1. to cost U.S. organizations $23.8b annually (in

1.     Introduction. The aim of this essay is to analyze extant research onabusive supervision from various researchers and practitioners. With referenceto and through the application of relevant theories and perspectives of variousresearchers and practitioners, the cause and consequences of abusive supervisionwill be explained and looked in depth. Thereafter, the different perspectives onways to deal with abusive supervision as a victim, observer and HR manager willbe discussed.

As a conclusion to this report, practical examples of preventivemeasures which organizations can implement as best practices, will be provided. 2.    Abusive supervision. Tepper, (2000, p.

178), defined abusive supervision as “subordinates’perceptions of the extent to which leaders engage in the sustained display ofhostile verbal and non-verbal behaviors, excluding physical contact.” Abusivesupervision, a form of destructive leadership behavior, affects 13.6% of workersin the U.

S. (Schat, Frone and Kelloway,2006) and is estimated to cost U.S. organizations $23.8b annually (in lower-productivity,absenteeism, turnover and healthcare costs) (Tepper, Duffy, Henle and Lamber, 2006), which suggests that it has tangiblenegative consequences for both the victims and the organizations.  3.    Causes of abusive supervision.

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 In light of this analysis, Martinko et. al. (2013) constructive revision of Tepper (2007) emergent model of abusivesupervision (Figure 1), will be elaboratedupon. Figure 1: A constructive revision of the Tepper (2007) model (Martinko et. al.

, 2013).           Abusive supervision literature suggests that organization-level, supervisor-level, and employee-levelfactors contribute to perceptions of abusive supervision and influencesemployees’ perceptions and reactions to abusive supervision (Kedharnath, 2014). There is also generalconsensus in literature that abusive supervision results from the interactionof several organization-level and individual-level factors, as opposed toresulting only from isolated acts of aggression performed by malicioussupervisors (Felps, Mitchell and Byington,2006).   i.

   Leadership style To accomplish objectives, such as to maintain a standardof high-performance or to indicate that mistakes will not be condoned, abusivesupervisors may mistreat their subordinates (Baron and Richardson, 1994; Bushman and Anderson, 2001). Martinko, Harvey, Sikora and Douglas (2011),found that recent researches on employee-level factors indicate that subordinates’hostile attribution styles and with whom they shared low-qualityleader-member-exchange relationships with (Harriset. al., 2011), positively predicted reports of abusive supervision. ii.

   ConflictTepper et al. (2011), research found that supervisors who had “deep-level dissimilarity” with subordinateswere likely to engage in conflicts and abusive behaviors with these subordinates. iii.

   Perceived abused from supervisorAccording to the trickle-downmodel developed by Masterson (2001), behaviorsand perceptions can be passed down along the organizational hierarchy fromsupervisors to subordinates. Lower-level managers who experienced abusivesupervision from high-level managers, became more abusive (Mawritz et al., 2012). In reaction to abusive supervision, evenwhen employees were not direct targets of the abuse, they became more abusivetowards other employees (Harris, Harvey, Harris,and Cast, 2013).  iv.    Injustice perceptionsSupervisors who experienced psychological contract breachwere found to be more abusive towards their subordinates (Hoobler and Brass, 2006), and the effects were stronger among supervisors with hostile attributionbias.  This is supported by Aryee, Chen, Sun and Debrah (2007) research, that states supervisorswhom had experienced interactional injustice (Bies and Moag, 1986) tend to be abusive toward subordinates.

Otherresearchers suggest that the organizational context can also fostersupervisors’ abusive behaviors toward employees (Aryee, Chen, Sun and Debrah, 2007).    v.    Family History/StressSupervisors with a history of family undermining wereprone to abusive behaviors (Kiewitz etal., 2012), and this was primarilytrue for supervisors who reported low self-control. According to Burton, Hooblerand Scheuer (2012), supervisors experiencing high levels of stress weremore likely to abuse their subordinates, than others. 4.    Consequencesof abusive supervision.

 Several studies have demonstrated that abusivesupervision has negative and costly individual-leveland organization-level consequences (Kedharnath, 2014).  i.   Work-FamilyConflictCarlson et.

al. (2011), found that “abusive supervision has a positiverelationship with work-family conflict and relationship tension.” With theperspective of justice theory, Tepper provedthat abusive supervision had destructive effect on employees’ family life, suchas the relationship tension, lower family functioning and work-family conflict (Hoobler and Brass, 2006) and constantnegative affect at home.

 ii.   Organizationalcommitment/ Attitudes Research found that targets of supervisory hostility notonly exhibit increased interpersonally and organizationally harmful behavior, butexperience diminished organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Martinko, Harvey, Brees, and Mackey, 2013;Tepper, 2007), iii.   Aggressivedeviance Abusive supervision triggers retaliatory andcounterproductive behaviors in organizations (Jones, 2009; Mitchell and Ambrose, 2007). Wang et. al. (2012), found that abusive supervision is positivelyrelated to workplace deviance which violates organizational norms, andnegatively impacts organizations financially or psychologically (Robinson and Greenberg, 1998).

 iv.   Fear Based on cost-benefit considerations, fear is likely tointensify the desire for abused employees to engage in ‘defensive silence’ (avoidancebehavior) (Gundlach, Douglas, and Martinko,2003). Due to task interdependence, subordinates may remain silent in fear offurther damaging the relationship with a powerful authoritywhom they depend (Beasley and Rayner, 1997; Lutgen- Sandvik, 2003) on for resources to meet their basic needs.  v.

   PsychologicalWellbeing Park et. al., (2016) research supports the view that supervisor abusivenessdepletes subordinates’ resources (Ursin and Eriksen 2004), resulting in detrimentalpsychological consequences. Hence, subordinates remain silent as a coping mechanism (Xu etal., 2015). Subordinates also suffer from emotional exhaustion (Tepper,2000), since there is not enough resources and leadership supportto handle stress. Perspectives from social interactionist (Tedeschi, 2001), indicate that abused employees may become weak andineffectual which can lead to less favorableattitudes towards the job/organization (Tepper,2000) and adverse psychological effects i.e.

negative self-esteem, anxiety,confusion, depression and suicide (Cortinaet al., 2001; Davenport et al., 2002; Estes and Wang, 2008; Pearson and Porath,2005).  vi.   PerformanceAccording to Harris,Kacmar and Zivnuska, (2007), abusive supervision is negatively related toemployee performance.

Park et. al., (2016), research whichexamines the underlying mechanism of silence (Xu et al.

2015), supports the findings of Morrison (2014). Abused subordinates’ silence can considerablyaffect organizations and its employees; i.e. performance may suffer when suggestionsand information regarding work-related problems or new ideas to improve thefunctionality of work processes (Millikenet al. 2003) are withheld, whichcan directly/indirectly impact the organization’s bottom line.

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