Abusive supervision and subordinate problem drinking: Taking resistance, stress and subordinate personality into account

Abstract

We test hypotheses derived from two alternative perspectives regarding the association between supervisory abuse and subordinate problem drinking. Drawing from the employee resistance literature, we examine the degree to which such an association may be sensitive to variation in subordinate personality. Drawing from the stress literature, we examine the degree to which this association may be mediated by somatic stress. Multi-source data from 1473 blue-collar workers employed in 55 work units, indicates that while the main effect of abusive supervision on problem drinking is attenuated under conditions of high subordinate conscientiousness and agreeableness (consistent with a resistance-based explanation), the main effect is not mediated by somatic stress.