How to Cope with an Abusive Leader? Examinations of Subordinates’ Affective Reactions, CWB-O and Turnover Intentions

When subordinates experience abusive supervision, they often respond with “fight” (e.g., organizationally-directed counterproductive work behavior: CWB-O) or “flight” reactions turnover intentions). Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, we propose that negative (NA) and positive affect (PA) explain these distinct responses coworker emotional support differentially moderates the relationships of affective states CWB-O intention. That is, expect exacerbates mediating effect NA, whereas it weakens PA. We tested hypothesized model in two time-lagged studies, one among ( N = 162), other supervisor-subordinate dyads 255 dyads). Results confirmed relation between supervision was mediated by intentions Coworker strengthened but did not attenuate These results only hold for CWB-O, supervisor-rated CWB-O. Explanations, implications as well limitations ideas future research are discussed.