An Empirical Study On The Relationship Among Leader’s Values, Abusive Supervision And Subordinate Performance

The leader’s values refer to personal values held by the leader. Being a constructthat influence the judgment about right or wrong and behavior choice of the leader,leader’s values not only have positive, but also significant negative impact on theleader’s behaviors and the leadership effectiveness which including subordinateperformance.In recently years, with the development of global economic integration,liberalization and democratic reform, all the enterprises and academic fields becomemore and more profound understanding of destructive leadership behaviors which arepartly original from wrong judgment influenced by leader’s internal values. and thehuge negative effect which these behaviors produced.Especially for today’s Chinesesociety which is just after30years of reform and opening up and in the rapidtransformation，it’s partly true that there are the mainstream ideology absented andvalues distorted. So in such context， it is especially important for a comprehensivereview of influence consequences and mechanism of leader’s values on leadershipstyle and subordinate performance. Many researchers at home and abroad justarticulate the key role of leader’s values in positive leadership， such astransformational and charismatic leadership theoretically.However， very limitedempirical research has explored the linkage between leader’s values and subordinateperformance，and little comprehensive study has focused on the impact of leader’svalues on the organizational outcomes of destructive leadership in general and abusivesupervision in particular.Based on the existing study，in a theoretical framework which colligatesleadership trait and behavior approaches, the paper integrates several theoriesincluding Schwartz values theory，aggressive behavior theory，destructive leadershiptheory， employee performance theory， and organizational justice theory todevelopment a new model to explain the relationship among leader’s values， abusivesupervision and subordinate performance. In the model，abusive supervision mediatesthe relationship between leader’s values and subordinate performance. By this model， it’s hoped to further understand the influence mechanism of leader’s self-enhancementvalues and conservation values on the subordinate performance from the negativeleadership perspective. Some practical suggestions were given for corporationmanages to manage and adjust their leadership behaviors, and some implications fororganizations to prevent and deal with abusive supervision were also discussed inorder to improve the subordinate performance effectively.Empirically，the paper first examined the influence of leader’s self-enhancementvalues and conservation values on subordinate performance to seek the possiblenegative effect that these values may be on subordinate performance.And then thepaper examined the mediating effect of abusive supervision between leader’s valuesand subordinate performance to explore the mechanism that leader’s values how toinfluence subordinate performance negatively. Finally，the research examined themoderating effect of leader perceptions of interactional justice on the relationshipbetween leader’s self-enhancement values and conservation values and abusivesupervision trying to discover the applicable condition and boundary of therelationship.The study made an investigation in the Pearl River Delta region and collectedmultiphase，multisource data from eight corporations of disparate industry, differentsystem of ownership and dimensions.With the help of SPPP19.0and AMOS17.0software, results from253matched leader-subordinate dyads (506questionnaires) support most of hypnosis in the conceptual model by analysis of variance, correlationanalysis, structure equation analysis and multiple regression analysis.The main research findings and conclusions are as follows:1. Leader’s self-enhancement values are negatively related to subordinateindividual-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCBI) andorganization-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCBO).Leader’sconservation values are positively related to subordinates individual-orientedorganizational citizenship behavior (OCBI), and are not related to subordinatesorganization-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCBO). Neither Leader’sself-enhancement values or conservation values are related to subordinate in-role performance (IRB).The results show that leaders values have an important effect onsubordinate’s organizational citizenship behavior which is an important form ofsubordinate’s extra-role behavior, and leader’s self-enhancement values have a biggerimpact on subordinate’s organizational citizenship behavior than conservation values.2. Leader’s self-enhancement values are positively related to abusive supervision.Leader’s conservation values are negatively related to abusive supervision. Leader’sself-enhancement values are positively related to abusive supervision.So leader’svalues are one of the important sources of abusive behaviors.3. Abusive supervision is negatively related to subordinate individual-orientedorganizational citizenship behavior, organization-oriented organizational citizenshipbehavior, and in-role behavior performance respectively.Thus,in the context ofChinese enterprises, leader’s abusive behaviors cause a comprehensive and profounddamage to subordinate performance.4. Abusive supervision fully mediates the relationship between leader’self-enhancement values and subordinate individual-oriented organizationalcitizenship behavior and partly mediates the relationship between leader’self-enhancement values and subordinate organization-oriented organizationalcitizenship behavior. Abusive supervision also partly mediates the relationshipbetween leader’s conservation values and subordinate individual-orientedorganizational citizenship behavior.The findings of the study indicate that leader’svalues play an important transitive role in the course of abusive supervision influencesubordinate performance.5. Leader’s perceptions of interactional justice moderate the relationship betweenleader’s self-enhancement values and abusive supervision, but don’t moderate therelationship between leader’s conservation values and abusive supervision. So it isconcluded that there are some moderating effect of interactional justice in the courseof leader’s values influence abusive supervision.The contribution of the paper is:1. Based on the existing study of leadership and values theories, the study buildand examined the relationship between leader’s self-enhancement and conservation values, two high-class values dimensions which based on the Schwartz valuestheory,and three different dimension of subordinate performance which based on theperformance theory: individual-oriented organizational citizenship behavior,organization-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, and in-role behaviorperformance.The result testified that leader’s values have more influence onsubordinate out-role performance than in-role performance, verified the importance ofthe negative impact of leader’s values on subordinate performance that argued inleadership theories, deepened the understanding of leadership effectiveness researchwhich based on trait oriented.2. Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM)，the study revealed the sourceof abusive supervision from a values perspective，amplified the research on theinfluence factor of abusive supervision，elevated the domain of causal factor ofdestructive leadership. This study also confirmed previous theory and research whichshowing the relevance of values to behavior，especially aggression behavior inorganization and management field. And the research explored the moderating effectof interactional justice between leader’s self-enhancement values and abusivesupervision，delineated the application conditions and scope of the mechanism forin-depth understanding of the process.3. Within an integration framework of leadership trait and behavior approaches,the paper analysis the mediating effect of abusive supervision between leader’s valuesand subordinate performance comprehensively from negative leadership perspectives.It’s helpful to understand the influence path of leader’s values on subordinateperformance further. And the paper also expanded the researching range of integrationapproach trying to colligate antecede and consequence of abusive supervision,enriched the study on the integration of leadership trait and leadership process andresults from a multivariate perspective.