Fight and flight: a contingency model of third parties’ approach-avoidance reactions to peer abusive supervision

Zhang, Yucheng, Liu, Xin and Chen, Wansi (2020) Fight and flight: a contingency model of third parties’ approach-avoidance reactions to peer abusive supervision. Journal of Business and Psychology, 35 (6), 767-782. (doi:10.1007/s10869-019-09650-x).

Abstract

Integrating deontic justice theory and the approach-avoidance framework, we propose that peer abusive supervision will elicit third parties’ approach-avoidance emotional and behavioral reactions. Drawing upon scope of justice theory, we posit that peer victimization serves as a key contingency in the relationship between peer abusive supervision and third parties’ approach-avoidance emotional reactions as well as having indirect impacts on approach-avoidance behavioral reactions. Based on multi-level and multi-time data, the results showed that peer abusive supervision (above and beyond third parties’ own experience of abusive supervision) elicited third parties’ approach-oriented emotion (i.e., anger) and behaviors (i.e., direct communication with the supervisor and supervisor-directed deviance) as well as avoidance-oriented emotion (i.e., fear) and behavior (i.e., contact avoidance). Peer victimization moderated the effect of peer abusive supervision on third parties’ anger and the indirect effect on third parties’ approach-oriented behaviors via anger such that the indirect effect was attenuated when peer victimization was high rather than low.

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Contributors

Author: Yucheng Zhang

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