A hurting embrace does not last long: toxicity of abusive supervision erodes leader and organizational identification to cause turnover intention

Abstract

PurposeThe study aims to investigate the mediating roles of leadership identification and organizational identification linking abusive supervision to employees' turnover intention.Design/methodology/approachUsing a self-administer survey design, data were collected from 229 nursing workforce employed in hospitals located in Karachi.FindingsThe research findings show that abusive supervision has a considerably positive influence on turnover intention. The findings also show that abusive supervision negatively affects nurses' leadership identification and organizational identification. Leadership identification and organizational identification were found to be negatively related to nurses' turnover intention. Finally, leadership identification and organizational identification were found to parallelly mediate the relationship between abusive supervision and turnover intention.Originality/valueThis study helped uncover the previously unknown parallel mediating mechanism of organizational identification and leadership identification. Additionally, abusive supervision was found to negatively affect employees' leadership identification.