Righting a wrong: Retaliation on a voodoo doll symbolizing an abusive supervisor restores justice

Lindie H. Liang; Douglas J. Brown; Huiwen Lian; Samuel Hanig; D. Lance Ferris; Lisa M. Keeping

doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.01.004

Righting a wrong: Retaliation on a voodoo doll symbolizing an abusive supervisor restores justice

Lindie H. Liang
, Douglas J. Brown
, Huiwen Lian
, Samuel Hanig
, D. Lance Ferris
, Lisa M. Keeping

Management

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

50 Scopus citations

Abstract

When a subordinate receives abusive treatment from a supervisor, a natural response is to retaliate against the supervisor. Although retaliation is dysfunctional and should be discouraged, we examine the potential functional role retaliation plays in terms of alleviating the negative consequences of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. Based on the notion that retaliation following mistreatment can restore justice for victims, we propose a model whereby retaliation following abusive supervision alleviates the negative effect of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. In two experimental studies (Study 1 and 2), whereby we manipulated abusive supervision and subordinate symbolic retaliation—in particular, harming a voodoo doll that represents the abusive supervisor—we found general support for our predictions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	443-456
Number of pages	14
Journal	Leadership Quarterly
Volume	29
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.01.004
State	Published - Aug 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.

Funding

We thank the following individuals for their assistance with the data collection: Raina Armstrong, Rachel Morrison, Kiya Fu, Judit Szabo, Beiji Xiong, and Mi Feng. We also thank Rochelle Evans for her feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. We are grateful to the Editor in Chief, John Antonakis, for his considerable editorial and statistical guidance on this project. This research is supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71771133 ) awarded to the first author, and a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council awarded to the second author (Grant No. 435-2014-0353 ).

Funders	Funder number
Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada	435-2014-0353
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)	71771133

Keywords

Abusive supervision
Justice
Retaliation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Business and International Management
Applied Psychology
Sociology and Political Science
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Access to Document

10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.01.004

Cite this

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abstract = "When a subordinate receives abusive treatment from a supervisor, a natural response is to retaliate against the supervisor. Although retaliation is dysfunctional and should be discouraged, we examine the potential functional role retaliation plays in terms of alleviating the negative consequences of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. Based on the notion that retaliation following mistreatment can restore justice for victims, we propose a model whereby retaliation following abusive supervision alleviates the negative effect of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. In two experimental studies (Study 1 and 2), whereby we manipulated abusive supervision and subordinate symbolic retaliation—in particular, harming a voodoo doll that represents the abusive supervisor—we found general support for our predictions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.",

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note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Elsevier Inc.",

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AU - Liang, Lindie H.

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AU - Lian, Huiwen

AU - Hanig, Samuel

AU - Ferris, D. Lance

AU - Keeping, Lisa M.

PY - 2018/8

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AB - When a subordinate receives abusive treatment from a supervisor, a natural response is to retaliate against the supervisor. Although retaliation is dysfunctional and should be discouraged, we examine the potential functional role retaliation plays in terms of alleviating the negative consequences of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. Based on the notion that retaliation following mistreatment can restore justice for victims, we propose a model whereby retaliation following abusive supervision alleviates the negative effect of abusive supervision on subordinate justice perceptions. In two experimental studies (Study 1 and 2), whereby we manipulated abusive supervision and subordinate symbolic retaliation—in particular, harming a voodoo doll that represents the abusive supervisor—we found general support for our predictions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Righting a wrong: Retaliation on a voodoo doll symbolizing an abusive supervisor restores justice

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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