Abusive supervision, employee well-being and ill-being: The moderating role of core self-evaluations

Purpose - This chapter investigates the relationship between abusive supervision and employee well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, engagement) and ill-being (i.e., burnout, workaholism) and examines whether follower core self-evaluations (CSE) moderate this relationship. Methodology/approach - The study uses cross-sectional survey data collected from 111 professional employees across a range of industry sectors. Findings - Results show that abusive supervision is negatively related to employee well-being (i.e., engagement and job satisfaction) and positively related to employee ill-being, namely burnout. In addition, employees low in CSE are less engaged and less satisfied than employees high in CSE. Research limitations/implications - The study's cross-sectional design limits the strength of its conclusions. Practical implications - This chapter notes the ethical and legal obligations of organizations to provide a safe working environment and identifies the policies and procedures that will signal a commitment to employee well-being. Originality/value - The study contributes to the leadership and wellbeing literatures by exploring the influence of abusive leaders on follower well-being and engagement. It also goes beyond merely identifying correlations between leadership style and follower well-being outcomes to investigate how leader and follower attributes can combine to influence these outcomes.