Summary

The aim of current research is to investigate the association of abusive supervision with contextual performance in presence of LMX. In order to accomplish this aim, the quantitative study will be carried out and primary data will be obtained through survey. The data will be obtained from employees of manufacturing companies in London UK. The data will be analyzed using hierarchical regression and mediation process of Hayes. The study will be highly significant for theory and practice.

 

Introduction

The effective supervision has been recognized as an important factor in developing the high quality social system within organization and it can shape the overall relationship of employees and supervisors (Spitzmuller, Van Dyne and Ilies, 2008). The contemporary research has offered significant importance to the notion of abusive supervision and its consequent association with the behavior and performance of employees who are being mistreated. The abusive supervision has been defined as the insight of the subordinates about the supervision of the leader and is stated as the extent to which leader is involved in the verbal and non-verbal abusive behaviour (Tepper, 2000). Mostly, the occurrence of abusive supervision has been viewed within social context which provides that followers view the treatment of supervisor in comparison with relevant others with an aim of shaping their perceptions of supervisor’s treatment. It has been offered by the studies conducted in both actual and laboratory settings that awareness of supervisor’s treatment with co-workers act as a foundation of employee’s perceptions about the attributes of leader (Shoss et al., 2013).

The positivity of effective social networks within an organization can be helpful in enhancing the contextual performance of employees and can enhance helping behaviour towards peers (Liu and Wang, 2013). The abusive supervision is harmful in the organization and it damages the quality of social interactions of leaders and members and negative perceptions of victims about the leaders may contribute negatively to the contextual performance (Jiao, Richards and Zhang, 2011). Given the importance of issue and linkages among underlying variables, the researcher has proposed to conduct study on following issue.

1.Literature Review

2.1 Abusive Supervision and Contextual performance

Abusive supervision is considered as the continual display of aggressive and hostile behaviour which could either be verbal or no verbal. The aspects of ridiculing and yelling at the subordinates also comes under the abusive supervision and most of the studies have combined the effects of own and peer’s abusive supervision within social context (Hoobler and Brass, 2006). The theoretical underpinnings of abusive supervision are derived from organizational justice theory (interactional dimension) which lay emphasis on the fairness of treatment with followers. The abusive supervision contributes to violate the interpersonal fairness perceptions of employees as they are mistreated by higher authorities (Tepper, Duffy, Henle and Lambert, 2006). The prosocial behaviour of employees is considered as an important outcome of high quality leader member exchange as the high LMX members are likely to receive greater privilege than low LMX individuals (Hobman et al., 2009). The prosocial behaviour is synonymous with contextual performance that can be defined as the tendency of employees to engage in activities and responsibilities beyond their prescribed job description (Harris, Kacmar and Zivnuska, 2007). The employee with high contextual performance are likely to put extra efforts for wellbeing of the organization.

The workers who receive respectful treatment from their supervisors are likely to feel obliged towards organization and they are willing to perform beyond the expected job responsibilities (Harvey et al., 2007). The perspective of reciprocity of norms can be linked with the notion that abusive supervision belittle employees in the organization and in turn employees reduce their prosocial behavior towards organization as the reaction of abusive supervision.  Likewise, it is also important to note that presence of abusive supervision can restrict the access of employees to resources which are needed to effectively perform at job (Liu, Kwong, Wu and Wu, 2010). Therefore, the contextual performance may suffer in presence of abusive supervision.

H1: Abusive supervision will be negatively associated with contextual performance of employees.

2.2 Abusive Supervision and Leader member exchange

The origin of abusive supervision from organizational justice has suggested that fairness in treatment is perceived substantially by the subordinates and absence of fairness in interpersonal treatment leads to abusive supervision (Zellars, Tepper and Duffy, 2002). Researchers have argued that both forms of the abusive supervision contribute to impede the interaction of subordinates with supervisors and hamper them to advance high quality leader member exchange (LMX) with their subordinates (Rafferty and Restubog, 2011). The tendency of social behaviour of employees depends on their expectations and perceptions of treatment which they receive from their supervisors. The supervisors who show abusive behaviour fail to meet those expectations and subordinates perceive them as less helpful and hypocritical (Mitchell and Ambrose, 2007). Therefore, the tendency of social interaction decreases which hampers employees to invest their efforts in developing high quality exchange relationship with abusive supervisors.

