NCJ Number
215668
Journal
Journal of Emotional Abuse Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 49-65
Date Published
2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study compared the outcomes of supervisors' abusive and supportive behaviors toward the employees they supervised in terms of worker burnout and attitudes/behaviors toward the supervisor.
Abstract
Findings show that employees' burnout (emotional exhaustion, lack of interest in work, and diminishment in a sense of personal value) is related to abusive supervisory actions. The direction of the cause and effect of this correlation, however, is unclear. Employee burnout could precede the onset of his/her supervisor's abusive behavior toward the employee, suggesting that the employee's poor performance due to burnout triggered the supervisor's abusive behavior. Further, abusive supervisory behavior tended to elicit retaliatory negative behaviors by employees, undermining rather than improving employee work habits and production. Supportive and persuasive supervisory leadership, on the other hand, boosts employee work efforts and improves production. The study used a convenience sample of 249 Israeli employees from the work settings of health, education, communication, high-tech, local government, security, entertainment, counseling, production, and government offices. Men composed 44.1 percent of the sample, and 37 percent of the respondents were supervisors. Questionnaires administered to participants measured abusive supervision, supportive supervision, worker burnout, and worker responses to both abusive and supportive supervision. 1 figure, 4 tables, and 31 references