The relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion: The role of abusive supervision climate

The aim of this study is to examine the role of abusive supervision climate on the relationship between abusive supervision and employee's emotional exhaustion. Specifically, the present study asserts that abusive supervision and abusive supervision climate is positively related to an employee's emotional exhaustion and the positive relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion will be stronger when abusive supervision climate is high. Data was collected from 211 employees from 58 departments in İzmir/Turkey through a survey form. This multi-source and multi-level cross-sectional study revealed that abusive supervision climate was positively related with emotional exhaustion, but it didn't moderate the relationship between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion. The positive relationship between abusive climate and emotional exhaustion indicates that as employees agree on abusive acts of their supervisors, this observer effect depletes the emotional resources of the employees. Based on these findings, we discuss theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations of the study.