In related vein, the theory of social exchange has suggested that evaluation of other party’s behaviour and treatment serve as the foundation of social exchange formation (Graham, 1991). The high quality relationship is mainly the outcome of trust between leader and members and it requires investment of efforts from both parties. The members carry out extensive evaluation of trust before entering into a high quality social relationship and abusive supervision is considered as significant threat of developing trusting association (Aryee et al., 2007). The abusive supervision is characterised by threat of disrespectful treatment and untrustworthy motives of supervisor contribute to discourage development of exchange relationship between leader and members.  It has also been highlighted by prior literature that when have high awareness of supervisor’s abusive nature, the employees reduce their efforts of investing in social exchange relationship and it fosters both victims and peers of abusive supervision to perceive disrespect relationship with abusive supervisor (Bhal, 2006). Consequently, both the victim and peers of abusive supervision have low quality exchange relationship with their supervisor.

The individuals expect their supervisors as legitimate members of the organization and the interactions of social groups are defined by the characteristics of leader (Breaux et al., 2008). When the subordinates are treated with higher level of respect, then they feel as valued members of the organization and their willingness to invest in relationship increases (Tepper, 2007). On the other hand, if the peer and own abusive supervision is present and any of group members receive disrespectful treatment then trust may suffer and investment in high quality social exchange relationship reduces (Burton and Hoobler, 2006). The abusive supervision comes with stream of abusive relationship and victims of abusive relationship are likely to spread further abuse in the organization (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001). Therefore, the overall working environment suffers and relationship quality is highly affected.

H2: Abusive supervisions will be negatively associated with leader member exchange.

2.3 Mediation of LMX

The presence of abusive supervision may suffer the quality of leader member exchange which in turn can affect the level of contextual performance of employees (Xu, Huang, Lam and Miao, 2012). It has been indicated by the researchers that high LMX leads to a trusting relationship between leader and members and trust acts as an ingredient to foster prosocial behavior of employees (Tepper, Duffy and Shaw, 2001). Along with this, when there is no abusive supervision and there exist better quality relationship between leaders and members then the employees are highly motivated to participate in extra role behaviors by considering the welfare of organization as their obligatory responsibility. Likewise, it is note able that high quality relationship as a result of respectful supervision can grant high access to resources of organization and privileged employees can invest significantly in the jobs (Thau et al., 2009). The high LMX employees are likely to have higher level of engagement in their respective group and they will monitor the behaviour of their supervisor and in turn will more likely be engaged in sense making processes (Wu and Hu, 2009). Consequently, the learning of employees will increase and it will lead to their engagement in prosocial behaviour. It has also been predicted by moral exclusion theory that abusive supervision is likely to impact the perceptions of relationship between leader and member and it has negative association with performance related motivation of employees. The moral exclusion theory suggests a complicated set of relationship targeting mediating effect of leader member exchange between abusive supervision and contextual performance. Therefore, it can be argued that relationship quality of leader and member has the potential to shape extra role behaviour of employees in the presence of abusive supervision.

H3: The leader members exchange will mediate association of abusive supervision with contextual performance of employees.

2.Research Questions

1. How can abusive supervision be linked with contextual performance of employees?
2. What is the association of abusive supervision with LMX?
3. To what extent LMX is mediating the association of abusive supervision and contextual performance of employees?

3.Research Aim/Objectives

The aim of current study is to investigate the outcomes of abusive supervision in organization within the context of contextual performance of employees in the presence of leader member’s exchange.

The present study will contribute to achievement of following key objectives:

1. To investigate the association of abusive supervision with contextual performance of employees.
2. To highlight the association of abusive supervision with leader member exchange.
3. To investigate the mediation of leader member exchange between abusive supervision and contextual performance of employees.

