Nottingham University Business School China, China
The existing literature presents inconsistent findings on the impact of abusive supervision on employee performance, with some studies showing positive effects and others negative. To resolve these inconsistencies, this study explores the perceptual dynamics and contextual factors shaping the relationship between abusive supervision and employee performance. Specifically, it investigates the dual effects of relative abusive supervision (RAS) on task performance and the moderating role of team-level abusive supervision dispersion (ASD). Grounded in emotion regulation theory, we hypothesize that RAS influences task performance through two distinct emotion regulation strategies—cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression—affecting work effort and cognitive weariness. Using longitudinal data from 600 employees in a Chinese tourism company, with multilevel analysis, we found that: (1) RAS positively impacted task performance via cognitive reappraisal and work effort; (2) RAS negatively impacted task performance through expressive suppression and cognitive weariness; and (3) team-level ASD moderated these effects, with lower ASD strengthening the positive effect through cognitive reappraisal and higher ASD amplifying the negative effect through expressive suppression. This study provides new insights into the mechanisms behind abusive supervision's impact on employee performance and offers practical implications for managing workplace abuse.
