When does abusive supervision mitigate work effort? Moderating roles of cognitive reappraisal and rumination

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the boundary condition roles of cognitive reappraisal and rumination in the link between abusive supervision and work effort. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected from 545 highly skilled employees of manufacturing companies. We excluded 161 of these questionnaires because they were incomplete and used 384 questionnaires in the analyses. To assess the validity of proposed hypotheses, we conducted hierarchical regression analysis. Findings: The results indicate that cognitive reappraisal weakens the negative link between abusive supervision and work effort. Moreover, individuals who ruminate tend to exhibit reduced work effort when they experience abusive behavior from their supervisors. Originality/value: This study is the first to investigate the moderating roles of cognitive reappraisal and rumination in the link between abusive supervision and work effort. The findings can help organizations understand the situations when abusive supervision decreases levels of work effort among employees and when subordinates maintain their levels of work effort.