The Impact of Subordinate Characteristics on Perceptions of Abusive Supervision: A Relative Importance Analysis

Abusive supervision is defined as the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors, excluding physical contact by a supervisor or leader. Research to date suggests that perceptions of abusive supervision may be driven as much as, if not more than, by subordinate characteristics than by supervisor behavior. The fundamental issue is that while abusive supervision is defined in terms of supervisor behavior, it is assessed via subordinate perceptions of supervisor behavior. While many studies have been conducted concentrating on the impact of specific subordinate characteristics on perceptions of abusive supervision, the literature has tended to focus on specific characteristics in isolation. Thus, the literature would benefit from a more comprehensive treatment that examines the collective effect of multiple subordinate characteristics and the relative importance with respect to ratings of abusive supervision. This survey-based study focused on several established subordinate characteristics. The results of these surveys were analyzed using regression analysis and supplemented by dominance weights analysis. This study found that collectively, subordinate characteristics accounted for 47% of the variance in subordinate perceptions of abusive supervision and that the "WUSI" scale dominated with 59% of this effect size.