Balancing the bottom-line: how abusive supervision and relative deprivation influence career regret – the moderating role of organisational support

Purpose Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study explores the effect of managers’ abusive supervision and bottom-line mentality on employee relative deprivation and career regret. It also examines the moderating role of perceived organisational support in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach The study uses cross-sectional survey data from 380 employees in the financial services sector of Ghana. SmartPLS v.4 was used to test four main hypotheses and four sub-hypotheses. Findings Abusive supervision and relative deprivation lead to career regret. Managers’ bottom-line mentality has a significant positive relationship with relative deprivation. Organisational support moderates the effects of abusive supervision and bottom-line mentality on career regret but not on relative deprivation. Originality/value The findings contribute to conservation of resources theory by examining how organisational support moderates the effects of abusive supervision and bottom-line mentality on employee relative deprivation and career regret in Ghana’s financial sector.