Impact of abusive supervision on deviant work behavior: The role of Islamic work ethic

• Date: 01 April 2019
• Author: Basharat Javed,Muhammad Y. A. Rawwas,Raja Mehtab Yasin,Tasneem Fatima,Sadia Jahanzeb
• Published date: 01 April 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12212

Business Ethics: A Eur Rev. 2019;28:221–233. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/beer  

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© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

1 | INTRODUCTION

Leaders behav e differentl y in different si tuations, show ing both

supportive a nd non‐suppor tive behavio r (Tepper, 2000; Pá ez &

Salgado, 2016; Lleó d e Nalda, Guillen & Gil Pec huan, 2016) to create

distance or to develop interpersonal relationships with their employ‐

ees (Duan, Bao , Huang, & Brins field, 2018; Páez & S algado, 2016;

Tepper et al., 2009). T ierney and Tepper (2007, p. 171) observed that

although “th e preponderance of lead ership research has focu sed on

its more const ructive side, we are incr easingly faced with the re ality

that those in lea dership positions sometim es have the capacity and

motivation to be destructive.” An abusive supervisor–subordinate

relationship can therefore be closely linked to leaders abusing their

power (Arye e, Chen, Sun, & Debrah, 20 07; Tepper, Duffy, Henle, &

Lambert , 2006; Trépanier, Fernet, & Aust in, 2016).

A growing number of s tudies have shown that abusive supe rvi‐

sion results in psychological distress (Harvey, Stoner, Hochwarter, &

Kacmar, 2007), low or ganizational c ommitment (Haa r, de Fluiter, &

Brougham, 2016), a decl ine in individua l as well as group per formance

(Priesemuth , Schminke, Amb rose, & Folger, 2014), less suppor tive

behavior (Peng, S chaubroeck , & Li, 2014), low levels of creat ivity

(Liu, Liao, & Loi, 201 2), and deviant workplace behavior d irected to

both the employe es as well as the organizat ion (Eschleman, Bow ling,

Michel, & Burns , 2014; Wang, Mao, Wu, & Liu, 2012). H owever, in

the extant qu antitative literature, th e contextual factors whi ch may

affect how abu sive supervision inf luences job outcome s are ignored.

It is proposed in t his paper that the effec t of abusive supervision on

job outcomes var ies in different workpl ace contexts.

There is some evidence to suggest that employees in differ‐

ent contextual s ettings res pond differ ently to abusive su pervision

Received:12Jun e2017 

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  Revised:19Septem ber2018 

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  Accepted:9Oct ober2018

DOI: 10.1111/b eer.122 12

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Impact of abusive supervision on deviant work behavior: The

role of Islamic work ethic

Basharat Javed1 | Tasneem Fatima2 | Raja Mehtab Yasin3 | Sadia Jahanzeb4 | 

Muhammad Y. A. Rawwas5

1Departme nt of Business Studie s, Namal

College Mianwali, Mianwali

2Faculty of Mana gement

Sciences, International Islamic University,

Islamabad, Pakistan

3Department of Management and Social

Sciences, C apital Universi ty of Science &

Technology, Islamabad

4Business Dep artment at Scho ol of Arts

and Social Sci ences, Memorial U niversity

(Grenfell Campus) Corner Brook,

Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

5Marketing De partment, Col lege of Business

Administration, University of Northern

IOWA,CedarFall s,Iowa

Correspondence

Basharat Jave d, Department of B usiness

Studies, Namal College Mianwali, Mianwali.

Email: basharatmsedu@hotmail.com

Abstract

In this article, we ex amined the relatio nship between ab usive supervisio n and devi‐

ant workplace behavio r and the moderating role of an Islam ic Work Ethic. Three hun‐

dred and thirt y‐six employees in dif ferent organizat ions (specializing in sof tware

development, medicine, law enforcement, telecommunication, pharmaceutics, and

banking) across Pa kistan completed our ques tionnaire. The results revea led that abu‐

sive supervision w as positively related to deviant workplace b ehavior. Moreover, the

moderation of an Isla mic Work Ethic on the relations hip between abusi ve supervi‐

sion and deviant work beh avior was confirmed. The study cont ributed in many ways.

It expanded literat ure by revealing a weaker relati onship between ab usive supervi‐

sion and deviant behavio r when Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) was high. It also tes ted the

conservation of re sources theor y by providing a plausible r easoning of the role of

IWE in employee motivati on. By integrating IWE a s a resource in the workp lace,

practitione rs would learn that t he proper use of resou rces would produce sat isfied

workers who would not indulge in deviant workplace behaviors.

KEYWORDS

abusive super vision, deviant workpla ce behavior, Islamic Work Ethic