How abusive supervisors influence employees’ voice and silence: The effects of interactional justice and organizational attribution

Abstract

In this research we investigated the influence of abusive supervision on employees’ prosocial voice and silence, as well as clarified the roles of interactional justice (as a mediator) and organizational attribution (as a moderator). Moreover, we examined a mediated moderating model stipulating that interactional justice mediated the moderating effect of organizational attribution on the focal relationship. A scenario experiment was employed in Study 1, and after analyzing data from 196 employees, we found that abusive supervision influenced employees’ prosocial voice and silence via interactional justice. In Study 2, data were collected from 379 employees in two waves separated by 1 week. The results not only replicated the findings of Study 1 but also indicated that organizational attribution buffered the abusive supervision-voice and silence relationship, and that interactional justice mediated this moderating effect.