific ability, motivation and voice behaviors between HPWS and SMEs’ innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested on data collected through a self-administered questionnaire from 237 SMEs in Pakistan. Findings Findings indicate that human capital, motivation and employee voice fully mediate the relationship between HPWS and innovation performance in SMEs. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional research design and self-reported measures warrant caution for the interpretation of findings. Future research may consider a longitudinal research design and objective measures. Practical implications SMEs need to invest in the adoption and implementation of HPWS that will develop innovation-specific abilities, motivation and voice behaviors simultaneously among employees that will lead to higher innovation performance. Originality/value This is the first study of its kind utilizing an AMO framework to investigate the underlying mechanism through which HPWS affect innovation performance in SMEs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mrinalini Srivastava ◽  
Gagan Deep Sharma ◽  
Achal Kumar Srivastava ◽  
S. Senthil Kumaran

Purpose Neuroeconomics and neurofinance are emerging as intriguing fields of research, despite sharing ambiguity with the concepts of neuroscience. The relationship among the concepts of economics, finance and neuroscience is not explicitly defined in the past literature, which distorts the use of neuroeconomics and neurofinance approaches in real-world practice for financial decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to consolidate the literature in the field of neuroeconomics and neurofinance to set up the research agenda for the upcoming scholarship in the field. Design/methodology/approach The purpose of this paper is to consolidates the extant literature in the fields of neuroeconomics and neurofinance by conducting an extensive systematic literature review to investigate the current state and define the relationship between economics, finance and neuroscience. Findings This paper identifies and explains the explicit relationship between different sub-fields of neuroscience with neuroeconomics and neurofinance and providing instances for future research studies. Originality/value The exclusive and extensive literature survey in the form of systematic literature review is undertaken for understanding the fields of neuroeconomics and neurofinance and is the key highlight of this paper. Another, interesting fact lies with matching the literature in neuroeconomics and neurofinance with further sub-fields of neuroscience such as neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, molecular neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document