Perceived organizational obstruction: A mediator that addresses source–target misalignment between abusive supervision and OCBs

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2293
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Published date: 01 December 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Perceived organizational obstruction: A mediator that

addresses source–target misalignment between abusive

supervision and OCBs

Jeremy D. Mackey

1

|Charn P. McAllister

2

|Jeremy R. Brees

3

|Lei Huang

1

|

Jack E. Carson

1

1

Harbert College of Business, Department of

Management, Auburn University, Auburn,

Alabama, U.S.A.

2

D'Amore‐McKim School of Business,

Northeastern University, Boston,

Massachusetts, U.S.A.

3

W.A. Franke College of Business,

Department of Management, Northern

Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.A.

Correspondence

Jeremy D. Mackey, Harbert College of

Business, Department of Management,

Auburn University, Lowder Business Building,

405 W. Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama

36849, U.S.A.

Email: jmackey@auburn.edu

Funding information

National Institute for Occupational Safety and

Health, Grant/Award Number: Pilot Research

Project

Summary

We examine perceived organizational obstruction as a mediator in the relationship

between abusive supervision and subordinates' organizational citizenship behaviors

directed toward organizations. We seek to provide a nuanced understanding of why

subordinates who perceive supervisory mistreatment would target organizations with

behavioral responses. Specifically, we study the implications of examining relation-

ships between inconsistent sources of social exchange perceptions (e.g., supervisory

perceptions) and targets of social exchange behaviors (e.g., organizational responses),

which we refer to as social exchange source–target misalignment. Results from 3

studies (Study 1: n=109; Study 2: n= 213; Study 3: n= 228) demonstrate evidence

that abusive supervision is indirectly and negatively associated with organizational cit-

izenship behaviors directed toward organizations through perceived organizational

obstruction and that this conditional indirect effect is stronger for subordinates who

perceive higher levels of supervisor organizational embodiment than others. Examin-

ing the social exchange tandem of perceived organizational obstruction and supervi-

sor organizational embodiment provides a novel and useful means of aligning

sources and targets of negative social exchange relationships across subordinates,

supervisors, and organizations in order to advance our understanding of the social

exchange antecedents and consequences of perceived organizational obstruction.

KEYWORDS

abusive supervision, interpersonal mistreatment,OCB, perceived organizational obstruction, social

exchange

1|INTRODUCTION

An abundance of abusive supervision research has demonstrated that

it has harmful effects on subordinates' personal and organizational

outcomes (Martinko, Harvey, Brees, & Mackey, 2013). In addition to

subordinates' direct responses to their supervisors, there is emerging

evidence that subordinates target their organizations with reactions

to abusive supervision. However, it is not clear why abusive supervi-

sion is negatively associated with subordinates' beneficial behaviors

targeted toward organizations. Thus, it is important to examine social

exchange relationships across different sources (e.g., interpersonal

relationships) and targets (e.g., organizations) because they are subject

to social exchange source–target misalignment (i.e., inconsistent

sources and targets of exchange). In this study, we seek to address

social exchange source–target misalignment by examining why subor-

dinates who perceive supervisory mistreatment would target organiza-

tions with behavioral responses.

Decades of research that draw from social exchange theory dem-

onstrates that subordinates' perceptions of supervisors can be associ-

ated with behaviors targeted toward other sources (e.g., organizations;

Received: 31 July 2017 Revised: 20 April 2018 Accepted: 22 April 2018

DOI: 10.1002/job.2293

J Organ Behav. 2018;39:1283–1295. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 1283