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Introduction
In recent times there has been an increase of studies focussing on destructive leadership, such as abusive supervision and workplace bullying (Bowling & Beehr, 2006; Mitchell & Ambrose, 2007; Liu, Liao, & Loi, 2012; Schyns & Schilling, 2012). Similarly, there has been widespread coverage within New Zealand's popular media regarding the psychological and economic cost of destructive leadership (Barton, 2005; Tapaleao, 2010; Hueber, 2012; Gillies, 2013). This is concerning for organisations, as abusive supervision is a major predictor of employee turnover, which is highly costly (Waldman, Kelly, Arora, & Smith, 2004). Not only does employee turnover result in an immediate loss of productivity, but the costs associated with hiring and training new staff can cost organisations greatly - as much as 5.8% of their annual operating budget (Waldman et al., 2004). For this reason, it is important to understand what motivates employees to leave an organisation.
The present study focusses on abusive supervision, which relates to the extent to which supervisors engage in hostile verbal and nonverbal abuse towards employees (Tepper, 2000). Examples of this include being undermined and yelled at, or told you are 'useless' or a 'waste of time'. The consequences of abusive supervision have been well examined, and include such deleterious effects as counter-productivity, increased turnover (Detert, Trevino, Burris, & Andiappan, 2007; Tepper, 2007; Shoss, Eisenberger, Restubog, & Zagenczyk, 2013), decreased job performance and team creativity (Harris, Kacmar, & Zivnuska, 2007; Liu, Liao, & Loi, 2012).
The present study explores measures that may mitigate the effects of abusive supervision. It must be noted that tolerating abusive supervision is a violation of human rights, and the heart of the issue lies with the identification and elimination of abusive supervisors. However, given how difficult it can be to identify such negative behaviour (Rayner, Hoel, & Cooper, 2002; Harvey, Stoner, Hochwarter, & Kacmar, 2007), other avenues must be explored. For example, research by Harvey et al. (2007) focussed on how positive affect (an individual's sense of well-being and positive emotions) could be successfully used by individuals to lessen the impact of their abusive supervisors. Killoren (2014) suggested that many victims of abuse find it hard to tell whether they are being abused, or whether...