4.Research Methodology

Among the available research design the research has the discretion to choose from primary and secondary research. The primary data collection method pertain to collection of fresh hand data in which data is collected specifically for the underlying research purpose. While the secondary data has already been collected by other sources and it can be implied for investigating any research issue depending upon its relevance, and reliability of source (Miller and Salkind, 2002). The present research study will imply primary data collection method. The primary data collection method is considered as appropriate as it has higher level of relevance with underlying research issue. The primary data has higher level of compliance with the objectives and scope of the research and researcher has significant control over the data, therefore, biases could be controlled effectively (Ramamurthy, 2011). The recency aspects of primary data has made it more significant to be used by the researcher as it has higher level of accuracy for current research. Finally, the primary data is being owned by the researcher and the need for sharing data is reduced, making the study more viable and unique (Rovai, Baker and Ponton, 2013). The mentioned benefits of primary data has motivated the researcher to pursue primary data collection method for present research.  

The generalizability of the study depends upon the selection of effective research approach. Under primary research design, there are two available alternatives which can be pursued by the researcher including; quantitative and qualitative. Among the qualitative design the interviews, focus group and observation can be applied with an aim of carrying out in depth investigation of an underlying phenomenon (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). While the quantitative design is well pursued through questionnaires. The survey is considered as an appropriate method of research in social sciences and it has widely been adopted by the leading researchers (Schwab, 2013). The present research will be conducted in the actual setting of the organization with minimum interference of the researcher. It will indicate that results of the study will be free of bias. In present research study the researcher will focus on quantitative design and data will be obtained in the form of numbers and figures which will be further tested by using empirical analysis (Schwartz-Shea and Yanow, 2013). The variables will be quantified and there will be minimum interference of the research which will allow to lower the biasness and will enhance the accuracy of the results. It is also notable that reliance on quantitative methodology leads to more reliable results and it also contributes in raising the generalizability of results. Thus, the selection of quantitative research can considered as widely effective, valid and reliable. 

5.Sampling       

Population: The population of current study will be comprised of manufacturing firms of London United Kingdom. The reason for selecting this population lies in the fact that manufacturing companies have wider need to manage their human resources in effective way due to direct association of employee’s skills and performance of organization. The investigation of abusive supervision and its association with LMX and contextual performance of employees will lead the way towards reduction of aggressive and hostile behavior within organization and it will offer guidelines for fostering positive working environment within organization. Therefore, the underlying population is highly relevant and findings of study will have huge implications for focal firms.

Sampling techniques: The choice of effective sampling technique is evident to choose subset of individuals or firms from the whole population.  It is note able that there are two available sampling methods including probability and non-probability sampling technique (Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin, 2012). The probability sampling method is recognized by the notion that each unit of population have chance to be selected, while in non-probability sampling method, the chances for being the part of sample are not equal for all units of population. The present research will consider two stage sampling. At the first stage probability sampling technique will be implied. Among probability sampling, simple random sampling will be selected. While at second stage, convenience sampling technique will be implied from non-probability sampling method. The simple random sampling allows random selection of sub set of population where each unit has equal chance to be selected. The randomization brings diversity the chosen sample becomes actual representative of population. The manufacturing companies listed in London stock exchange will provide sampling frame for the current study and among those firms, the 20 different companies will be chosen randomly. At the next stage, the prospects of accessibility will be observed and 10 most conveniently approachable organization will be chosen.

Sample Size: From the 10 companies chosen, the 350 employees will be selected randomly for participating in present research. The selection of 350 respondents is an appropriate sample size for present study as stated by Yu and Cooper (1983), the sample greater than 300 is considered as large sample.

6.Accessibility

The accessibility of the participants will be ensured before making final selection of manufacturing companies. The consent of firms will be taken by contacting the authority figures of personnel management department and email addresses of employees will be obtained. The respondents will be further accessed through internet and it will not require physical travelling.

7.Data Collection

In present research, the closed ended survey will be administered through internet with an aim of finding association between abusive supervision and contextual performance. The questionnaire will be prepared on Google Docs and it will be administered through internet by approaching email addresses of participants. The survey questionnaire will be developed in the language which has higher level of understandability by the respondents. It is evident that survey may be exposed to extreme response bias, therefore the negatively worded items will be included in survey with an aim of reducing biasness. Along with this, the social desirability bias could also be overcome by encompassing negatively worded items. Moreover, it is evident form prior researches that response rate could be low in online survey, therefore, reminders will be sent to participants with an aim of encouraging higher response rate.

