Work stress, ego depletion, gender and abusive supervision: A self-Regulatory perspective

Drawing upon the self-regulatory perspective, we investigate the antecedents of abusive supervision. We study supervisor’s work stress as a predictor of abusive supervisory behavior and investigate supervisor ego depletion as an intervening mechanism. Furthermore, we study the role of gender in explaining ego depletion and abusive supervision. We employed a multilevel research design to study supervisor work stress and ego depletion at group level and perception of abusive supervision at individual level. Data are collected from 59 supervisors and 295 subordinates working in the banking sector. We find that supervisor work stress is positively associated with subordinates’ perception of abusive supervision, and supervisor ego depletion plays a mediating role. We find that these relationships are more pronounced for females than males. We contribute by identifying supervisors’ work stress as an antecedent of abusive supervision and extend ego depletion theory by studying supervisor’s ego depletion as an underlying mechanism.