Self-Gain or Self-Regulation Impairment? Tests of Competing Explanations of the Supervisor Abuse and Employee Deviance Relationship Through Perceptions of Distributive Justice

Two competing explanations for deviant employee responses to supervisor abuse are tested. A self-gain view is compared with a self-regulation impairment view. The self-gain view suggests that distributive justice (DJ) will weaken the abusive supervision-employee deviance relationship, as perceptions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied psychology 2010-11, Vol.95 (6), p.1009-1031
Main Authors: Thau, Stefan, Mitchell, Marie S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abuse of Power
Adult
Antisocial Behavior
Attitudes
Biological and medical sciences
Deviance
Distribution
Distributive Justice
Employee Attitudes
Employees
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Justice
Male
Management Personnel
Middle Aged
Occupational psychology
Organization and management. Professional relation
Organizational Culture
Perception
Perceptions
Personnel Management
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Retaliation
Self
Self-government
Self-Regulation
Selfregulation
Social Behavior
Social Control, Informal
Social Justice
Social perception
Supervisor-Subordinate interactions
Supervisors
Workplace
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Summary:Two competing explanations for deviant employee responses to supervisor abuse are tested. A self-gain view is compared with a self-regulation impairment view. The self-gain view suggests that distributive justice (DJ) will weaken the abusive supervision-employee deviance relationship, as perceptions of fair rewards offset costs of abuse. Conversely, the self-regulation impairment view suggests that DJ will strengthen the relationship, as experiencing abuse drains self-resources needed to maintain appropriate behavior, and this effect intensifies when employees receive inconsistent information about their organizational membership (fair outcomes). Three field studies using different samples, measures, and designs support the self-regulation impairment view. Two studies found that the Abusive Supervision × DJ interaction was mediated by self-regulation impairment variables (ego depletion and intrusive thoughts). Implications for theory and research are discussed.
ISSN:0021-9010
1939-1854
DOI:10.1037/a0020540