Integrating the victimization model and the hierarchy literature, I develop a moderated mediation model to outline why and when subordinates’ supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors elicit abusive supervision. In particular, I argue that supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors enhance supervisors’ sense of power, which in turn leads to abusive supervision; these effects are contingent on supervisors’ power distance orientations. In causal-chain designed experiments with full-time supervisors as participants where the independent variable (Study1) and the mediator (Study2) were manipulated, then in a multi-wave and multi-source field survey with data collected from both supervisors and subordinates at two different time points (Study3), empirical supports were found for the key...[ Read more ]

Integrating the victimization model and the hierarchy literature, I develop a moderated mediation model to outline why and when subordinates’ supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors elicit abusive supervision. In particular, I argue that supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors enhance supervisors’ sense of power, which in turn leads to abusive supervision; these effects are contingent on supervisors’ power distance orientations. In causal-chain designed experiments with full-time supervisors as participants where the independent variable (Study1) and the mediator (Study2) were manipulated, then in a multi-wave and multi-source field survey with data collected from both supervisors and subordinates at two different time points (Study3), empirical supports were found for the key predictions. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

Keywords: supervisor-directed citizenship behavior, sense of power, abusive supervision, power distance orientation