The Relationship between Abusive Supervision and Loyalty to Supervisor: The Moderating Effect of Power Distance and Gender

Abusive supervision is regarded as having negative effect on the relationship between the supervisor and the subordinate, such as subordinates’ loyalty to the supervisor. However, the Chinese traditional culture values harmonious relationship and promote unequal relationship between the inferior and the superior. Thus, personal power distance value might play a vital role in decrease the negative impact of abusive supervision. And according to cultural role perspective, male and female employee might respond to abusive supervision differently. Consequently, this study aimed to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and loyalty to supervisor. And we further probed into the moderating effect of subordinates` power distance and gender in the above relationship. Two hundred and forty one valid questionnaires were collected from full-time employee from various Taiwanese companies using survey research techniques. The result showed that: 1. abusive supervision was negatively associated with loyalty to supervisor. 2. Subordinate’s power distance moderated the relationship between abusive supervision and loyalty to supervisor. The relationship between abusive supervision and loyalty to supervisor was stronger among subordinates who were lower in power distance than among subordinates who were higher in power distance. 3. Gender moderated the relationship between abusive supervision and loyalty to supervisor. In contrast to male employee, female employee showed higher negative relationship between abusive supervision and loyalty to supervisor. The implications, limitations and possible directions for future research were discussed.

Keywords: abusive supervision, loyalty to supervisor, power distance, cultural role, and Chinese organization.