Does organization-based self-esteem moderate the relationships between abusive supervision and work outcomes? The threatened egotism perspective

Abstract

Drawing on the theory of threatened egotism, this study hypothesized that organization-based self-esteem moderates the negative relationship between abusive supervision and affective organizational commitment, as well as the positive relationships between abusive supervision and intentions to quit, supervisor-directed deviance, and organizational deviance. A two-wave survey was used to collect data from 284 employees nested within 55 organizations. The results of HLM analyses supported this study's hypothesized model. Specifically, organization-based self-esteem moderated all the relationships between abusive supervision and the work outcomes in this study in such a way that the relationships were stronger for employees who were higher rather than lower in organization-based self-esteem. The implications pertaining to practice and theory are discussed.