When Supervision is Abusive: What Explains it and What are the Consequences?

Currently, people spend most of their daytime at work, therefore, it is essential that organisations offer their employees benefits that go beyond the salary, because people value their psychological well-being, which contributes to the quality of life in the workplace and a good work life balance. It is also important to note that interpersonal relationships at work are significant when it comes to organisational well-being. Relationships between subordinates and supervisors must be healthier and trustable relationships. When the opposite occurs, we are faced with abusive supervision with a negative influence on employees' well-being. This study focus on the relationship between supervisors and subordinates. In order to analyse the impact of a supervisor's attitudes on the relationship with their subordinates, it matters to understand that these attitudes are influenced by their personality traits. The aim of this study is to realise how different personality traits of the supervisor, namely those related to the dark triad, contribute to the development of abusive supervision that will affect the employees’ psychological well-being at work. To develop this study, a survey was applied to a sample of 232 employees from different Portuguese organisations, to measure the dark triad, abusive supervision and psychological well-being at work, respectively. After analysing the results using structural equations, it was possible to conclude that psychopathy and machiavellianism, which are two of the dark triad concepts, influence the supervisor's behavior, and further lead to an abusive supervision. Abusive supervision negatively influences the employees’ psychological well-being at work. The greater the abusive supervision, the greater the negative emotions felt by employees at the workplace, and therefore, the employees’ psychological well-being is lower. This study also highlighted differences in the way men and women perceive abusive supervision, concluding that, although men perceive more abusive supervision than women, they present fewer negative emotions than women. Finally, some conclusions, limitations and possible future research were drawn.