This study seeks to explore how abusive supervision impacts each component of work engagement (i.e. vigor, dedication, and absorption) through the role of job insecurity and cognitive demand of flexible work (CDFW).
To test the hypotheses, a total of 346 participants were recruited from a range of organizations and backgrounds via social media platforms (e.g. Facebook) and trained research assistants. The surveys were administered using multi-phase data collection with a one-week interval between surveys.
The findings indicated that abusive supervision directly reduced vigor and dedication, or indirectly through the mediating role of job insecurity. These partial mediating mechanisms were determined by CDFW, in which the direct negative effects of abusive supervision on vigor and dedication were stronger when CDFW was lower and weaker when CDFW was higher. However, abusive supervision and job insecurity did not significantly influence absorption.
This study has informed researchers about the differing effects of abusive supervision on the three components of work engagement and how employees use their cognitive resources and strategies to mitigate the consequences of abusive supervision on various components of work engagement.
To mitigate the emergence of abusive supervision, organizations should provide training for their leaders on delivering constructive feedback and for employees on the effective arrangement of flexible work.
This study is one of the few to examine the impact of CDFW on the associations between abusive supervision and each component of work engagement.
