Rising above: Investigating employee exemplification as a response to the experience of shame induced by abusive supervision

Abstract

Scholars have clearly demonstrated that abusive supervision can precipitate a variety of destructive reactions from employees. Employees, however, do not universally reciprocate mistreatment with their own destructive behaviour and yet our current understanding of how victims of abusive supervision might choose to react less destructively, or potentially constructively, is still limited. Further, we lack a sufficient understanding of the psychological mechanisms that help explain why employees may react less destructively to abusive supervision. Drawing from appraisal theories of emotions, this research investigates whether the emotion of shame helps to explain why employees might engage in exemplification as a relatively constructive coping strategy in response to abusive supervision. An experimental (Study 1) and a field study (Study 2) found that shame mediated the effect of abusive supervision on employee exemplification. We further examined locus of control as a moderator of the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and exemplification and found individuals with internal (compared to external) locus of control were more likely to experience shame from abusive supervision and cope with shame by engaging in exemplification. In turn, the positive relationship between abusive supervision and exemplification, via shame, was strengthened for individuals with internal locus of control. Practitioner points Practicing managers should help guide employees to make more informed judgements about how to react to abuse in ways that are most suitable for their well‐being and career. Common reactions such as leaving the organization or retaliating against the abusive supervisor may not be a good personal and professional choice for employees. As such, employees should know that there are other viable avenues, such as engaging in exemplification, that can help cope with shame induced by abusive supervision. Organizations should identify formal procedures and practices that reward and celebrate employees that go above and beyond. If employees perceive that their exemplification has gone unnoticed, they may feel that their self‐concept is not being restored at their desired rate, consequently driving employees to cope with the feeling of shame through withdrawal (e.g., turnover).

Experience of shame in service failure context among restaurant frontline employees: does industry tenure matter?

“…The experience of shame initiates a desire to change one's image or reputation within a group in a proactive way (Bonner et al, 2017). Empirically, shame has been found to be positively associated with approach and prosocial behaviors (Kim et al, 2020;De Hooge et al, 2010). On the other hand, some researchers have revealed the maladaptive nature of shame and suggested that shame is expected to be linked with social withdrawal (De Hooge et al, 2018).…”

“…Therefore, the first theoretical contribution of this study is thus its extension of the nomological network of shame as a salient self-conscious emotion. Previous studies have examined situations that trigger the experience of shame, including unethical behavior (Bonner et al, 2017), and abusive supervision (Kim et al, 2020), but have not particularly considered the characteristics of hospitality contexts yet. Among the various antecedents of shame, failing to achieve the expected results is one of the most prominent (Daniels and Robinson, 2019).…”

“…Therefore, service failure is identified as a common trigger of shame that has negative implications for the self, including the experience of shame following cognitive appraisal (Tracy and Robins, 2004). As to outcomes, existing studies have linked the experience of shame with exemplification (Kim et al, 2020), job performance (Bagozzi et al, 2003) and creativity (Gonz alez-G omez and Richter, 2015). Despite these findings, relationships between shame and other job attitudes and work behaviors still remain unclear.…”

“…Existing literature on shame is inconsistent as to whether shame leads to maladaptive responses such as attacks on self/others, avoidance and withdrawal or adaptive responses such as empathy, apology and reparative behavior (Kim et al, 2020). These inconsistent findings with regard to the maladaptive versus adaptive outcomes of shame suggest:…”

“…In addition, considering existing research that calls for exploration of individual boundary conditions of the impacts of shame (Kim, 2016;Bagozzi et al, 2003;Kim et al, 2020), this study also takes the perspective of emotional aging literature and posits that industry tenure moderates the relationship between emotional experience of shame and subsequent job attitudes. Given that emotion regulation is a work skill which is clearly required for hospitality frontline jobs, industry tenure becomes a more relevant and precise aging indicator that better reflects one's aging related to coping with emotions compared to one's age.…”