Perceived Abusive Supervision and Service Performance: An Attachment Theory Perspective

This study examines why and when perceived abusive supervision can impair employees’ service performance. Drawing on attachment theory, we propose that perceptions of abusive supervision can induce employees’ attachment insecurity at work (attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety) and thus undermine employees’ service performance. We also propose that trust in coworkers helps mitigate the link between perceptions of abusive supervision and employees’ attachment insecurity at work. The hypothesized relationships are examined in two studies. The first study consists of a sample of 176 healthcare professionals recruited from Prolific for a three-wave survey. The second study consisted of a sample of 255 nurses and 35 supervisors from 33 Romanian hospitals for a multisource three-wave survey. Results consistently reveal that abusive supervision is positively related to attachment avoidance, which in turn is negatively related to service performance. Moreover, coworker trust moderates the association between abusive supervision and attachment avoidance and thus mitigates the mediation chain from abusive supervision, via attachment avoidance, to service performance. This research offers a new perspective to understanding the consequences of abusive supervision for service performance and underscores the importance of trusting relations among coworkers for coping with abusive supervision.