Supervisor Undermining, Social Isolation and Subordinates’ Problematic Drinking: The Role of Depression and Perceived Drinking Norms

• Author: Ronit Montal-Rosenberg,Peter A. Bamberger,Inbal Nahum-Shani,Mo Wang,Mary Larimer,Samuel B. Bacharach
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00220426221098981
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Journal of Drug Issues

2023, Vol. 53(1) 37–60

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00220426221098981

journals.sagepub.com/home/jod

Supervisor Undermining, Social

Isolation and Subordinates’

Problematic Drinking: The Role

of Depression and Perceived

Drinking Norms

Ronit Montal-Rosenberg

1

, Peter A. Bamberger

2,3

,

Inbal Nahum-Shani

4

, Mo Wang

5

, Mary Larimer

6

, and

Samuel B. Bacharach

7



Abstract

Findings regarding the mechanism underlying the impact of supervisor incivility on subordinate

alcohol misuse remain equivocal. Specif‌ically, some studies indicate that stress mediates the

impact of supervisor incivility on subordinate alcohol misuse, while others, f‌ind no evidence for

such an effect, suggesting the need to investigate other mechanisms. Extending Conservation of

Resource (COR) theory and employing a longitudinal study design, this study examines two

alternative mechanisms grounded on social isolation. The f‌irst suggests drinking as a resource-

mobilizing response, with social isolation eliciting the perception of more permissive injunctive

drinking norms, thus facilitating problematic drinking. The second suggests problematic drinking

as a mode of coping with a negative emotional state elicited by social isolation, namely depression.

Findings indicate that supervisor undermining’s association with subsequent subordinate prob-

lematic drinking is serially mediated by social isolation and depression, with no support found for

the f‌irst mechanism. Implications for research, practice and policy are discussed.

Keywords

supervisor incivility, alcohol misuse, social isolation, depression

1

Federmann School of Public Policy and Government, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

2

Department of Organizational Behavior, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

3

Smithers Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA

4

Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI, USA

5

Department of Management, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Gainesville FL, USA

6

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Psychology, University of Washington,Seattle WA,

USA

7

Smithers Institute, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ronit Montal-Rosenberg, Federmann School of Public Policy and Government, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt.

Scopus, Zip code 9190501 Jerusalem, Israel.

Email: ronit.montal-roze@mail.huji.ac.il

Supervisor undermining and similar constructs, such as abusive supervision (Tepper, 2000) and

workplace incivility (Andersson & Pearson, 1999), all represent aggressive behaviors engaged in

by one’s direct supervisor (Aquino & Thau, 2009). Workplace incivility –“low intensity deviant

behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target, in violation of workplace norms for mutual

respect”(Andersson & Pearson, 1999, p. 457) –is ubiquitous (Cortina et al., 2001). Supervisor-

instigated incivility such as supervisory undermining, the focus of the current study, is estimated to

cost employers in the United States over US$23 billion annually via its detrimental effects on a

wide range of employee attitudes and behaviors (Tepper, Duffy,Henle, & Lambert, 2006). Indeed,

research indicates that victims of such incivility experience diminished well-being, often man-

ifested in terms of heightened emotional distress and depression, lower levels of energy and

motivation (Schilpzand, De Pater, & Erez, 2016), increased work-family conf‌lict (Lim & Lee,

2011) and healthcare costs (Tepper et al., 2006), and reduced marital satisfaction (Ferguson,

2012). At work, these same individuals experience reduced job satisfaction, work engagement,

organizational commitment, and fairness perceptions (Duffy & Ferrier, 2003;Jawahar & Schreurs,

2018;Liu, Zhou, & Che, 2019;Schilpzand et al., 2016), higher turnover intentions (Bowling &

Beehr, 2006;Bunk & Magley,2013;Lim & Lee, 2011;Liu et al., 2017;Miner, Settles, Pratt-Hyatt,

& Brady, 2012) and decrements in performance-related domains such as task performance (Chen

et al., 2013;Giumetti et al., 2013), attendance (Tepper et al., 2006), creativity (Liu, Chen, He, &

Huang., 2019), and citizenship performance (Dalal, 2005;Porath & Erez, 2007;Taylor, Bedeian,

& Kluemper, 2012).

An important, health-related consequence of incivility with direct workplace implications

involves alcohol use. Researchers examining the impact of various forms of supervisor incivility

on employee alcohol use and misuse have generally found a positive and robust relationship

(Bamberger & Bacharach, 2006;Bamberger & Cohen, 2015;Richman et al., 1996,1997,2001,

2002). Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood.

Specif‌ically, while much of the workplace alcohol literature adopts a tension-reduction or self-

medication perspective (Conger, 1956;Cooper, Frone, Russell, & Mudar, 1995;Khantzian, 1997;

Steele & Josephs, 1990) and assumes that a negative emotional state (e.g., stress, depression)

serves as the primary mechanism linking supervisor incivility to alcohol misuse (Richman et al.,

2002), f‌indings regarding such an underlying mechanism are equivocal, with some researchers

f‌inding support for a stress-based mediator (Richman et al., 2002), and others (e.g., Bamberger &

Bacharach, 2006) not. This raises the possibility that an entirely separate, social resource mo-

bilization mechanism, operating via social isolation and its effects on employees’perceptions of

injunctive drinking norms (Delaney & Ames, 1995a), might underlie an association between

supervisor incivility and employee problem drinking.

To better understand the impact of supervisor incivility on alcohol misuse, we examine the link

between supervisor undermining and problematic drinking (i.e., a pattern of alcohol use associated

with negative consequences). Supervisory undermining is a widely prevalent form of supervisor-

instigated incivility characterized as “behavior intended to hinder, over time, the ability (of a

subordinate) to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, work-related success,

and favorable reputation”(Duffy, Ganster, & Pagon, 2002, p. 332). Such behavior may be direct

and explicit in nature, such as when a supervisor intentionally says something derogatory about a

subordinate, rejects them outright, or belittles their ideas. Alternatively, it may be more implicit,

such as withholding of needed information or not defending a subordinate (Duffy et al., 2002).

Although holding abusive supervisors accountable for their actions serves as the primary means

by which to address such workplace problems in most organizations, understanding the

mechanisms driving the alcohol-related consequences of such behavior is important as such

insight may facilitate eff‌icacious approaches to prevention that can complement efforts aimed at

changing managerial behavior by enhancing employee resilience.

38 Journal of Drug Issues 53(1)