In Pursuit of Power: The Role of Authoritarian Leadership in the Relationship Between Supervisors’ Machiavellianism and Subordinates’ Perceptions of Abusive Supervisory Behavior

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2010

Publication Source

Journal of Research in Personality

Abstract

In this paper, we considered both supervisor (personality and leadership behavior) and victim characteristics (organization-based self-esteem) in predicting perceptions of abusive supervision. We tested our model in two studies consisting of supervisor–subordinate dyads from Australia and the Philippines. Specifically, we found that: (1) supervisor Machiavellianism was positively associated with subordinate perceptions of abusive supervision; (2) subordinate perceptions of authoritarian leadership behavior fully mediated the relationship between supervisor Machiavellianism and abusive supervision, and (3) organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) moderated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision, such that low-OBSE employees were more likely to perceive higher levels of authoritarian leadership as abusive. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Inclusive pages

512–519

ISBN/ISSN

0092-6566

Volume

44

Issue

4

Peer Reviewed

yes

Keywords

Aggression, Abusive behavior, Authoritarianism, Interpersonal behavior, Hostile treatment, Machiavellianism personality, Organization-based self-esteem

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