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Predictors of Abusive Supervision
Article Critique - Unit 3
Columbia Southern University

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In Predictors of Abusive Supervision: Supervisor Perceptions of Deep-Level
Dissimilarity, Relationship Conflict, and Subordinate Performance, authors Tepper, Moss, and
Duffy conduct a study on their hypothesis of predictors for supervisor abuse toward subordinates. Abusive supervision costs companies and the victims as much as 23.8 billion dollars a year in increased health care, employee turnover, and production loss. (Tepper, Moss, &
Duffy, 2011) Using the moral exclusion theories of perceived dissimilarity of employees, conflicts with employees, and the usefulness of employees, as their base ideas, they also bring into their study the performance evaluations given to subordinates by their supervisors and how they relate to the other predictors. Although the authors focus on relationship conflict and low performance evaluations as the predictors of abuse, I propose that it is actually usefulness to the supervisor and perceived dissimilarity that leads relationship conflicts and low evaluations to occur. Tepper, Moss, & Duffy (2011) propose that perceived dissimilarity is not the cause of abusive behavior, but instead it is perceived relationship conflict and low performance evaluations that lead to perceived dissimilarity. The low performance evaluations are what cause most employees to report supervisor abuse, which include “undermining, public denigration, and explosive outbursts.” (Tepper et al.,2011,p.279) In their study, they consider many differences that can be the cause of perceived dissimilarity, from outward reasons such as race, gender, and age to inward motives of personality, attitudes, and values. (Tepper et al.,2011) They

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go on to point out that this perceived dissimilarity creates feelings of indifference and prevents them from being connected to the victim. In the moral exclusion study that the Tepper, Moss, &
Duffy (2011) use as their base concepts, Opotow (1990a, 1995) finds that we can predict abuse by the level of dissimilarity that the supervisor feels toward the victim. However, Tepper et al. state that recent diversity studies of the workplace may not reflect this viewpoint, instead the abuse can be predicted through perceived relationship conflict that follows with a low performance evaluation, which leads to perceived deep-level dissimilarity.
In my opinion it seems more likely that the supervisor’s behavior toward an employee is equally determined by how valuable the employee is to them and the supervisor’s perceived dissimilarity, or prejudice, of the employee. As the authors point out, “People categorize others as similar or dissimilar and demonstrate favoritism toward similar others and derogation toward dissimilar others” (Tepper et al.,2011,p.281). This prejudice may cause supervisors to treat certain employees poorly through discrimination. The authors also conclude that perceived deep-level dissimilarity is greater when the supervisors believe that the victim of their abuse is not as useful or valuable to them and the company (Tepper et al.,2011). Furthermore, according to the moral exclusion study, low performers may cause the supervisor to look bad and take up their time in damage control, thus they are seen as less useful (Tepper et al.,2011).
Although Tepper, Moss, & Duffy (2011) began their study with one proposed theory, the results indicated that the moral exclusion study, and my personal view point, are more accurate for predicting supervisor abuse behavior. As they state on page 88, “we found that even after we
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accounted for the effects of supervisor perceptions of relationship conflict and subordinate performance, and their interaction, supervisor perceptions of deep-level dissimilarity remained a significant predictor of abusive supervision. (Tepper et al.,2011). They also concluded that relationship conflict followed by perceived dissimilarity was only valid when the supervisor considered the subordinate to be a low performer, and therefore, less useful (Tepper et al.,2011).

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Reference

Tepper, B.J., Moss, S.E., Duffy, M.K. (2011). Predictors of Abusive Supervision: Supervisor
Perceptions of Deep-level Dissimilarity, Relationship Conflict, and Subordinate
Performance. Academy of Management Journal. 54(2), 279-294.