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The present may not be pretty: mindfulness intensifies the harm of abusive supervision on employee hostile attribution bias and deviant behavior

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Abstract

Mindfulness has generally been viewed as beneficial for individuals at workplace. However, our understanding of its’ potential costs is still very limited. Based on social information processing theory, we propose that employee trait mindfulness amplifies the harm of abusive supervision on employees in terms of increased hostile attribution bias and deviant behavior. Results from a multi-wave multi-source field study (Study 1) and an experimental study (Study 2) supported our hypotheses. Our findings offer some important theoretical and practical implications.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Notes

  1. We also evaluated the relationship between the primary variables without control variables (see Becker, 2005), and all hypotheses remained supported. Abusive supervision was significantly related to hostile attribution bias (b = 0.35, p < .05). Hostile attribution bias was significantly related to deviant behavior (b = 0.07, p < .01). The interaction term between abusive supervision and mindfulness in predicting hostile attribution bias (b = 0.50, p < .05) remained significant. (Detailed results are available from the authors upon request).

  2. We conducted a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) analysis and Bartlett’s test, as recommended by Kaiser and Rice (1974). According to their suggestion, KMO values should exceed 0.7, and Bartlett’s significance should be less than 0.05. The results are presented in the following table. Each focal variable’s KMO surpasses 0.7, and the Bartlett statistic is less than 0.05, indicating that the measurement scales we employed exhibit good construct validity. We assessed the composite reliability and convergent validity of the measurement scales. Following the recommendations of Steinberg et al. (2008), we calculated the composite reliability for each focal variable, and all values exceeded 0.7, indicating robust composite reliability. Additionally, in this study, the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for each variable is greater than 0.4. According to Fornell and Larcker (1981), if AVE is below 0.5 but composite reliability is above 0.6, the convergent validity of the construct remains satisfactory.

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Correspondence to Min Cui.

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We have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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In our research, all participants are informed and they agreed that the data which is from them can be used for our research. We promised that the data obtained will only be used for academic research and will be treated confidentially.

Research involving Human Participants

Participants are recruited full-time supervisors and employees from multiple organizations located in China. All participants participated in our research voluntarily.

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Tian, G., Huang, M., Cui, M. et al. The present may not be pretty: mindfulness intensifies the harm of abusive supervision on employee hostile attribution bias and deviant behavior. Curr Psychol 43, 15537–15550 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05517-w

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