Abusive Supervision and Employee Dynamics

Abusive supervision describes sustained non-physical hostility by leaders, including public ridicule, undermining feedback and coercive control. This maltreatment disrupts core employee dynamics, eroding trust, psychological safety and engagement across organisational levels. Victims commonly experience stress-related outcomes such as emotional exhaustion, decreased job satisfaction and heightened turnover intentions. Beyond direct targets, third-party observers also register anxiety and may adopt silence or withdrawal as coping responses, thereby weakening team cohesion and stifling innovation. On an individual level, abused employees often exhibit counterproductive behaviours, reduced creativity and procrastination in task completion. At the collective level, persistent mistreatment fosters a climate of fear that undermines open communication, dampens performance and escalates organisational risk. Research underscores the global prevalence of supervisory abuse across cultural contexts, emphasising its economic and human-cost implications. Practical interventions range from leadership training and mindfulness buffering strategies to policy reforms aimed at reinforcing psychological safety and preserving organisational performance.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Abusive Supervision and Employee Dynamics publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in abusive supervision and employee dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Abusive supervision: Sustained non-physical hostile behaviour by supervisors, such as ridicule, intimidation or undermining feedback.

Employee silence: The intentional withholding of work-related ideas, concerns or feedback from supervisors or colleagues.

Psychological safety: A shared belief that the workplace is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, enabling employees to speak up without fear of negative consequences.

Emotional exhaustion: A chronic state of physical and emotional depletion resulting from excessive work stress and interpersonal strain.

Creative performance: The production of novel and useful ideas or solutions by employees within a work role.

References

1. Why do some followers remain silent in response to abusive supervision? A system justification perspective. European Management Journal (2024).
2. The Buffering Effect of Mindfulness on Abusive Supervision and Creative Performance: A Social Cognitive Framework. Frontiers in Psychology (2017).
3. An Eye for an Eye? Third Parties’ Silence Reactions to Peer Abusive Supervision: The Mediating Role of Workplace Anxiety, and the Moderating Role of Core Self-Evaluation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2019).
4. The Effect of Abusive Supervision on Employees’ Work Procrastination Behavior. Frontiers in Psychology (2021).
5. When Employees are Emotionally Exhausted Due to Abusive Supervision. A Conservation-of-Resources Perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2019).
6. Abusive Supervision and Employee’s Creative Performance: A Serial Mediation Model of Relational Conflict and Employee Silence. Behavioral Sciences (2022).