Impact of Abusive Supervision on Employee Behaviour: The Moderating Effect of Adversity Quotient

Chin-Fang Yang, Chi-Shiun Lai, & Han-Ning Li

Department of Accounting Information, Da-Yeh University

Department of Business Administration, National Yunlin University of Science & Technology

Abstract: This study adopts resource-preserved, social-exchange, and social-dominance theory to explore the impact of abusive supervision on the employees’ emotional exhaustion and turnover tendency and the mediated moderating effect of adversity quotient. The survey, conducted by questionnaires, consists of 680 full–time employees. The results reveal as follows. First, when the adversity quotient (AQ) of employee is high, the positive relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion will be less strong. Conversely, when the AQ of employee is low, the positive relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion will be stronger. Second, the abusive supervision positively influences turnover tendency. Finally, the interaction between abusive supervision and AQ will affect turnover tendency through emotional exhaustion, that is, AQ plays the mediated moderating role.

Keywords: abusive supervision, emotional exhaustion, turnover tendency, adversity quotient, mediated moderating role.