Abusive Supervision and its influence on Employee Silence and Organizational Productivity: Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

It is the need of every organization to maximize its profits by working with efficient and effective organizational tools and to make the best use of organizational resources. For a business to gain profit it is essential for managers and decision-makers to keep the pace of generating profits always at a certain mark. This study aims to identify potential managerial problems for businesses operating in Pakistan, specifically related to employee-supervisor relationships. The study is a novel attempt in this field as it intends to uncover the employee silence aspects in the event of abusive supervision and finds its impact on overall organizational performance. The research was carried out with a sample of 110 responses collected from public and private organizations in Pakistan. This research has identified that with the increase in abusive leadership, there will be a decrease in organizational productivity and employees’ silence will also significantly increase. Meanwhile, employee silence has a comparatively larger effect i.e., 12% on the productivity of an organization, than the direct effect of abusive supervision on productivity. The study findings accentuate that the organizational leadership team should work on maintaining fair treatment of every employee and decrease the extent of abusive supervising behaviour at work in order to maximize profits and let employees use their potential creativity to give the best output that organizations really expect them to provide.