Can abusive supervision create positive work engagement? The interactive moderating role of positive causal attribution and workplace friendship

Purpose Departing from previous research which shows that abusive supervision, as a salient job demand, induces detrimental employee outcomes, this study examines how to create constructive consequences of abusive supervision. To do so, the authors identify the boundary conditions to change the negative effect of supervisory abuse on employees’ work engagement in a positive direction. The authors examine the interactive moderating effect of a personal resource (i.e. positive causal attribution of abusive supervision) and a job resource (i.e. workplace friendship) on the relationship between abusive supervision and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach The authors used data from a two-wave survey of 697 full-time workers with a time interval of one month and conducted three-way interaction analyses to test their hypothesized model. Findings Abusive supervision increases employees’ work engagement when they make a positive causal attribution of abusive supervision (i.e. interpreting their abusive supervisor’s motives as promoting their job performance, rather than as intentionally harming them) and have favorable workplace friends. Originality/value The authors study offers a novel picture of abusive supervision by revealing that supervisory abuse can enhance employees’ work engagement when it is coupled with proper personal and job resources. In addition, this study highlights that in order to identify constructive effects of abusive supervision, it is critical to delve into the interaction between resources from these two domains to deal with abusive supervision.