Linking abusive supervision with employee creativity: The roles of psychological contract breach and Zhongyong thinking style

Although creativity has been recognized as an important employee outcome related with work context, to date little research has examined the relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity, which has perhaps been hindered by the lack of a theoretical framework outlining the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study examined the processes linking abusive supervision to employee creativity in the Chinese context by focusing on the mediating influence of psychological contract breach and the moderating influence of Zhongyong thinking style. We collected data from 93 supervisors and 369 subordinates at three different time points. In the first survey, the subordinates were asked to provide information about abusive supervision and their demography. One week later, these subordinates were asked to answer some questions about psychological contract breach and Zhongyong thinking style. Approximately two months later, we asked these supervisors to rate their subordinates' creativity. Multi-level structuring equation modeling technique and Monte Carlo resampling method were employed to examine the hypothesis about the moderating role of Zhongyong thinking style in the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity through psychological contract breach. These findings provided support for the hypothesis that the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity through psychological contract breach is moderated by Zhongyong thinking style, such that the indirect relationship is weakened when Zhongyong thinking style is high, rather than low. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity in the Chinese context, and imply that the negative influence of abusive supervision on employee outcomes could be decreased by guiding employees to cultivate Zhongyong thinking style because it can encourage self-regulation of behavior after experiencing abusive supervision.