Technology-enacted abusive supervision and its effect on work and family

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effects of technology-enacted abusive supervision, defined as subordinate perceptions of supervisor’s use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to engage in hostile communications. This research was designed to examine if technology-enacted abusive supervision has an impact on both the work and family domains. Based on conservation of resources theory, we theorize that technology-enacted abusive supervision enhances subordinate engagement in emotional labor surface acting, which contributes to emotional exhaustion, which in turn impacts both the work and family domains. Results demonstrate significant paths in both domains. Subordinate perceptions of technology-enacted abusive supervision are positively related to the engagement in technology-enacted incivility through the serial mediation of emotional labor surface acting and emotional exhaustion. Additionally, subordinate perceptions of technology-enacted abusive supervision are positively related to family undermining at home for the subordinate through the serial mediation of emotional labor surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and stress transmission.

KEYWORDS:

• Abusive supervision
• stress
• emotional exhaustion
• incivility
• family undermining

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/TSDKG.

open-scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Materials. The materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/TSDKG.

Notes

1. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/TSDKG.

2. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/TSDKG.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Valle

Matthew Valle is a Professor of Management in the Love School of Business at Elon University. His research interests include investigations of organizational politics and abusive supervision. He has published over 100 articles in various outlets including Human Relations, the Journal of Business Ethics, and the Journal of Managerial Psychology.

Dawn S. Carlson

Dawn S. Carlson is a Professor and the holder of the H.R. Gibson Chair in Organizational Development in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. Her interests include work-family research and other workplace issues such as abusive bosses and working mothers. Her work appears in such journals as Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Journal of Applied Psychology.

John R. Carlson

John R. Carlson serves as an Associate Professor of Information Systems in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. Dr. Carlson’s current research interests involve the effects of computer-mediation on communication, work-family effects, and workplace deception. His work has appeared in Management Information Systems Quarterly, the Academy of Management Journal, and the Journal of Business Ethics.

Suzanne Zivnuska

Suzanne Zivnuska is Associate Dean in the College of Business at California State University, Chico. Her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from Florida State University prepared her for research in topics such as organizational politics and impression management, as well as her more recent interests in lifestyle issues such as work-family, social media use, and mindfulness. Her work can be found in journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Relations, and Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

Kenneth J Harris

Kenneth J. Harris is a Professor of Management at Indiana University Southeast. He received his PhD in management from Florida State University. His primary research interests relate to workplace relationships, behaviors, communication, and attitudes.

Ranida B. Harris

Ranida B. Harris is a Professor of Management Information Systems at Indiana University Southeast. She received her Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Florida State University. Her research interests include the effects of computer technologies on communication, performance, and decision making. Her publications appear in Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Computers in Human Behavior, Information Systems Education Journal, and other journals.