Purpose
Drawing on activation theory, this paper aims to examine the process through which abusive supervision influences job-oriented constructive deviance (JCD) in the hospitality industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are collected from 198 employees working with 34 supervisors, at three time points across four hotel groups in Macau. The instantaneous indirect effect and moderated curvilinear effect using established measures are tested.
Findings
First, abusive supervision was positively associated with hotel employees’ job dissatisfaction and their job dissatisfaction had an inverted curvilinear effect on JCD. Second, job dissatisfaction nonlinearly mediated the impact of abusive supervision on JCD. Third, high problem-focused coping decelerated the diminishing benefits of job dissatisfaction on JCD.
Practical implications
First, organizations should accept employees’ constructive deviance but suppress managers’ abusive supervision. Second, organizations need to improve employees’ problem-focused coping skills and channel job dissatisfaction into constructive and active behaviors.
Originality/value
Theoretically, the authors test a nonlinearly mediating and moderated curvilinear model and address the research concern on whether, why and how service employees decide to engage in positive deviant behaviors when encountering abusive supervision. Practically, the authors avoid concluding that moderate levels of abusive supervision can promote positive employee behaviors and refrain from justification of abusive supervision in the hospitality context.
