Supervisor undermining and submissive behavior: Shame resilience theory perspective

Tasneem Fatima, Mehwish Majeed and Sadia Jahanzeb

European Management Journal, 2020, vol. 38, issue 1, 191-203

Abstract: This study investigates the underlying mechanism between supervisor undermining and employee submissive behavior by proposing and testing a serial mediation moderation model. We suggest shame and selfcriticism as an explanatory mechanism between supervisor undermining and submissive behavior, and employee resilience as a coping mechanism between feelings of shame and self-criticism. We employed Shame Resilience Theory to explain the proposed model that states how supervisor undermining triggers shame among victim subordinates, which turns into self-criticism and ultimately manifests as submissive behaviors. We tested our proposed model on 251 responses from service sector employees in a time-lagged (four intervals) design. We examined different alternative models to test the serial mediation model. The results proved that supervisor undermining leads to employee submissive behavior and shame, and self-criticism serially mediates this relationship. The moderation hypothesis was also proved. Limitations and future research directions along with theoretical and practical implications are given at the end.

Keywords: Supervisor undermining; Shame; Self-criticism; Submissive behavior; Resilience; Shame Resilience Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:38:y:2020:i:1:p:191-203

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DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2019.07.003

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