Destructive forms of leadership

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and employee health and safety outcomes in Study 1 and to examine the effect of inconsistent leadership, operationalized as the interaction between transformational leadership and supervisor incivility, on employee safety participation in Study 2. Design/methodology/approach In Study 1, survey data were gathered from n=145 healthcare workers. In Study 2, survey data were gathered from n=177 nurses. Findings A partially mediated structural model was estimated in Study 1 and the results show that the model provided a good fit to the data χ2 (1)=1.27, p=0.23. Abusive supervision predicted safety climate (β=−0.41, p<0.01) and psychological health (β=−0.27, p<0.01). Safety climate, in turn, predicted psychological health (β= 0.40, p<0.01) and safety participation (β= 0.37, p<0.01). Study 2: moderated regression analysis showed that inconsistent leadership significantly predicted employee safety participation, F(5,144)=4.46, p<0.01. Originality/value Theoretical and practical implications for creating psychologically healthy workplaces through interventions aimed at improving leader effectiveness are discussed.