Dealing with an abusive boss in China

Purpose This study aims to examine how reward expectancy mediates the effect of abusive supervision on organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, drawing upon regulatory focus theory, this paper proposes and tests the moderating role of promotion focus in the proposed mediating effect. Design/methodology/approach Both hierarchical regression and PROCESS macro are conducted to analyze longitudinal data collected from 142 MBA students in different industries in the People’s Republic of China. Findings Results reveal that abusive supervision was negatively related to both organization-directed citizenship behavior (OCBO) and individual-directed citizenship behavior (OCBI) through undermining individual reward expectancies. Results also show that promotion focus moderated the negative effect of abusive supervision on reward expectancy, such that the relationship was stronger when promotion focus was higher. In addition, the indirect effect of abusive supervision on OCBO and OCBI carried through reward expectancy was also stronger among individuals with higher promotion focus. Originality/value It contributes to the literature on abusive supervision by offering a new perspective regarding the mechanism of abusive supervision influence on organizational citizenship behavior. The findings thus shed insights into cognitions and motivations that are associated with organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, it is the first to link abusive supervision with regulatory focus theory to examine the decrease of organizational citizenship behavior.