After-work unhealthy eating, work-induced ego depletion, and abusive supervision: the moderating role of narcissistic admiration and rivalry

Xiaoyu Gan, Malcolm Patterson, Anna Topakas, Kara Ng and Kristin Hildenbrand

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Abusive supervision, a harmful pattern of leadership behaviour, has consistently been found to have negative effects in the workplace. Drawing on self-regulation and the work-home resources model, we investigate the daily antecedents of abusive supervision from the work (ego depletion) and nonwork (unhealthy eating) domains. We examine leaders' narcissistic personality as an important boundary condition of the relationship between after-work unhealthy eating and next-day abusive supervision. Using Dynamic Structural Equation Modelling, we analysed daily diary data from 112 leaders and 225 followers across five organizations in China over 10 working days. We find that the work-induced ego depletion of leaders predicts their after-work unhealthy eating behaviours. The relationship between after-work unhealthy eating and next-day abusive supervision is contingent on leader narcissism: it is negative only at high levels of leader narcissistic admiration and positive at all levels of leader narcissistic rivalry, with the effect being stronger at higher levels of rivalry. Leader narcissism also moderates the indirect link between ego depletion and next-day abusive supervision through after-work unhealthy eating (moderated mediation). Our findings demonstrate the work–nonwork–work resource depletion spiral, provide insights into the interplay between daily factors and individual traits, and reveal some nuanced precursors of abusive supervision.

Keywords: abusive supervision; leader narcissism; narcissistic admiration; narcissistic rivalry; unhealthy eating; work-induced ego depletion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07-07
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Published in Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 7, July, 2026, 99(3). ISSN: 0963-1798

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