Subordinate poor performance as a stressor on leader well-being: The mediating role of abusive supervision and the moderating role of motives for abuse.

What is it about?

We explore how and why subordinates who are performing poorly at work influence the health and well-being of their supervisors. We find that poor performing workers negatively impact their leaders' emotional exhaustion by triggering more abusive supervision from their leaders. However, not all leaders suffered negative consequences when engaging in abusive supervision, reactions depended on WHY leaders used abusive supervision (i.e., to harm subordinates versus to try to simulate better performance).

Featured Image

Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash

Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work is important because it demonstrates the impact that followers have on their leaders, whereas the majority of priority research has focused on leaders' actions and performance impacts their followers.