Come Rain or Come Shine: Supervisor Behavior and Employee Job Neglect

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which supervisor behavior is associated with employees’ job neglect.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The paper investigates the extent to which supervisor behavior is associated with employees’ job neglect.

Findings – Results from hierarchical regression analyses support the hypothesis that both positive and negative supervisor behaviors have significant effects on job neglect. Negative supervisor behavior was more strongly associated with job neglect than positive supervisor behavior.

Research Limitations/Implications – Changing the style of supervision might help to reduce job neglect of employees, benefitting the organization by reducing the associated costs of job neglect and counterproductive behavior.

Originality/Value – The findings provide additional evidence for the important effects supervisors can have on employees. They also indicate that – in addition to studying abusive supervision – there is a need to consider the effects of a broad spectrum of supervisor behavior.

Keywords: Counter productivity, Job neglect, Supervisor behavior