Abusive supervision in public service organisations: investigating the moderating effect of attribution styles

ABSTRACT

This study explores how abusive supervision impacts employee turnover intention and performance and examines how attribution styles moderate the relationship in public service organisations. Data were collected from five types of public service organisations in Indonesia (i.e., municipal offices, hospitals, police offices, social security offices, and schools) using a multi-wave longitudinal survey method with a five-workday interval. After removing incomplete responses and participants with careless responses, 369 participants were included in the analysis. The data were analysed using Hayes’ moderated-mediation regression technique. This study confirmed that abusive supervision indirectly reduced performance by increasing turnover intention. However, three attribution styles (i.e., self-, supervisor-, and organisation-directed) showed different moderating effects on the relationship. Self- and organisation-directed attribution could intensify the positive impact of abusive supervision on turnover intention. The negative impact of abusive supervision on performance was observed when supervisor-directed attribution was low.

KEYWORDS:

• Abusive supervision
• attribution styles
• performance
• public services
• and turnover intention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to some restrictions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (the ethical clearance was approved by Universitas Tadulako, No. 2956/UN28.1.13) and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Abdul Kadir

Abdul Kadir is an associate professor of public administration science at Halu Oleo University, Indonesia. In the last three years, his studies have focused on investigating human resources in public service organisations. Many of his recent works also investigate the role of leadership in public service organisations and developing services in public organisations.

Hillman Wirawan

Hillman Wirawan is a current PhD student in the School of Psychology at Deakin University, Australia. Also, he is a lecturer of organisational psychology in the Department of Psychology, Universitas Hasanuddin. He has published some works in leadership, including toxic leadership in public organisations. His current research projects primarily focus on understanding abusive supervisory behaviours in different organisations and cultures.

Rudi Salam

Rudi Salam is an associate professor of administration sciences at Universitas Negeri Makassar. Apart from his role as a lecturer, he is also a current PhD student at Universitas Brawijaya studying business resilience in the hospitality industry. His current works cover various topics in administration sciences, including leadership, strategy, marketing, and organisational behaviours.

Syahruddin Hattab

Syahruddin Hattab is a professor of public administration at the faculty of social and political sciences, Universitas Tadulako, Indonesia. As a lecturer in public service organisations, he teaches various courses such as leadership, organisational behaviours, human resource management, and public service policy. One of his current studies about toxic leadership has been published in the international journal of public sector management.

Daswati Daswati

Daswati Daswati is a professor of public administration at the faculty of social and political sciences, Universitas Tadulako, Indonesia. She has seriously investigated leadership and employee career in public sector organisations. Cogent social sciences have published her current work about career engagement in Indonesian public service organisations.