It’s all due to being awake at night: the impact of the leader’s nighttime sleep deprivation on the leader’s daytime abusive supervision

Purpose Based on the ego depletion theory, this study reveals the mechanism of the leader’s nighttime sleep deprivation inducing daytime abusive supervision and investigates the mediation role of the leader’s resource depletion. At the same time, the moderation effects of the leader’s time pressure and the leader’s mindfulness on the mediation path are discussed. Design/methodology/approach In this study, 227 leaders and their employees from 5 Chinese enterprises were selected as research objects by the experience sampling method. A paired survey was conducted for 10 consecutive working days. We used Mplus 7.4 and adopted a bootstrapping technique for data analysis. Findings The leader’s nighttime sleep deprivation can lead to resource depletion, which can lead to daytime abusive supervision. At the same time, this study also finds that the leader’s time pressure and the leader’s mindfulness are the “gate valve” for the leader’s nighttime sleep deprivation to promote daytime abusive supervision. That is, when the leader’s time pressure is higher, the resource depletion caused by the leader’s nighttime sleep deprivation is higher, which induces more daytime abusive supervision; when the leader’s mindfulness is high, the leader’s nighttime sleep deprivation results in less abusive supervision through the leader’s resource depletion. Originality/value From the perspective of ego depletion, this study explores why a leader’s nighttime sleep deprivation leads to daytime abusive supervision. The above results expand the research on the mechanism and boundary conditions of leaders’ nighttime sleep deprivation in China’s organizational context, contribute to deepening the understanding of the relationship between leaders’ sleep and work, and provide useful references for leadership development and organizational management.