Abusive supervision, emotion regulation, and performance

This study examined the abusive supervision’s influence on emotion regulation and outcomes. Based on COR theory, we investigated whether supervisor abuse has a direct relationship with the emotional labor strategies of surface acting (monitoring external emotions) and deep acting (monitoring internal feelings). In turn, we investigated the indirect relationship of supervisor abuse on outcomes (i.e., emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and task performance) via these emotional labor strategies. Using lagged and dyadic sample (210 subordinates and 30 supervisors), we found that abusive supervision predicted surface and deep acting and that the indirect associations of supervisor abuse on outcomes via emotional labor strategies were also significant. The present investigation empirically supports the theorized links and offers notable implications for personnel selection and assessment.