The Effect of Abusive Supervision on Supervisor Trust: Mediating Effects of Emotional Labor Strategies

Abstract

As workplace bullying has emerged as a serious social problem, many researches on the abusive supervision representing workplace bullying have been conducted. The abusive supervision has a significant negative impact on the subordinate's attitude and behavior, especially on the subordinate's trust in the supervisor, which has been confirmed to have a positive effect through many empirical studies. Therefore, it is necessary to properly recognize the impact of abusive supervision that occurs frequently in the organization on supervisor trust, and the need to manage it at the organizational level is increasing. Accordingly, this study focuses on the emotional mechanism of subordinates (the mediating effect of emotional labor strategies divided into deep acting and surface acting), and based on social exchange theory and conservation of resources theory, we clarify the impact of abusive supervision on supervisor trust. This study conducted a survey of organizational members working with their supervisors for empirical study, and a total of 317 samples were used for research hypothesis analysis. As a result of structural equation analysis, the abusive supervision did not have a statistically significant effect on supervisor trust, but the negative effect on deep acting and the positive effect on surface acting were confirmed. Deep acting had a positive effect on supervisor trust, and surface acting did not have a significant effect on supervisor trust. As a result of the mediating effect verification, it was found that deep acting mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and supervisor trust. Based on the above research results, theoretical and practical implications for the effect of abusive supervision were presented.