8.Data Analysis

Hierarchical Regression: To test afore mentioned hypotheses hierarchical regression analysis will be used to investigate the likely impact of one variable over another. Hierarchical Regression analysis is considered as an appropriate statistical method for investigating the significance of relationship among variables. Therefore, it will be chosen for analysing quantitative data obtained in present research.

Assumptions: There are different assumptions which are needed to be examined before applying hierarchical regression. An investigation of correlations will be carried out to reveal that whether independent variables are highly correlated or not with an aim of investigating the assumption of multicollinearity. An examination of the z scores will be carried out to indicate absence of outliers. It will ensure the assumption of normality which is necessary for applying regression analysis. Along with this, the assumption of heteroscedasticity will be investigated by applying Herman single factor test. The investigation of relevant assumptions will enhance validity of the results.

Reliability and Validity: The reliability of the scales will be investigated by the Cronbach alpha (α). According to Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin (2012), the minimum threshold value for reliability coefficient is 0.7, which reflect that reliability coefficient greater than 0.7 is acceptable, while greater than 0.8 is good and above 09 is exceptional. The higher values of Cronbach’s alpha indicates that constructs are consistently reliable and they will generate same results over time. In the light of these perspectives, the Cronbach’s Alpha (α) will be used to test the internal consistent reliability of the scales being used in current research. Along with this, the validity of scale is also important to consider for ensuring the generalizability of the study in wider settings. The scale used in the study were already used in various studies around the globe. There is no need to establish validity, if the well-validated measures are used for the study (Schwab, 2013).

Test of mediation: The mediation will be tested by using bootstrapping methodology of Hayes (2013) bootstrapping procedure (5000 iterations, bias-corrected, 95% Confidence Intervals (CI)) was used. The bootstrapping approach helps to avoid problems in different asymmetric and non-normal distributions of indirect effect. Hayes (2013) has provided a macro in SPSS to assess the mediation hypothesis directly by a bootstrap approach.

9.Ethical Issues

The ethical concerns are important to consider while conducting research with an aim of complying with required research regulations. To begin with, the consent of respondents will be obtained about their participation in study and they will be offered necessary information about procedure and expected outcomes of study. The deception of human subjects will not be carried out to obtain their consent. The research participants will be offered discretion to discontinue from the study at any time and they will not be coerced in any manner. Moreover, the confidentiality of the respondents will be ensured and their personal information will not be obtained. The privacy of participants will not be breached by the outcomes of the research. The participants will be debriefed about the actual contribution of their responses in the study. The results of the present study will not harm the focal research organizations or individuals in any manner.

10.Significance

The present research is highly significant for both theory and practice. In terms of theoretical significance, the literature of contextual performance and leader members exchange will be well supplemented by the views of abusive supervision. The antecedents of leader members exchange have not offered due placing to abusive supervision within organization and therefore, current study’s results will serve the purpose. The practitioners can also gain insight of detrimental effects of abusive supervision on the overall working relationship and extra role performance of employees. The managers can be made aware of adverse consequences of their negative treatment on intra unit social interaction that is damaging the interpersonal relations. Given this view, the organizations can arrange training session for their managerial level staff with an aim of enhancing their understanding about the effect of their sensitive treatment on prosocial behaviour of employees. Along with this, the positive working environment can be promoted within organization to discourage negative and abusive treatment with organizational members.

11.Deliverables

The current study will suggest that abusive supervision has negative association with leader member exchange and contextual performance of employees. It will offer an evidence that abusive supervision has detrimental effects on relationship quality of supervisors and subordinates. The destroyed affective relationships can hinder the prosocial behavior of employees and they may reduce their efforts to get engage in extra role behaviors. The current research will suggest that abusive supervision can have destructive effects on overall performance or organization by restricting positive employee related outcomes such as contextual performance of employees. Along with this, the study is also expected to generate outcomes that leader member exchange will mediate the association of abusive supervision with contextual performance of employees.

12.Required Resources

The present research will require significant time of researcher to carry out underlying research activities. The respondents will be contacted through email and internet, therefore no travelling expense will be incurred. In terms of intangible resources, the continual guidance and support of supervisor will be required with an aim of complying with research standards.

 

13.Time Table

Time Scale: 2016	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Activities
Literature Review
Preparation
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Write Up of dissertation

 

 

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