Abusive Supervision Impact on Employees' Creativity: A Mediated-Moderated Perspective

The drive for the current study was to describe the findings carried out to understand abusive supervision and employees' creativity in business organizations. This research investigated the effect of abusive supervision on employees' creativity. The influence of employment insecurity as a mediating variable and the moderating role of locus of control has also been examined. The study was based on Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 500 employees working in different business organizations in Pakistan. To analyze the data, the study employed path analytic approaches using multilevel modeling in Mplus 7.1. The empirical analysis has confirmed that abusive supervision and employment insecurity have a significant negative impact on employees' creativity. Employment infectivity partially mediates the effect of abusive supervision on employees' creativity. Moderation analysis was performed and established that the locus of control moderates the effect of abusive supervision on employment insecurity as well as the effect of employment insecurity on employees' creativity. The current research has contributed towards developing a better understanding of the studied variables, i.e., abusive supervision, employment insecurity, locus of control, and employees' creativity. To the best of authors' knowledge these variables have been studied together here for the first time. The study also forwarded practical recommendations for managers and entrepreneurs.

Automated summary

The study aims to describe the relationship between abusive supervision and employees' creativity in business organizations, as well as investigate the mediating role of employment insecurity and the moderating role of locus of control. Based on empirical data from Pakistan, the study confirms that abusive supervision and employment insecurity have a negative impact on employees' creativity. Employment insecurity partially mediates the effect of abusive supervision on employees' creativity, and locus of control moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and employment insecurity, as well as between employment insecurity and employees' creativity.