Mitigating the harms of abusive supervision on employee thriving: The buffering effects of employees’ social-network centrality

Shuye Lu, Lei Wang, Dan Ni, Debra L Shapiro, Xiaoming Zheng

Human Relations · 2023 · Volume 76 · Issue 9

Abstract

This article builds on the scant literature regarding antecedents and consequences of employee thriving, a positive psychological state characterized by the joint experience of vitality and learning. Guided by conservation of resource (COR) theory and the social embeddedness perspective, we predict that the social-network centrality of employees helps them buffer against the negative effects of abusive supervision. Via a pilot study, a field study, and two scenario-based experiments, we find patterns supporting our hypotheses. Specifically, employees’ perception of abusive supervision is negatively associated with their level of thriving and, thereby also, with their performance-related outcomes such as task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and creativity. However, abusive supervision’s negative association with employees’ thriving weakens when employees are more central in their advice and friendship networks. Our research adds to the sparse but growing literature on thriving, and supplements the mostly reactive- and/or dyadic-oriented strategies previously identified as ways to cope with abusive supervisors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

abusive supervision, coping, leadership, social network, thriving

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