In pursuit of power: The role of authoritarian leadership in the relationship between supervisors’ Machiavellianism and subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervisory behavior

Abstract

In this paper, we considered both supervisor (personality and leadership behavior) and victim characteristics (organization-based self-esteem) in predicting perceptions of abusive supervision. We tested our model in two studies consisting of supervisor–subordinate dyads from Australia and the Philippines. Specifically, we found that: (1) supervisor Machiavellianism was positively associated with subordinate perceptions of abusive supervision; (2) subordinate perceptions of authoritarian leadership behavior fully mediated the relationship between supervisor Machiavellianism and abusive supervision, and (3) organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) moderated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision, such that low-OBSE employees were more likely to perceive higher levels of authoritarian leadership as abusive. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Introduction

Over the last decade, a growing body of literature has shown that abusive supervision – referred to as the sustained display of non-physical hostility from supervisors against their subordinates (Tepper, 2000) – has a deleterious impact on both the attitudes (e.g., psychological distress, job dissatisfaction, work-family conflict) and behaviors (e.g., job performance, workplace deviance) of its victims (Tepper, 2000, Tepper, 2007). Despite evidence pertaining to its negative consequences, we know little about its antecedents (Tepper, 2007). Moreover, with few exceptions (e.g., Aryee et al., 2007, Hoobler and Brass, 2006), studies have predominantly adopted a displaced-aggression perspective, suggesting that abusive supervisory treatment reflects hostility directed against convenient targets when retaliation against the original source of frustration is not possible. Although these studies found support for this perspective, Tepper (2007) has cautioned against a sole focus on displaced aggression instead encouraging research that links personality traits with abusive supervisory behaviors, given the partly dispositional basis of leader attitudes and behaviors (Judge, Piccolo, & Kosalka, 2009).

To address Tepper’s (2007) call for research on dispositional factors underlying abusive supervision dynamics, we draw on Motowidlo, Borman, and Schmit’s (1997) theory of individual differences in task and contextual performance and the General Aggression Model (GAM; Anderson & Bushman, 2002) to develop and test an integrative framework that models the impact of both supervisor (Machiavellianism; Mach) and subordinate (organization-based self-esteem; OBSE) dispositional characteristics on subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervision. Specifically, we posit that the relationship between supervisors’ Machiavellianism and abusive supervision is mediated by authoritarian leadership behavior and that the link between authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision is moderated by subordinates’ organization-based self-esteem. Notably, our work extends Tepper’s (2007) theoretical model that incorporates supervisor’s characteristics only as an antecedent to abusive supervision.