Abusive supervision in public service organisations: investigating the moderating effect of attribution styles

Abstract

This study explores how abusive supervision impacts employee turnover intention and performance and examines how attribution styles moderate the relationship in public service organisations. Data were collected from five types of public service organisations in Indonesia (i.e., municipal offices, hospitals, police offices, social security offices, and schools) using a multi-wave longitudinal survey method with a five-workday interval. After removing incomplete responses and participants with careless responses, 369 participants were included in the analysis. The data were analysed using Hayes’ moderated-mediation regression technique. This study confirmed that abusive supervision indirectly reduced performance by increasing turnover intention. However, three attribution styles (i.e., self-, supervisor-, and organisation-directed) showed different moderating effects on the relationship. Self- and organisation-directed attribution could intensify the positive impact of abusive supervision on turnover intention. The negative impact of abusive supervision on performance was observed when supervisor-directed attribution was low.

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