Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Abusive Supervision On Front-line Service Employee Work Behavior

Abusive supervision is a kind of phenomenon, that is, supervisors use their power to maltreat their subordinates covertly in the organization. This kind of cold violence excludes physical contact, but it still does harm to the employees and influences the organization negatively. Although the systematic theories on abusive supervision are developed late, many evidences have already shown that abusive supervision has negative influences on employees' recognition, attitude, psychology, feelings, behavior, family conflict and organizational environment. Researchers analyzed the influences of abusive supervision on employees' positive behavior from perspectives of role performance and role external performance. The former includes the influences on employees' job performance or service performance; the latter includes the influences on employees' organizational citizenship behaviors and voice behaviors. As far as the influences of abusive supervision on employees' negative behaviors are concerned, they mainly include the influences on counterproductive work behaviors, aggressive behaviors and organizational deviant behaviors. Many researchers have made great achievements from different perspectives, however, so far there is no research discussing the influences of abusive supervision on employee proactive customer service performance and there is no research analyzing the influence mechanism of abusive supervision on employee interpersonal deviance behavior based on social cognitive theory.This research will interpret the influences of abusive supervision on frontline employees' proactive customer service performance based on social exchange theory and its influences on employees interpersonal deviance behaviors based on social cognitive theory. Based on the current literature, beginning with the actual organizational context, this research will explore the influence mechanism of abusive supervision on the employees' behaviors, especially proactive customer service performance and interpersonal deviance behaviors. Specifically, the research questions include:1) What kinds of influence will generate from abusive supervision on proactive customer service performance for those frontline employees? 2) What kinds of influence will generate from abusive supervision on interpersonal deviance behaviors for those frontline employees? 3) How about the influence mechanism of abusive supervision on proactive customer service performance? 4) How about the influence mechanism of abusive supervision on interpersonal deviance behaviors? 5) Whether the need for affiliation acts as the moderating variable between abusive supervision and proactive customer service performance or interpersonal deviance behaviors?According to literature review, questionnaire survey and empirical study, this research draws the conclusions as following:There is a significant negative association between abusive supervision and proactive customer service performance. Affective commitment and customer orientation act as mediating variables between the above two variables successively. The need for affiliation is the moderating variable between abusive supervision and affective commitment, which means that higher the need for affiliation is, more significant the negative influence of abusive supervision on affective commitment will be. There is a significant positive association between abusive supervision and interpersonal deviance behaviors. Emotional exhaustion and moral disengagement act as mediating variables between the above two variables successively. The need for affiliation is the moderating variable between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion, which means that higher the need for affiliation is, more significant the positive influence of abusive supervision on emotional exhaustion will be.There are three innovations for this research. Firstly, this study introduces proactive customer service performance as the outcome variable of abusive supervision. The proactive customer service performance is a kind of typical role external behavior, which can improve customers' experience. This study not only enriches outcome variables of abusive supervision, but also expands the research of employees' behaviors. Secondly, this study explores the different influence mechanisms of abusive supervision on employees' positive and negative behaviors. Based on social exchange theory, this study introduces affective commitment and customer orientation as the mediating variables between abusive supervision and proactive customer service performance, and then finds the new influencing path from abusive supervision on proactive customer service performance. Based on the social recognition theory, this study introduces emotional exhaustion and moral disengagement as the mediating variables between abusive supervision and interpersonal deviance behaviors, and then finds the new influencing path from abusive supervision on interpersonal deviance behaviors. These two new paths can better explain the relationship between abusive supervision and employees'work behaviors. Thirdly, this study identifies the need for affiliation as the key moderating variable between abusive supervision and employees' work behaviors. Abusive supervision is a kind of subjective perceptions. Most research ignored the fact that if the need for affiliation is different for those employees, their perceptions on abusive supervision and their reactions will be much different. By considering the moderating effects of the need for affiliation, this study provides a new perspective to explore the relationship between destructive leadership and employees' work behaviors.There are several theoretical significances for this study. Firstly, abusive supervision and the need of affiliation enrich the antecedent variables of proactive customer service performance. Secondly, it expands the related theories by analyzing the influences of abusive supervision on employees' positive and negative work behaviors. Thirdly, this study identifies the influencing mechanism of abusive supervision on employees' work behaviors from the perspectives of different theories.There are also some practical significances for this study. Firstly, this study has revealed the harms of destructive leadership and point out that it is more important for service enterprises to have positive and enlightened leaders in order to improve customer experience and service performance. Secondly, according to exploring the influence mechanism, this study reveals the deep motivations of employees' positive and negative behaviors, which can help to improve the service performance for those frontline employees. Thirdly, according to identify the boundaries of influence mechanism of abusive supervision on employees' positive and negative work behaviors, this study reveals that different employees need different motivation methods. The empirical analysis on the need of affiliation makes it possible for the service enterprises to formulate different management and motivation methods for those employees with different needs of affiliation.