How contemptuous leaders might harm their organization by putting high-performing followers in their place

PurposeThis study investigates how leaders react when they perceive a threat to their hierarchical position, such as by engaging in abusive supervision in ways that diminish followers’ organizational citizenship behavior. It also tests for a dual harmful role of leaders’ dispositional contempt in this process.Design/methodology/approachThree-wave survey data were collected among 231 leader–follower dyads across different industry sectors.FindingsLeaders’ beliefs that their authority is being threatened by high-performing followers can lead followers to halt their voluntary work behaviors, because leaders engage in verbal abuse. The harmful role of leaders’ dispositional contempt in this process is twofold: It enhances abusive supervision directly, and it operates as an indirect catalyst of the mediating role of abusive supervision.Practical implicationsOrganizations would be better placed to decrease the risk that disruptions of the hierarchical order, as perceived by leaders, escalate into diminished work-related voluntarism among employee bases by promoting leadership approaches that consider employees deserving of respect instead of disdain.Originality/valueThis study details how and when leaders who fear they may lose authority, evoked by the strong performance of their followers, actually discourage followers from doing anything more than their formal job duties.