How and When Do Abusive Supervision Influence Employees’ Workplace Withdrawal? The Mediating Mechanism of Justice and the Moderating Mechanism of Uncertainty

• Main Authors: Hung-yi Liao, 廖紘億
• Other Authors: Tsung-yu Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13077600268764972979

博士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 企業管理系 === 102 === Although past research has showed that abusive supervision may lead to employees’ workplace withdrawal, the psychological process regarding “how” and “when” abusive supervision is associated with employees’ workplace withdrawal is not clear. Drawing on “uncertainty management theory,” we explored the mediation effect of employees organizational justice perception on abusive supervision and employees workplace withdrawal (work withdrawal and job withdrawal), and we also examined the moderated effect of employees job uncertainty (situational factors) and emotional uncertainty (personality factors) on this mediation process. We used questionnaire survey and tested hypotheses through two different empirical studies. In study 1, we collected data in military organizations at two time-points and obtained 123 usable observations for hypothesis testing. The results showed that abusive supervision predicts employees’ workplace withdrawal through the perception of organizational justice, but we did not find the differential moderation effect of job uncertainty. Moreover, the mediation effect of the perception of organizational justice on the relationship between the abusive supervision and employees workplace withdrawal (work withdrawal and job withdrawal) was significant only for employee with high job uncertainty (high uncertainty), not for employee with low job uncertainty (low uncertainty). In study 2, we collected data in general organizations at two time-points and obtained 163 usable observations for hypothesis testing. The results showed that abusive supervision only predict employee work withdrawal through the perception of organizational justice, not employee job withdrawal. Moreover, the mediation effect of the perception of organizational justice on the relationship between the abusive supervision and employees workplace withdrawal (work withdrawal and job withdrawal) was significant only for employee with high emotional uncertainty (high uncertainty), not for employee with low emotional uncertainty (low uncertainty). Finally, we discussed the implications of the findings, limitations, future research directions, and managerial implications at the end of this paper.