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Do Victims of Supervisor Bullying Suffer from Poor Creativity? Social Cognitive and Social Comparison Perspectives

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Abstract

This study explores the dark side of leadership, treats creative self-efficacy as a mediator, and frames supervisor bullying and employee creativity in the context of social cognition and social comparison. We theorize that with a high social comparison orientation, the combination of high supervisory abuse toward themselves (own abusive supervision) and low supervisory abuse toward other team members (peer abusive supervision) leads to a double whammy effect: When employees are “singled out” for abuse, these victims suffer from not only low creative self-efficacy due to supervisory abuse but also low supervisory creativity ratings. Results based on our two-wave data collected from multiple sources—253 employees and their 77 immediate supervisors—support our theory. The significant three-way interaction effect reveals that when social comparison orientation is high and peer abusive supervision is low (Time 1), own abusive supervision (Time 1) creates the strongest negative impact on creative self-efficacy (Time 2), which is significantly related to supervisory low creativity rating (Time 2). Our discoveries of egregious bullying offer provocative theoretical, empirical, and practical implications to the fields of leadership, abusive supervision, creativity, and business ethics.

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Notes

  1. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away (Matthew 13: 12). The Matthew effect is a double-edged sword, creating the bright side (the rich get richer) and the dark side (the poor get poorer).

  2. Love one another (John 13: 34). Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles (Matthew 5: 41).

  3. Do to others whatever you would have them do to you (Matthew 7: 12). Psalm 103: 8. Matthew 5: 43–44.

  4. Flight attendant Debra Neil told the cockpit crew: “We have a problem.” David Burke shot the flight attendant, announced “I’m the problem,” and killed the pilots and the PSA’s Chief Pilot in LA. David Burke had seven children by different women, but was never married. Some described him as a violent man. An episode of the Canadian TV series, Mayday, featured this incident, entitled: “I’m the problem.” “Murder on board” was the title for the UK version of Air Crash Investigation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank National Natural Science Foundations of China for Financial support (Grant Nos. 71602140, 71472122, and 71032003).

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Jiang, W., Gu, Q. & Tang, T.LP. Do Victims of Supervisor Bullying Suffer from Poor Creativity? Social Cognitive and Social Comparison Perspectives. J Bus Ethics 157, 865–884 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3660-x

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