Faculty of Business Administration
SEMINAR SERIES No. 21/1415
Management

Implications of Coworkers’ Experiences for Individuals’ Responses to their Own Experiences with the Supervisor 

Prof. John M. Schaubroeck
John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management
Michigan State University, USA

Abstract

Most research concerning individual follower outcomes of leadership does not account the fact that such differences may influence a follower’s outcomes beyond his or her own treatment by the leader. Recent evidence has suggested that followers not only have adverse responses to being mistreated by their supervisors, they also respond unfavorably when their peers reporting to the same supervisor are mistreated. Theoretical perspectives alternately suggest that such ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ mistreatment might have a cumulative effect, the two types of mistreatment may serve as substitutes, or mistreatment of others serves as a social buffer that mitigates adverse outcomes. I first briefly discuss two field studies that examined the interactive influences of own and coworker abusive supervision on different employee behaviors and attitudinal states. I then suggest that the substitution process implicated by these studies may extend to favorable patterns of relationship with the supervisor as represented by leader-member exchange. I present results from a study testing that proposition. Whereas the focal mediating states reflect different conceptual processes relating to different outcomes, there is convergence in the overall pattern of interactions across these three studies. The findings support viewing abusive supervision and leader-member exchange from a broader social perspective in which harms (benefits) derive not only from direct victimization (support) but also from unit level processes that arise from differentiated supervisory behavior.

Date: March 18, 2015 (Wednesday) 

Time: 14:30~17:00 

Venue: Faculty of Business Administration, E22-1002

A Short Biography of Prof. Schaubroeck 
Prof. John M. Schaubroeck is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Michigan State University, USA. Prof. Schaubroeck has published over 70 refereed journal articles and several book chapters. His research interests relate primarily to leadership, counterproductive work behaviors, and employee stress and well-being. He served as Associate Editor and then Editor-in-Chief at Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (OBHDP) from 2004 through 2010. Before joining Michigan State University, he served as the Trustee Chaired Professor in Leadership, Department of Management, Bennett LeBow College of Business at Drexel University. He got his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at Purdue University.

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