ABSTRACT
Building upon prior work in the fields of workplace occupational health and leadership, this study examined the antecedents and consequences of leadership aggression in the workplace, Specifically, this study was concerned with understanding the dark side dispositions as predictors of abusive supervision and supervisor ostracism, as well as the outcomes of such aggression on subordinates' emotional affect. Using an approach-avoidance framework and socio-analytic theory, this study proposed that leaders' composite scores on "moving against others" or "approach" personality dispositions would be related to abusive supervision, whereas leaders' composite scores on "moving away from others" or "avoidance" personality tendencies would be related to supervisor ostracism. The moderating role of leaders' self-control in the relationship between these personality dispositions and leadership aggression constructs was also examined. Past research has found a relationship between leadership aggression constructs and specific subordinate emotions. For example, Ferris et al. (2016) found that subordinates experienced the emotions of 'anger' or 'anxiety' depending upon the specific supervisor aggression (abusive supervision or supervisor ostracism) experienced. This research study expanded upon these findings by examining the personality antecedents of these supervisor aggression constructs. Since Hogan Development Survey (HDS;2009) supports the underlying factor structure of "moving away from people", "moving towards people" and "moving against people" (Horney, 1950), it was the most appropriate assessment to measure approach (or "moving against") and avoidance (or "moving away") tendencies. Additionally, socio-analytic theory (R. Hogan, 1996) states that such tendencies manifest under conditions of poor self-regulation. Therefore, this study also examined the moderating role of trait self-control in the relationship between leaders' personality dispositions and leadership aggression. The moderating role of subordinates' causal attribution tendencies in the relationship between subordinates' experiences of supervisor aggression (abusive supervision and supervisor ostracism) and emotional outcomes of anger and anxiety was also tested. Specifically, the study proposed that the relationship between abusive supervision and anger would be stronger for individuals with low versus high performance promotion tendencies. Alternatively, the relationship would be weaker for individuals with low versus high injury initiation attribution tendencies. For supervisor ostracism, it was proposed that low harm-inducing motive attributions will result in a stronger relationship between supervisor ostracism and anxiety. The proposed hypotheses were tested through a multi-source dyadic model where leaders and subordinate dyads were recruited via Amazon's Mturk platform. Results revealed that "moving against others" was positively related to abusive supervision. A moderating effect of "moving away from others", self-control and supervisor ostracism was evidenced, however, it was not in the anticipated direction. While moderation effects for causal attribution tendency were not found, the results demonstrated main effects in the direction proposed. Limitations of this study included low sample size, use of Mturk data and a Covid-19 history effect among others. Even so, it provided important implications in understanding how leaders' dark side personality may impact subordinates' perception of leadership aggression. Understanding these relationships provided a first step in helping leaders manage such tendencies. Future research should replicate this model in field settings and under more stable organizational conditions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)