The Moderating Effect of Interaction Avoidance Between Abusive Supervision and Subordinates' Job Promotions

ABSTRACT

While abusive supervision is shown to have negative stress-related effects on targets, less is known about the factors capable of mitigating these negative effects and their career-related outcomes. In this paper, we drew on the transactional model of stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1986) and the upward mobility theory (Turner, 1960) to explore the moderating effect of subordinates' interaction avoidance between abusive supervision and job promotions. To test this moderating effect, we collected data from 604 full-time employees at three points in time over a 12-month time period in Japan. The findings suggest that interaction avoidance moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and promotions, such that this relationship will be less negative as interaction avoidance increases.

KEYWORDS:

• Career development
• employee discrimination
• stress and coping

Author Note

Vesa Peltokorpi is a professor of management at the School of Management, Operations and Marketing at the University of Wollongong. His research has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of Organizational Behavior.