Holding abusive managers in contempt : why and when abusive supervision begets interpersonal justice

Abstract

Research has demonstrated the social learning and trickle-down effect of abusive supervision in organizations. Our study proposes a novel perspective to highlight the agentic role of the abused supervisors in leading in a more positive manner. Drawing on affective event theory and the social function of contempt, we develop an emotion-based model to examine why and when abused supervisors demonstrate more interpersonal justice toward their subordinates. Across two field studies with data collected from two cultures (i.e., China and the UK) using two types of research design (i.e., dyadic design and time-lagged design), we find that experiencing abusive supervision (i.e., abusive manager behavior) induces supervisors’ contempt of their abusive managers, the feeling of which further motivates those supervisors with higher moral attentiveness to morally differentiate themselves from their abusive managers and display more interpersonal justice toward their subordinates. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.