Flight or Fight: How do employees respond to abusive supervision?

Research on abusive supervision typically considers employees as passive recipients of supervisory abuse. However, employees can respond actively. Based on the affect theory of social exchange, we proposed that employees with a good Guanxi (the closeness of a personal relationship, including tangible and emotional interactions, and perceptions of responsibility between the interacting parties) with their supervisors will have less anger and more self-blame when being abused. In comparison, those with bad Guanxi will have more anger and less self-blame. Furthermore, anger and self-blame influence employees’ turnover intention and job crafting. A three-wave paired questionnaire study of 382 employees and their colleagues supported our reasoning. We also discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.