Does change incite abusive supervision? The role of transformational change and hindrance stress

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• Author: Stijn Decoster,Leander Schutter,Jochen Menges,David Cremer,Jeroen Stouten
• Date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12494

Hum Resour Manag J. 2023;33:957–976. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj 957

1Zayed University, College of Business, Dubai,

United Arab Emirates

2Department of Psychology, KU Leuven,

Leuven, Belgium

3Department Business-Society Management,

Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam,

The Netherlands

4Department of Business Administration,

University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

5Department Management and Organisation,

NUS Business School, Singapore, Singapore

Correspondence

Stijn Decoster, Zayed University, College of

Business, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Email: stijn.decoster@zu.ac.ae

Abstract

To remain competitive, organizations tend to change their

established ways of working, their strategy, the core values,

and the organizational structure. Such thorough changes

are referred to as transformational change. Unfortunately,

transformational change is often unsuccessful because

organizational members do not always welcome the change.

Although organizations often expect their supervisors to be

successful role-models and change-agents during the trans-

formational change process, we argue that initiating trans-

formational change could increase supervisors' hindrance

stress levels, which may result in abusive behaviors towards

employees. More specifically, in a multi-source survey and

an experimental study, we find evidence that transforma-

tional change is associated with supervisors' experienced

hindrance stress, which subsequently led to more abusive

behaviors towards employees.

KEYWORDS

abusive supervision, cognitive theory of stress, hindrance stress,

transformational change

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Does change incite abusive supervision? The role

of transformational change and hindrance stress

Stijn Decoster1,2 | Leander De Schutter3 | Jochen Menges4 |

David De Cremer5 | Jeroen Stouten2

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12494

Received: 7 October 2021 Revised: 6 December 2022 Accepted: 13 January 2023

1 | INTRODUCTION

Change shapes the organizational landscape. The advance of technology, competition, and globalization are just a

few forces that push organizations to engage in transformational change, which are modifications in the organiza-

tion's core systems such as its values, structure, and goals (Rafferty & Griffin, 2006; Robinson & Griffiths, 2005).

Change scholars argue that effective change implementation requires employees' engagement, well-being, change

acceptance, as well as perceived supervisor support (Neves, 2011; Oreg et al., 2011; Stouten et al., 2018). Because

DECOSTER ETal.

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employees' attitudes and acceptance towards the change are crucial, how supervisors treat and interact with their

employees plays a key role in effective change implementation. For example, supervisors need to communicate the

change, but they also need to involve and motivate the employees in the change process (Oreg & Berson, 2019). Yet,

transformational change is often unsuccessful (Burke, 2002; Burnes, 2009). In this manuscript, we argue that trans-

formational change often fails because organizations may not pay sufficient attention to preparing and supporting

supervisors in the change process (Stouten et al., 2018). Because supervisors lack sufficient support to handle change

stressors, we contend that this triggers them to behave in an abusive way towards their employees, ironically weigh-

ing negatively on change implementation.

Most organizations implicitly expect their supervisors to act as successful change-agents (Caulfield &

Senger, 2017). For example, organizations expect supervisors to communicate the changes effectively, to moti-

vate employees to embrace the change, and to adjust their workplace behaviors as they are expected to welcome

and facilitate the change (e.g., Burnes, 2009; Ford et al., 2021). Overall, many organizations assume that super-

visors are ready to implement the change in a coordinated and engaging manner (Oreg & Berson, 2019). By

assuming that supervisors will fulfill their role as a change-agent, organizations may pay less attention to trans-

formational change's negative and stressful impact on supervisors (Neves & Schyns, 2018; Oreg & Berson, 2019;

Oreg et al., 2011) and subsequently on how change could elicit supervisors to show undesirable (e.g., abusive)

behaviors towards their employees. In other words, the prevailing focus on supervisors as change-agents puts

less attention on how change could hinder supervisors, and how this impacts supervisors' behaviors towards

employees.

Research, however, suggests that transformational change—such as changes in an organization's values, struc-

tures, and goals that move away from the status quo to an entirely new system—brings many accompanying demands

and requires supervisors to have the ability and perseverance to deal with these demands (Robinson & Griffiths, 2005).

As such, transformational change is an impactful organizational event and is often associated with change-related

stressors such as felt disruption and uncertainty (Ashford, 1988). Therefore, transformational change may be expe-

Practitioner notes

What is currently known?

• In today's competitive work environment, organizations undertake transformational change.

• Organizations expect supervisors to be role-models and to embrace change.

• Transformational change is often unsuccessful because organizations do not train supervisors enough

for the change process.

What this paper adds?

• This study shows that transformational change is associated with supervisors' hindrance stress.

• The study shows that supervisors' hindrance stress is related to supervisors' abusive supervision.

• This study identifies hindrance stress as a mediator in the transformational change—abusive supervision

relationship.

Implications for practitioners

• Transformational change can increase supervisors' hindrance stress and consequently trigger abusive

supervision.

• Organizations should organize change in a way that limits supervisors' hindrance stress.

• Organizations should support supervisors to be better prepared for the change regarding their

own stress-related emotions and behaviors and the leadership skills required for a healthy change

implementation.