Work‐to‐family spillover effects of abusive supervision

Abstract

Purpose

The current study seeks to examine the link between abusive supervision and subordinate family undermining by focusing on the mediating role of work‐to‐family conflict and the moderating role of boundary strength at home.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using a three‐wave survey research design. Participants included 209 employees from a manufacturing company in China. Hierarchical regression analyses and a bootstrapping algorithm were used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The results indicate that abusive supervision is positively related to family undermining, and this relationship is mediated by work‐to‐family conflict. Moreover, boundary strength at home attenuates the direct relationship of abusive supervision with work‐to‐family conflict and its indirect relationship with family undermining.

Research limitations/implications

This research contributes to the integration of the work‐family interface model and the abusive supervision literature by providing evidence of a link between abusive supervision in the workplace and conflict in the home. This study also indicates that abusive supervision is a problem of both organizational and societal importance in China. However, data are correlational in nature, which limits the ability to draw causal inferences.

Practical implications

Findings provide evidence that abusive supervision is a source of work‐to‐family conflict and undermining behavior in the home. Training employees to create boundaries between work and family domains may minimize the negative spillover effects of work on the family.

Originality/value

This study provides a relatively comprehensive model regarding the relationships between abusive supervision and work‐family consequences, and a promising new direction for both the leadership and work‐family literatures.

Citation

Wu, L., Kwong Kwan, H., Liu, J. and Resick, C.J. (2012), "Work‐to‐family spillover effects of abusive supervision", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 714-731. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941211259539