The Journal of applied psychology
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Fundamental to the definition of abusive supervision is the notion that subordinates are often victims of a pattern of mistreatment (Tepper, 2000). However, little research has examined the processes through which such destructive relational patterns emerge. In this study, we draw from and extend the multimotive model of reactions to interpersonal threat (Smart Richman & Leary, 2009) to formulate and test hypotheses about how employees' emotional and behavioral responses may ameliorate or worsen supervisors' abuse. ⋯ Results revealed reciprocal relationships between abusive supervision and both supervisor-directed counterproductive behavior and supervisor-directed avoidance. Whereas the abusive supervision--counterproductive behavior relationship was partially driven by anger, the abusive supervision--avoidance relationship was partially mediated by fear. These findings suggest that some may find themselves in abusive relationships, in part, because their own reactions to mistreatment can, perhaps unknowingly, reinforce abusive behavior.
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Although interdependence is a central aspect of team design, there has been a lack of clarity regarding the meaning and impact of different forms of interdependence. To provide theoretical clarity and to advance research on team interdependence, we develop an organizing, conceptual framework of interdependence in teams and test it using meta-analysis. We first review and tie together different conceptualizations of interdependence in the literature and illustrate how they converge around 2 major constructs: task interdependence and outcome interdependence. ⋯ We test these differential effects using a meta-analytic database of 107 independent samples and 7,563 teams. The meta-analytic path model provides strong support for our hypotheses. Implications and future directions for the study of interdependence in work teams are discussed.