It’s Not You, It’s Me: Investigating the Consequences of Abusive Supervision and the Moderating Role of Impostorism

ABSTRACT

The literature on abusive supervision continues to link it to multiple negative workplace outcomes. Yet, much work remains in unraveling the pathways linking abusive supervision to employees’ responses to the perceived abuse. The present study investigated the moderating effects of the impostor phenomenon on employees’ discretionary behaviors when abusive supervision is perceived. Findings from two studies reveal that employees who experience high levels of impostorism feelings indicate they may be more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors and refrain from counterproductive work behaviors than employees who experience low levels of impostorism feelings. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Abusive supervision
• conservation of resources theory
• counterproductive work behavior
• emotional exhaustion
• impostorism
• organizational citizenship behavior

Disclosure statement

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