The influences of abusive supervision on job satisfaction and mental health: the path through emotional labor

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to empirically test and explore the influences of abusive supervision on subordinates' job satisfaction and mental health. Specifically, the authors focus on the mediation effects of emotional labor and compare the discrepancies between surface acting and deep acting.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged data were obtained from 239 employees in the hospitality industry in Taiwan. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling with Mplus 7.4.FindingsResults showed that abusive supervision is not only negatively related to employees' job satisfaction and mental health but also positively associated with employee surface acting and negatively associated with deep acting. For mediating effects, surface acting mediates the relationships between abusive supervision and employee job satisfaction, while deep acting mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and mental health.Practical implicationsAbusive supervision is detrimental; it should be reduced in the workplace. Also, frontline employees can be provided with training programs to improve their deep acting strategies, which lead to better job satisfaction and mental health.Originality/valueThis research is among the first to examine the link between abusive supervision and both employee job satisfaction and mental health in the hospitality industry and extends the authors’ knowledge by demonstrating the mediating effects of surface acting and deep acting.

Are employee assistance programs helpful? A look at the consequences of abusive supervision on employee affective organizational commitment and general health

“…The topic of promoting healthy workplaces and empowering employees to mirror recent research trends toward examining the relationships between positive psychological states and organizational well-being (Maslach et al , 2001; Van Den Bergh, 2000). Similarly, the results of our study echo past empirical studies that found negative relationships between abusive supervision employees’ mental health and psychological well-being in hospitality employees (Nyberg et al , 2011; Wang et al , 2021).…”

“…We adopted our scale from the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) developed by Goldberg and Williams (1988). Although GHQ is widely used as an indicator of stress and has been widely applied in the service industry and has been verified in different language and cultural contexts (Murray-Gibbons and Gibbons, 2007; Shevlin and Adamson, 2005; Ye, 2009), the factor structure of the scale remains inconclusive (Andrich and Van Schoubroeck, 1989; Daradkeh et al , 2001; Hankins, 2008; Politi et al , 1994; Sánchez-López and Dresch, 2008; Schmitz et al , 1999; Wang et al , 2021). We used four items to assess employees’ general mental health, including items such as “Could not overcome difficulties,” “Feeling unhappy and depressed,” “Losing confidence,” and “Thinking of self as worthless.” All four items were reverse scaled.…”

“…Based on the COR theory, abusive supervision can be seen as a job stressor that requires resource expenditure to employees (Wang et al , 2021; Harris et al , 2007). Under these circumstances, if organizations can provide adequate amounts of resources to employees (e.g.…”

“…According to prior studies, the consequences of abusive supervision not only damaged subordinates’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and leads to reduced organization citizenship behaviors but also it causes personal negative psychological and physical health responses (e.g. anxiety, depression and emotional exhaustion) (Aryee et al , 2007; Duffy et al , 2002; Dupré et al , 2006; Wang et al , 2021; Zellars et al , 2002). From the COR theory, when individuals face these behaviors, they will evaluate if these events cause resource loss, and if so, they will search for possible resources in response to the events.…”

The Moderator Effect of Communicative Rational Action in the Relationship between Emotional Labor and Job Satisfaction

“…Surface acting includes the display of emotions that are not actually felt by the careful use of verbal and non-verbal communication tools such as facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice [7,11,53]. The contradiction of the real feelings that individuals feel with the emotional displays expected by the organization can be expressed as surface acting.…”