실제 조직에는 긍정적, 부정적 리더 행동이 모두 존재함에도 불구하고, 전통적으로 리더십 연구는 효과적인 리더십에 초 점을 맞추어왔다. 약 20여 년 전부터 파괴적ㆍ부정적 리더 행동의 하나인 상사의 모욕적 행동이 많은 연구관심을 받아왔 으나 주로 결과에 초점을 둠에 따라 상사의 모욕적 행동에 영향을 미치는 선행요인에 대한 이해가 제한된 실정이다. 본 연구는 선행연구들의 한계를 극복하기 위해 상사의 성격 특성인 성실성과 친화성, 상황요인인 차 상위 상사의 지원을 상 사의 모욕적 행동의 선행요인으로 제시하고 이를 확인하고자 하였다. 실증연구 결과 상사의 친화성 및 차 상위 상사의 지 원은 부하가 지각하는 상사의 모욕적 행동에 유의미한 부적 관계를 가지는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 상호작용효과에 대한 검증 결과 차 상위 상사의 지원 수준이 낮은 경우 상사의 친화성과 상사의 모욕적 행동 간의 부적관계가 강하게 나타나는 반면, 차 상위 상사의 지원 수준이 높은 경우에는 상사의 친화성과 상사의 모욕적 행동 간의 관계가 유의미하지 않았다. 그러나 상사의 성실성의 경우 상사의 모욕적 행동에 대한 직접효과 및 차 상위 상사 지원과의 상호작용효과가 나타나지 않았다. 본 연구는 크게 네 가지의 시사점을 가지고 있다. 첫째, 상사의 모욕적 행동에 대한 선행요인을 살펴보았다는 것이다. 이 는 상사의 모욕적 행동의 결과에 초점을 둔 선행연구들의 한계를 보완하는데 기여하는 것이다. 둘째, 상사의 성격 특성인 친화성이 상사의 모욕적 행동을 예측하는데 중요한 선행요인이라는 것을 밝혔다. 즉, 친화성이 높은 상사일수록 부하들에 게 모욕적 행동을 덜 하는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 차 상위 상사의 지원이 상사의 모욕적 행동에 미치는 부적효과를 검증 함으로써 주로 상사와 부하와의 관계에 초점을 둔 기존의 연구 관점을 차 상위 상사 수준까지 확장시키고자 하였다. 넷 째, 상사의 모욕적 행동에 대한 상사의 친화성과 차 상위 상사 지원의 상호작용효과를 밝힘으로써 조직 차원에서 상사의 모욕적 행동의 표출 가능성을 줄일 수 있는 방안을 제시 하였다.
Lately, researchers have paid increasing attention to negative or destructive side of supervisory behavior, i.e. abusive supervision. Studies on abusive supervision mainly focused on the results of abusive supervision. However, there are not many studies that examined the antecedents of abusive supervision. Recognizing this issue, our study examined the antecedents of abusive supervision in order to enhance our understanding of abusive supervision. Especially, we examined the effects of supervisor’s personality traits and supervisor’s perception of support from his/her manager on abusive supervision. Applying social exchange theory and trait activation theory, we developed and empirically tested the following hypotheses: H 1: Supervisor’s conscientiousness is negatively related to abusive supervision. H 2: Supervisor’s agreeableness is negatively related to abusive supervision. H 3: Supervisor’s perception of support from his/her manager is negatively related to his/her own abusive supervision. H 4a: Supervisor’s perception of support from his/her manager moderates the negative relationship between supervisor’s conscientiousness and abusive supervision such that the relationship is stronger when support perception is low than when support perception is high. H 4b: Supervisor’s perception of support from his/her manager moderates the negative relationship between supervisor’s agreeableness and abusive supervision such that the relationship is stronger when support perception is low than when support perception is high. Survey packages were distributed to 178 pairs of platoon leaders and their immediate subordinate, deputy platoon leaders and 160 were returned. Among those, 111 dyadic data were used for analysis. Platoon leaders’ questionnaires included their own conscientiousness, agreeableness, and support perception (i.e., company commander’s support) while deputy platoon leaders measured platoon leaders’ abusive supervision. The results indicated that supervisor’s agreeableness and perception of support from his/ her direct manger were negatively related to abusive supervision, as expected. Also, we found that the relationship between supervisor’s agreeableness and abusive supervision was stronger when supervisor perception of support from his/her manger was low. However, there was no significant relationship between supervisor’s conscientiousness and abusive supervision and no significant interaction between supervisor’s conscientiousness and supervisor perception of support from his/her manger. In summary, Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4b were supported. This research has theoretical and practical implications. First, our results suggested that supervisor’s agreeableness and his/her support perception played a significant role in determining abusive supervision. In addition, our findings revealed that abusive supervision was influenced by the interaction of supervisor’s agreeableness and support perception. These findings implied that although supervisor’s low agreeableness leads to hostile act toward his/her subordinates, it produces abusive supervision only among supervisors who perceive support in low. In other words, managers played critical role reducing the abusive supervision. This research is not free from limitations. First, the cross-sectional research design precluded any inference of causality. Second, data were obtained from the Republic of Korea army so the extent of generalizability of our findings to other organizations and other culture contexts remains an empirical question. Third, there was no significant relationship between supervisor’s conscientiousness and abusive supervision. Future research should repeat our study using narrow measure of conscientiousness (e.g., duty & achievement striving) in order to more fully understand the relationship between conscientiousness and abusive supervision. Finally, our study examined the limited variables as antecedents. Future research should examine various variables, including moderators, which are expected to influence abusive supervision.