The Buffering Effects of Subordinates’ Forgiveness and Communication Openness on Abusive Supervision and Voice Behavior

Chenlin Liu, Siwei Sun and Francisca N. Mapiye Dube

SAGE Open, 2021, vol. 11, issue 3, 21582440211041081

Abstract: Abusive supervision is a type of dysfunctional leadership that fosters continuous verbal or nonverbal infractions on subordinates and undoubtedly negatively impacts various work outcomes. Past literature has explored the underlying rules of how this form of destructive leadership influences employees’ negative working attitudes. However, research focusing on exploring factors that buffer abusive supervision’s harmful effects on voice behavior is relatively scarce. Distinctively, this study seeks to examine under a lens the process through which abusive supervision will harm voice behavior while taking into account emotional exhaustion as a mediator. According to the conservation of resources theory, we propose a cross-domain buffering approach of the negative effect of abusive supervision on voice behavior by considering subordinates’ forgiveness and communication openness acting as the moderators. We test the hypotheses by analyzing 430 sample data from an enterprise in Zhejiang Province, China, using Mplus and SPSS software. The results reveal that emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role in the path analysis of abusive supervision and voice behavior. Moreover, subordinates’ forgiveness and communication openness negatively moderate the mediation path. We enrich current literature by investigating the mechanism of abusive supervision and the impact of this kind of dysfunctional leadership on voice behavior and how to minimize the negative effects. The suggestions proposed can be referred to by practitioners and researchers in establishing a positive working environment.

Keywords: abusive supervision; voice behavior; communication openness; subordinate’ forgiveness; emotional exhaustion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:3:p:21582440211041081

DOI: 10.1177/21582440211041081

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