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Stifling My Fire: The Impact of Abusive Supervision on Employees’ Motivation and Ensuing Outcomes at Work

Although the effect of abusive leadership on individual performance is well-documented, the mechanisms that explains this effect are not fully understood. Drawing on self-determination theory, we suggest that the negative effect of abusive leadership on employees’ workplace outcomes results from followers’ thwarted autonomous motivation. Results of time lagged data collected from 306 full-time employees indicate that abusive supervision leads to lower autonomous motivation, higher controlled motivation, and more lack of motivation (amotivation). These motivational states in turn are found to positively affect counterproductive work behaviors and intentions to quit the job and negatively affect employees’ job-satisfaction and innovative behaviors. Our findings support the role of motivation as an explanatory mechanism by which abusive supervision negatively affects important employee work outcomes. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.