Abusive supervision and newcomers’ turnover intention: a perceived workplace ostracism perspective

Abstract

The relationship between abusive supervision and newcomers’ turnover intention was explored from the perspective of perceived workplace ostracism. Findings from three-wave data (n = 300) showed that (1) abusive supervision was positively associated with newcomers’ perceived coworker ostracism, perceived supervisor ostracism, and turnover intention; (2) rather than perceived coworker ostracism, perceived supervisor ostracism was positively associated with newcomers’ turnover intention; and (3) the relationship between abusive supervision and newcomers’ turnover intention was mediated by perceived supervisor ostracism but not by perceived coworker ostracism. Thus, the hypotheses were partially confirmed. Results underscore the importance of perceived supervisor ostracism in accounting for the relationship between abusive supervision and newcomers’ turnover intention. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Abusive supervision
• newcomers’ turnover intention
• perceived coworker ostracism
• perceived supervisor ostracism

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Jun Gu and Herman Tse for their time and willingness to participate in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number 71672060; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number 71372081.