How concerned are bystanders?Consequences of vicarious abusive supervision: Parallel and sequential multiple mediating impacts and resilience as a moderator

Abstract

This paper comprehensively investigates the destructive impact of vicarious abusive supervision on organizationally valued outcomes and examined the moderating role of resilience. We gathered time-lagged data by administering online surveys to frontline hotel employees in Ghana, and 321 usable responses were obtained. Data analysis via PROCESS Macro revealed that vicarious abusive supervision was positively linked to absenteeism, and on-the-job embeddedness (JEMB) and intention to leave work early (ILE) or intention to be late for work (ILW) sequentially mediated the link. As hypothesized, on-the JEMB was a mediator between vicarious abusive supervision and absenteeism. There was empirical support for the parallel mediating effects of ILE and ILW in the nexus between on-the-JEMB and absenteeism. Resilience, which is a critical personal resource, functioned as a moderator of the influence of vicarious abusive supervision on on-the JEMB. Above all, resilience moderated the indirect effect of vicarious abusive supervision on absenteeism via on-the-JEMB. The aforesaid important findings are discussed, and their implications for theory and hotel managers are presented.