IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bbl/journl/v26y2023i3p33-50.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Learning goal orientation and abusive supervision

Author

Listed:
  • Hsiao-Yen Mao

    (Chinese Culture University)

Abstract

Employee learning for competence development is more salient for today’s organizations facing frequent changes from inside and outside, and accordingly, employees’ learning goal orientation (LGO) is noteworthy. This study examines how and why employees’ LGO relates to leadership effectiveness, i.e., employees’ perception of abusive supervision. Competing hypotheses and the mediating mechanisms of a work attitude from LGO, i.e., work enjoyment, and a work behavior from LGO, i.e., compliance behavior, were proposed. In a three-wave panel survey, 304 employees in a variety of occupations completed questionnaires. Results indicate LGO had a negative relationship with abusive supervision and employees with higher LGO had more enjoyment of work, and in turn, less perception of abusive supervision. The positive LGO-abusive supervision relationship was not empirically supported. While employees with higher LGO had less compliance behavior, this reduced compliance did not lead to increased abusive supervision. Hence, the suggestion is that supervisors should let subordinates feel that by performing required tasks, subordinates are learning by doing to facilitate leadership effectiveness. This study uses intrinsic motivation perspective to address an underlying process by which LGO manifests itself in an interpersonal and managerial outcome, abusive supervision. The findings suggest intrinsically motivated actions may mitigate negative perception of supervisors’ interactions. Employees’ intrinsic motivation at work may be a stance to understand their workplace interactions. Goal orientation is an important factor in leadership. Literature shows leaders’ LGO facilitates leadership effectiveness. Corresponding to emerging importance of followers in leadership effectiveness, this study found subordinates’ LGO facilitated their perception of leadership effectiveness in terms of reduced perception of supervisory behavior as abuse. In addition, this study enriches abusive supervision literature by corresponding to a call for examining the characteristics of subordinate and the work in concert to complement the limited work on understanding abusive supervision. Suggestions for future study are provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Hsiao-Yen Mao, 2023. "Learning goal orientation and abusive supervision," E&M Economics and Management, Technical University of Liberec, Faculty of Economics, vol. 26(3), pages 33-50, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bbl:journl:v:26:y:2023:i:3:p:33-50
    DOI: 10.15240/tul/001/2023-3-003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.15240/tul/001/2023-3-003
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.15240/tul/001/2023-3-003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saerom Lee & Lisa E Bolton & Karen Page Winterich & Vicki MorwitzEditor & Lauren BlockAssociate Editor, 2017. "To Profit or Not to Profit? The Role of Greed Perceptions in Consumer Support for Social Ventures," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 853-876.
    2. Christine Henle & Michael Gross, 2014. "What Have I Done to Deserve This? Effects of Employee Personality and Emotion on Abusive Supervision," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 461-474, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joon-Bum Yi & Se-Hak Chun, 2022. "The Effect of Cash Incentive Projects on the Social Value Performances of Social Enterprises: An Empirical Analysis of SK’s Social Progress Credit in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-14, May.
    2. Yejun Zhang & Mark C. Bolino & Kui Yin, 2023. "The Interactive Effect of Perceived Overqualification and Peer Overqualification on Peer Ostracism and Work Meaningfulness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 699-716, January.
    3. Kristian Alm & David S. A. Guttormsen, 2023. "Enabling the Voices of Marginalized Groups of People in Theoretical Business Ethics Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(2), pages 303-320, January.
    4. Gang Wang & Peter Harms & Jeremy Mackey, 2015. "Does it take two to Tangle? Subordinates’ Perceptions of and Reactions to Abusive Supervision," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 487-503, October.
    5. Donald H. Kluemper & Kevin W. Mossholder & Dan Ispas & Mark N. Bing & Dragos Iliescu & Alexandra Ilie, 2019. "When Core Self-Evaluations Influence Employees’ Deviant Reactions to Abusive Supervision: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Ability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 435-453, October.
    6. Turpin Aaron & Shier Micheal L. & Handy Femida, 2021. "Factors Shaping Public Perceptions of Market-based Activities Undertaken by Canadian Nonprofits," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 12(4), pages 505-533, December.
    7. Silver, Ike & Silverman, Jackie, 2022. "Doing good for (maybe) nothing: How reward uncertainty shapes observer responses to prosocial behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    8. Gabriel E. Gonzales & Lisa E. Bolton & Margaret G. Meloy, 2020. "Why do consumers think it is fair to pay more when buying from producers versus retailers?," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 31-35, March.
    9. Xu, Chengxin & Li, Huafang, 2021. "Resource Publicness Matters in Organizational Perceptions," OSF Preprints 7q3v8, Center for Open Science.
    10. Vadakkepatt, Gautham G. & Winterich, Karen Page & Mittal, Vikas & Zinn, Walter & Beitelspacher, Lauren & Aloysius, John & Ginger, Jessica & Reilman, Julie, 2021. "Sustainable Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 62-80.
    11. Mingpeng Huang & Dong Ju & Kai Chi Yam & Shengming Liu & Xin Qin & Guangdi Tian, 2023. "Employee Humor Can Shield Them from Abusive Supervision," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(2), pages 407-424, August.
    12. Arindam Bhattacharjee & Anita Sarkar, 2024. "Abusive supervision: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 1-34, February.
    13. Wallach, Karen Anne & Popovich, Deidre, 2023. "When Big Is Less than Small: Why dominant brands lack authenticity in their sustainability initiatives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    14. Lucas, David S. & Park, U. David, 2023. "The nature and origins of social venture mission: An exploratory study of political ideology and moral foundations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    15. Arpana Rai & Upasna A. Agarwal, 2019. "Examining the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Exposure to Workplace Bullying," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 20(4), pages 1069-1087, August.
    16. Dan King & Sumitra Auschaitrakul & Chia-Wei Joy Lin, 2022. "Search modality effects: merely changing product search modality alters purchase intentions," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 1236-1256, November.
    17. Claire Heeryung Kim & Joonkyung Kim, 2021. "The Role of Cause Involvement and Assortment Size on Decision Difficulty via Communal Relationships," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-16, December.
    18. Giana M. Eckhardt & Susan Dobscha, 2019. "The Consumer Experience of Responsibilization: The Case of Panera Cares," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 651-663, October.
    19. Wenrui Cao & Peikai Li & Reine van der Wal & Toon Taris, 2023. "Leadership and Workplace Aggression: A Meta-analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(2), pages 347-367, August.
    20. Carnevale, Joel & Huang, Lei & Harms, Peter, 2018. "Speaking up to the “emotional vampire”: A conservation of resources perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 48-59.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Learning goal orientation; abusive supervision; enjoyment of work; compliance behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bbl:journl:v:26:y:2023:i:3:p:33-50. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Vendula Pospisilova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hflibcz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.