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Perceived Abusive Supervision and Service Performance: An Attachment Theory Perspective

Ahmed Mostafa et al.

Human Performance2025https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2025.2463647article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.48

Abstract

This study examines why and when perceived abusive supervision can impair employees’ service performance. Drawing on attachment theory, we propose that perceptions of abusive supervision can induce employees’ attachment insecurity at work (attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety) and thus undermine employees’ service performance. We also propose that trust in coworkers helps mitigate the link between perceptions of abusive supervision and employees’ attachment insecurity at work. The hypothesized relationships are examined in two studies. The first study consists of a sample of 176 healthcare professionals recruited from Prolific for a three-wave survey. The second study consisted of a sample of 255 nurses and 35 supervisors from 33 Romanian hospitals for a multisource three-wave survey. Results consistently reveal that abusive supervision is positively related to attachment avoidance, which in turn is negatively related to service performance. Moreover, coworker trust moderates the association between abusive supervision and attachment avoidance and thus mitigates the mediation chain from abusive supervision, via attachment avoidance, to service performance. This research offers a new perspective to understanding the consequences of abusive supervision for service performance and underscores the importance of trusting relations among coworkers for coping with abusive supervision.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2025.2463647

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@article{ahmed2025,
  title        = {{Perceived Abusive Supervision and Service Performance: An Attachment Theory Perspective}},
  author       = {Ahmed Mostafa et al.},
  journal      = {Human Performance},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2025.2463647},
}

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Perceived Abusive Supervision and Service Performance: An Attachment Theory Perspective

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Evidence weight

0.48

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.41 × 0.4 = 0.16
M · momentum0.63 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.