When do supervisors lash out at poor performers? The role of self-control

We examine when and why supervisors lash out at poor performers by engaging in abusive supervision. By developing a self-control model, we suggest that supervisory abusive responses to poor performers can be understood as unfolding across two phases: an initial phase when supervisors experience impulses to aggress against a provocative subordinate, and a later phase when supervisors exhibit mindless behavioral response triggered by experienced impulses. In the initial phase, if supervisors have tendencies to interpret others’ behaviors as hostile (i.e., hostile attribution biases), their aggressive impulses are likely to be intensified. In the later phase, if supervisors are mindful and have conscious awareness and acceptance of their aggressive impulses, they are less likely to translate impulses into hostile behaviors in the form of abusive supervision. In a multilevel field study with data collected from supervisor-subordinate teams at two time points, we found support for our self-control model of abusive supervision.