Employees' feedback-seeking strategies and perceptions of abusive supervision

Abstract

I investigated the relationship between the strategies (inquiry and monitoring) employees use in the context of feedback-seeking behavior (FSB), and their perception of abusive supervision. Participants were 187 employees with various occupations, from whom survey data were collected in two waves. Empirical results indicate that inquiry FSB was negatively related to the perception of abusive supervision, whereas monitoring FSB was positively related to the perception of abusive supervision. Many studies have shown that FSB positively influences employees. However, I found that FSB does not necessarily benefit supervisors; rather, the strategies used need to be considered in examining the outcomes of FSB. My findings enrich the literature on subordinate-related predictors of abusive supervision, which have received relatively little prior research attention.