Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul 8;ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print).
doi: 10.1108/LHS-03-2022-0021.

The effects of leaders' abusive supervision on employees' work engagement: a moderated-mediation model of employees' silence and employees' proactive personalities

Hannah Vivian Osei  1 , Herbert Ofori  1 , Emmanuella Otsen  1 , Theresa Adjei  1 , Lexsee Odoom  1
Affiliations
Free article

The effects of leaders' abusive supervision on employees' work engagement: a moderated-mediation model of employees' silence and employees' proactive personalities

Hannah Vivian Osei et al. Leadersh Health Serv (Bradf Engl). .
Free article

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of leaders' abusive supervision on employees' work engagement in the health sector. The study further examined the interactive effect of leaders' abusive supervision and employees' proactive personality on work engagement via employees' silence.

Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 343 health workers in five hospitals in Ghana. The Hayes Process Macro and AMOS were used to analyse mediation, moderation and moderated-mediation relationships.

Findings: The study findings indicate that leaders' abusive supervision has a detrimental impact on employees' work engagement. The study further found that employees' silence did not mediate the relationship between abusive supervision and work engagement. Employees' proactive personalities positively moderated the relationship between abusive supervision and employees' silence.

Originality/value: This study advances understanding of how perceived leaders' abusive supervision affects health workers' work engagement. This study contributes to the literature by confirming employees' silence as a pathway linking abusive supervision to work engagement. The study further identifies employees' proactive personality as a moderating variable in the relationship between abusive supervision and employees' silence.

Keywords: Abusive supervision; Attitudes; Employees; Employees’ proactive personality; Employees’ silence; Health services sector; Health workers; Hospitals; Leadership; Work; Work engagement.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abid, G., Arya, B., Arshad, A., Ahmed, S. and Farooqi, S. (2021), “Positive personality traits and self-leadership in sustainable organizations: mediating influence of the thriving and moderating role of proactive personality”, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Vol. 25, pp. 299-311.
    1. Ahamed, F. and Hassan, A. (2014), “Supervisory behaviour and employee work engagement: interpersonal and institutional trust as mediator”, J. for Global Business Advancement, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 112-124.
    1. Avey, J.B., Wu, K. and Holley, E. (2015), “The influence of abusive supervision and job embeddedness on citizenship and deviance”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 129 No. 3, pp. 721-731.
    1. Bakker, A.B., Tims, M. and Derks, D. (2012), “Proactive personality and job performance: the role of job crafting and work engagement”, Human Relations, Vol. 65 No. 10, pp.1359-1378.
    1. Barnes, C.M., Lucianetti, L., Bhave, D.P. and Christian, M.S. (2015), “‘You wouldn’t like me when I’m sleepy’: leaders’ sleep, daily abusive supervision, and work unit engagement”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 58 No. 5, pp. 1419-1437.

LinkOut - more resources