ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1455658
The Impact of Abusive Supervision on Employee Counterproductive Work Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
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This study explores how abusive supervision impacts employee counterproductive work behavior (CWB), highlighting the mediating roles of emotional exhaustion and ingratiation behavior, and the moderating role of core self-evaluation. Drawing on self-regulation theory and resource conservation theory, the paper tests a moderated mediation model using a three-wave survey of 198 employees. Results indicate that abusive supervision directly increases CWB, with emotional exhaustion serving as a positive mediator and ingratiation behavior serving as a negative mediator. Core self-evaluation moderates both mediation paths. These findings provide new insights into the dual psychological mechanisms underlying workplace deviance and suggest practical strategies for mitigating abusive leadership.
Keywords: Abusive supervision, Emotional exhaustion, ingratiation behavior, Core self-evaluation, Counterproductive work behavior
Received: 27 Jun 2024; Accepted: 20 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jingli LI, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001, Henan Province, China
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