Abusive leadership: A moderated-mediation through leader-member exchange and by organizational politics

Amos Drory; Or Shkoler; Aharon Tziner

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.983199

Abusive leadership: A moderated-mediation through leader-member exchange and by organizational politics

Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 10:13:983199. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.983199. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Amos Drory¹, Or Shkoler², Aharon Tziner^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Peres Academic Center, Rehovot, Israel.
² École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
³ Netanya Academic College, Netanya, Israel.
⁴ Tel-Hai College, Qiryat Shemona, Israel.

Abstract

Abusive leadership has been shown to have adverse consequences for both the employees and the organization. In the current paper, the impacts of such a leadership style on workers' turnover intentions (TIs), counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are investigated through a dyadic lens-the mediation of leader-member exchange (LMX). Furthermore, when the workplace atmosphere is also tainted by high level of perceived organizational politics (POP) (as a moderator), these relationships deepen and and/or change (for the worse). To test the moderated-mediation research model, an online sample of 619 participants was obtained. The results support an interesting moderated-mediation of LMX by POP. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future research suggestions are discussed.

Keywords: abusive leadership; counterproductive work behaviors; leader-member exchange; moderated-mediation; organizational citizenship behaviors; organizational politics; turnover intentions.