Organization and Strategy Seminar（2016-13）

Topic: Cleansing my abuse: A reparative response model of perpetrating abusive supervisor behavior

Speaker: Zhenyu Liao, National University of Singapore

Time: Thursday, 3 November, 13:00-14:30 pm

Location: Room 111, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract:

The literature on abusive supervision has prominently focused on the consequences for victims while overlooking potential responses that leaders may have to their own abusive behaviors. Drawing from the literature on moral cleansing and moral courage, we develop and test a reparative response model that identifies the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions under which perpetrating abusive supervisor behavior affects how leaders subsequently behave toward their subordinates. Results from two experience sampling studies show that, within leaders on a daily basis, perpetrating abusive supervisor behavior leads to an increase in experienced guilt, which in turn subsequently motivates more constructive task-oriented (initiating structure) and person-oriented (consideration) leader behaviors. In addition, leader moral courage strengthens the within-person indirect effects of perpetrating abusive supervisor behavior on consideration behaviors via experienced guilt. Our research contributes to the theoretical understanding of leaders’ responses toward engaging in abusive behavior and provides insight into how destructive leader behaviors may, paradoxically, trigger more constructive behaviors.

Introduction:

Zhenyu Liao is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Management & Organization at the National University of Singapore. His research primarily focuses on micro interpersonal dynamics among leaders and followers. He approaches leadership behavior with an event-oriented perspective and investigates how leaders and followers vary in their emotions, behaviors, and subsequent consequences at an event-level. His work has been published in such journals as the Academy of Management Journal and the Asian Pacific Journal Management. He has won the OB Best Paper Award at the 2015 Academy of Management Conference and the Kwok Leung Dissertation Fund at the 2016 International Association for Chinese Management Research Conference.

Your participation is warmly welcomed!