Threatening the Self: The Conditional Indirect Effect of Abusive Supervision on Well-Being

Occupational self-efficacy is a valuable resource for well-being and health in the workplace, but according to stress-as-offense-to-self model, it can be threatened by abusive supervisors. In our study, we examined this mechanism through which supervisors indirectly affect subordinates’ well-being. Assuming differences between male female subordinates regarding occupational self-efficacy, considered gendered responses supervision. We studied 928 participants, nested within 188 teams, who rated their direct supervisors’ leadership behaviour indicated work engagement depressive symptoms at 2 time points with lag of 6 months. Longitudinal relationships among study variables were modelled using latent scores. Results showed that supervision related regardless gender.