The moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between supervisor conflict and employees’ counterproductive work behaviors

Abstract

Purpose Research concludes that supervisor conflict is a primary antecedent of employee counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). However, previous studies mainly focused on direct supervisor conflict, with indirect supervisor conflict understudied. To fill the research gap, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between indirect supervisor conflict and employee CWBs and the buffering effect of emotional intelligence on indirect supervisor conflict–CWB relationships in two studies. Design/methodology/approach The study used time-lagged design (Study 1) and longitudinal design (Study 2) with multisource data to test the theoretical model presented in this study. Findings The positive relationship between indirect supervisor conflict and CWBs were consistently supported with self-report CWBs but not with coworker-report CWBs. SEA and OEA were found to buffer the indirect supervisor conflict–CWB relationships with both self-report and coworker-report CWBs. Originality/value The study suggests that while covert and implicit, indirect supervisor conflict could drive employees to engage in CWBs that impose a threat to organization and its members. The emotional-appraisal aspect of emotional intelligence (i.e. SEA and OEA) could help employees to better cope with indirect supervisor conflict and mitigate employees’ engagement in CWBs.

Creating Sustainable Work Environments by Developing Cultures that Diminish Deviance

“…Deviant workplace behavior, also known as counterproductive work behavior [22], abusive work behavior [23], dysfunctional behavior [24], or workplace aggression [25] refers to a wide range of "negative", intentional behaviors that violate institutionalized norms and thus endanger the welfare of an individual or organizations [26]. They include behaviors such as physical and verbal violence and aggression, theft, abusive supervision, withholding effort or information [27], to name just a few.…”

Interpersonal conflict and counterproductive work behavior: the moderating roles of emotional intelligence and gender

“…One important negative work behavior outcome of interpersonal conflict that has been examined is workplace deviance, also known as counterproductive work behavior (CWB) (Ma and Liu, 2019;O'Connor et al, 2017). CWB has been defined as "voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both" (Robinson and Bennett, 1995, p. 556).…”

“…As stated by Chen et al (2019), individuals with higher levels of emotional intelligence are better able to understand, regulate and make use of emotional information than those with lower levels. Therefore, employees will differ in the propensity to engage in CWB in the face of stressful events such as workplace conflict (Ma and Liu, 2019). Therefore, based on above arguments, we propose the following hypothesis:…”

“…While few studies have studied the impact of interpersonal conflict on CWB (Bruk-Lee and Spector, 2006;Haq, 2011;Kessler et al, 2013), they lack an insight about potential moderators between the relationship of interpersonal conflict and CWB. An exceptional study by Ma and Liu (2019) investigated the moderating role of emotional intelligence on the relationship between indirect supervisor conflict and CWB. This study contributes to the understanding about the moderating role of emotional intelligence between interpersonal conflict and CWB.…”

Employment status and counterproductive work behaviour: a chain mediating effect in the Chinese context

“…Researchers describe CWB as an emotion‐based response to stressful organisational conditions (Fida et al 2015) and a cognition‐based response to experienced injustice (Spector and Fox 2005; Wu et al 2016). Job stressors, including interpersonal conflict (Ma and Liu 2019), perceived low organisational support (Guo, Yang and Fu 2015), and perceived injustice (Wu, Sun and Zhang 2016) elicit workers’ CWB.…”