The Mechanisms And Contingency Factors Of How Abusive Supervision Impacts On Compulsory Citizenship Behavior

Employee’ behaviors in the workplace are always the focus in thefield of organizational behavior (Fay&Sonnentag,2010). In general,the employee’ work behaviors can be divided into two categories: in-and extra-role behaviors (Katz,1964). Among them, extra-role behaviorshave get lots of attention due to outside in a formal work system. Earlystudies on this kind of behavior have been voluntary emotion as afoundation, even called it "Discretionary Work Behaviour"(Fay&Sonnentag,2010). But recent years, some scholars have found some ofthe employee’s work behavior is not voluntary, but a kind of behaviorwas forced or compulsory (Vigoda-Gadot,2006). Those "bei"phenomenons widely existing in Chinese organizations are the typicalacts, such as bei-overtime, bei-attendance, bei-donation. Vigoda-Gadot (2006) named it as “compulsory citizenship behavior (CCBs)”. CCBsmay have a negative impact on employee’s work attitude andperformance (Peng et al,2011), in order to control this behavior,managers should understand CCBs’ inducing factors and its mechanism,but little studies were concerned.Theoretically, abusive supervision is an important influencingfactor of CCB, managers’ forcing or compulsory behavior may result inCCBs (Vigoda-Gadot,2006). But there is little research on empirical test,let alone their relationship path. The only empirical studies mainconsider the risk and threat of employee psychological perception,namely abusive supervision induces subordinates’ psychological securitythreats, which would force them to perform CCB (Zhao et al,2013);however, this path may neglect the role of obey authority, namely,abusive supervision make subordinates perceive supervisor’s power andthe authority, which makes them feel pressure from boss, and then had tobe obeyed. The first path only few scholars to investigate, and thesecond path is merely a matter of similar theory analysis (Wan et al, 2011), still lack of empirical test.In addition, because the differences between eastern and Westernculture, some indigenizational characteristic of Confucian culturaltradition may make the difference on degree and correlation of abusivesupervision and CCB. As the essence of Confucian "relationalism"(Hwang,2009), the different degree of guanxi orientation may playmoderator role between between abusive supervision-CCB. Similarly,the instrumetal tendency of staff’ behavior is also likely to affect thisrelationship. But there is no study on the indigenizational variables,therefore, it is necessary to examine their role.Therefore, in view of the above problems, based on thepredecessors and exploration research, separately from two perspectivesof risk aversion and obedience to authority, this study constructs doublemediation path model of "abusive supervision-psychologicalsecurity/obedience pressure-CCB"; and explores the moderating effectof guanxi orientation and instrumental tendency of the twoindigenizational cultural variables. Through a depth interview of10employees, an open questionnaireof40employees and571two period dyad sample collection, this studyintegrates and tests the theoretical model. After controlling the variablessuch as organizational openness, perceived job mobility andorganizational embeddedness, the main conclusions are as follows:(1)Abusive supervision could significantly predicts employee’CCBs, that is, the higher abusive supervision is, the greater thepossibility of subordinate shows CCB;(2)Obedience pressure plays a part intermediary role in therelationship between the above two, abusive behaviors of supervisionmake subordinates perceive the pressure from boss, under the pressure,even if the boss’s commands is mandatory, subordinates are often chooseto obey;(3)Psychological security plays a full mediator effect in therelationship between the above two, that is, abusive supervision behaviorwill reduce subordinates’ psychological safety perception, in order toexclude or equilibrium this negative perception, subordinate mayalso perform CCB under boss’s order;(4)Guanxi orientation reverse moderates abusive supervision-CCBrelationship, that is, compare with the staff who is high guanxiorientation, those ones low orientation embody stronger relationshipbewteen abusive supervision and CCB;(5)Instrumental tendency has a positive moderator between the two,those employees who is high instrumental tendency(rather than lowinstrumental tendency), are more likely to show CCB under boss’sabusive supervision.Theoretical contributions of this study are:(1)Providing empirical experience for the relationship betweenabusive supervision-CCB. Preliminary study of the relationship betweenthe two is mostly limited to theoretical analysis, there is very littleempirical research. This study starts from the existing widely "Bei"phenomenons in organizations, identified the induced effects of abusivesupervision, tested the effect of abusive supervision on CCB.(2)Recognizing the mechanism of the relationship between the two. Perceived superior pressure and psychological safety were a part and fullmediator role. This research not only further defines Zhao et al(2013)mediating mechanism of psychological security, also found another pathbetween the two: the mediating role of obedience pressure, and thedouble mediating paths makes more explanation power, this deepen theunderstanding of interactions between the two.(3)Recognizing the contingency factors of abusivesupervision-CCB: guanxi orientation and instrumental tendency isseparately reverse and positive moderator role. From theindigenizational perspective, explaining the reaction on CCB whenemployees face abusive supervision in relationism of Chineseorganizations, reflects the indigenizational traditional cultural factors inChinese organizational context is different from the western.This study also provides some management inspiration:(1)Reminding managers vaule CCB in organization and itsinfluencing factor--abusive supervision.(2)Basis on organizational resources and management policy, individually or simultaneously considering the employee’s obediencepressure and psychological safety, formulating policy or target.Especially, the results of this study show that the mediating effect ofpsychological security is greater than obedience pressure, and obediencepressure also partly influence employee’s psychological security. Thisconclusion reminds us: under the limited conditions of organizationalresource and capability, should grasp the principal contradiction, priorityto take measures to improve the staff’s psychological security, it is likelyto have the biggest effect. At the same time, several mechanisms all takeefeect, this means that, when conditions permit, organization wouldmulti-pronged, complement each other in order to minimize CCB.(3)For employees who have different behavior characteristicsshould be the distinction, targeted measures. Managers should payattention to employee guanxi orientation level and instrumentalmotivation as possible. On one hand, those employees low guanxiorientation is more sensitive to CCB facing abusive supervision, soleaders should be through the strengthening of communication, team cooperation, improve the staff pay attention to interpersonal relationship,thus reducing the citizenship behavior forced perception. On the otherhand, employees high instrumental tendency are more likely to exhibitCCB, so leaders can adjust the evaluation methods, such as360°evaluation, let colleagues, superiors, subordinates, staff are involved inthe evaluation, and through the test, training staff to form the right ofcitizen consciousness, so that this kind people to reduce instrumentalmotivation.