IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v191y2024i2d10.1007_s10551-023-05449-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Bad Leaders Indeed Bad for Employees? A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies Between Destructive Leadership and Employee Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Peikai Li

    (Ghent University)

  • Kui Yin

    (University of Science and Technology Beijing)

  • Jian Shi

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Tom G. E. Damen

    (Utrecht University)

  • Toon W. Taris

    (Utrecht University)

Abstract

Does having bad leaders have long-lasting adverse effects on employees? While previous studies have primarily viewed subordinate deviant behavior as a crucial consequence of destructive leadership, aggression theory suggests that subordinate deviant behavior could also be an antecedent of destructive leadership. To address this question, we conducted a meta-analysis by focusing on longitudinal field studies (i.e., time-lagged and panel designs), and investigated the longitudinal associations as well as the reciprocal relationships between destructive leadership and employee outcomes. Results from 82 articles with 104 independent prospective and longitudinal studies (N = 30,314) showed that destructive leadership has a lagged detrimental impact on employee behavioral (e.g., OCB, workplace deviance, CWB, and avoidance) and attitudinal outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction and work commitment). There are no significant differences between destructive leadership and employee outcomes for the long-term and short-term effects. Surprisingly, after accounting for auto-regression effects, the cross-lagged analysis showed that destructive leadership did not significantly relate to employees’ negative behavior over time, whereas negative employee behavior did relate to destructive leadership across time. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Peikai Li & Kui Yin & Jian Shi & Tom G. E. Damen & Toon W. Taris, 2024. "Are Bad Leaders Indeed Bad for Employees? A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies Between Destructive Leadership and Employee Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(2), pages 399-413, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:191:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-023-05449-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05449-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-023-05449-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-023-05449-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Antonakis & Samuel Bendahan & Philippe Jacquart & Rafael Lalive, 2010. "On making causal claims : A review and recommendations," Post-Print hal-02313119, HAL.
    2. Wan Jiang & Qinxuan Gu & Thomas Li-Ping Tang, 2019. "Do Victims of Supervisor Bullying Suffer from Poor Creativity? Social Cognitive and Social Comparison Perspectives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 865-884, July.
    3. Jialiang Zhang & Jun Liu, 2018. "Is abusive supervision an absolute devil? Literature review and research agenda," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 719-744, September.
    4. Joon Hyung Park & Min Z. Carter & Richard S. DeFrank & Qianwen Deng, 2018. "Abusive Supervision, Psychological Distress, and Silence: The Effects of Gender Dissimilarity Between Supervisors and Subordinates," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 775-792, December.
    5. Viechtbauer, Wolfgang, 2010. "Conducting Meta-Analyses in R with the metafor Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 36(i03).
    6. Mackey, Jeremy D. & Parker Ellen, B. & McAllister, Charn P. & Alexander, Katherine C., 2021. "The dark side of leadership: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of destructive leadership research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 705-718.
    7. Yucheng Zhang & Zhenyu Liao, 2015. "Consequences of abusive supervision: A meta-analytic review," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 959-987, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ying-Ni Cheng & Changya Hu & Sheng Wang & Jui-Chieh Huang, 2024. "Political context matters: a joint effect of coercive power and perceived organizational politics on abusive supervision and silence," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 81-106, March.
    2. Lee, Kyootai & Jung, Hyun Ju, 2024. "What makes universities build academic spin-offs more successfully? A theory-based triangulation of quantitative studies based on meta-analyses," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    3. Yuntao Bai & Lili Lu & Li Lin-Schilstra, 2022. "Auxiliaries to Abusive Supervisors: The Spillover Effects of Peer Mistreatment on Employee Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 219-237, June.
    4. Jatinder Kumar Jha & Kashika Sud, 2021. "Exploring Influence Mechanism of Abusive Supervision on Subordinates’ Work Incivility: A Proposed Framework," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(2), pages 324-339, May.
    5. Shahab Ali & Iftikhar Hussain & Farrukh Shahzad & Aneeqa Afaq, 2022. "A Multidimensional Model of Abusive Supervision and Work Incivility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Alexander, Katherine C. & Mackey, Jeremy D. & Maher, Liam P. & McAllister, Charn P. & Ellen, B. Parker, 2024. "An implicit leadership theory examination of cultural values as moderators of the relationship between destructive leadership and followers’ task performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3).
    7. Hyosun Kim & Yunlu Chen & Hyewon Kong, 2019. "Abusive Supervision and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Role of Networking Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    8. Arindam Bhattacharjee & Anita Sarkar, 2024. "Abusive supervision: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 1-34, February.
    9. Chavez, Daniel E. & Palma, Marco A. & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Mjelde, James W., 2020. "Product availability in discrete choice experiments with private goods," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    10. Bart Verkuil & Serpil Atasayi & Marc L Molendijk, 2015. "Workplace Bullying and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    11. Francesca Pilotto & Ingolf Kühn & Rita Adrian & Renate Alber & Audrey Alignier & Christopher Andrews & Jaana Bäck & Luc Barbaro & Deborah Beaumont & Natalie Beenaerts & Sue Benham & David S. Boukal & , 2020. "Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. repec:cup:judgdm:v:15:y:2020:i:6:p:972-988 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Jonas Schmidt & Tammo H. A. Bijmolt, 2020. "Accurately measuring willingness to pay for consumer goods: a meta-analysis of the hypothetical bias," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 499-518, May.
    14. Mahadzirah Mohamad & Asyraf Afthanorhan* & Zainudin Awang & Morliyati Mohammad, 2019. "Comparison Between CB-SEM and PLS-SEM: Testing and Confirming the Maqasid Syariah Quality of Life Measurement Model," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 5(3), pages 608-614, 03-2019.
    15. Giovanna Culot & Matteo Podrecca & Guido Nassimbeni & Guido Orzes & Marco Sartor, 2023. "Using supply chain databases in academic research: A methodological critique," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 59(1), pages 3-25, January.
    16. Mario Herberz & Tobias Brosch & Ulf J. J. Hahnel, 2020. "Kilo what? Default units increase value sensitivity in joint evaluations of energy efficiency," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 15(6), pages 972-988, November.
    17. Jamie L. Gloor & Manuela Morf & Samantha Paustian-Underdahl & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2020. "Fix the Game, Not the Dame: Restoring Equity in Leadership Evaluations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 497-511, January.
    18. Piers Steel & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Herman Aguinis, 2021. "The anatomy of an award-winning meta-analysis: Recommendations for authors, reviewers, and readers of meta-analytic reviews," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(1), pages 23-44, February.
    19. Michael Sheppard, 2020. "The relationship between discretionary slack and growth in small firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 195-219, March.
    20. Augusteijn, Hilde Elisabeth Maria & van Aert, Robbie Cornelis Maria & van Assen, Marcel A. L. M., 2021. "Posterior Probabilities of Effect Sizes and Heterogeneity in Meta-Analysis: An Intuitive Approach of Dealing with Publication Bias," OSF Preprints avkgj, Center for Open Science.
    21. Prianto Budi Saptono & Gustofan Mahmud & Intan Pratiwi & Dwi Purwanto & Ismail Khozen & Lambang Wiji Imantoro & Maria Eurelia Wayan, 2024. "Book-Tax Differences during the Crisis: Does Corporate Social Responsibility Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-38, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:191:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-023-05449-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.