Abusive Supervision: Manifestations, Factors, and Consequences

Nowadays, the topic of research on supervisor’s behavior has a special place in the scientific literature. Many researchers drew attention to the relationship of the supervisor with his subordinates and the consequences this type of behavior leads to. However, over the past 15 years, the focus has shifted toward studying the "dark side" of the leadership, including, "abusive" supervisor’s behavior. Today many researchers tend to believe that the supervisor's abusive behavior includes not only physical violence, but it is also based on permanent outbursts of anger towards subordinates, their public humiliation, the appropriation of their ideas and the results of their work. For Russia, the problem of abusive behavior is very relevant, because even now many managers adhere to the principle of "fear management", considering it as the only right way to motivate employees. The problem of the research relates to the identification of abusive supervisor’s behavior in companies as the type of power relations between the manager and the subordinate, the determination of its main consequences and the analysis of the causes of its germination and further development. In this paper, the main characteristics of managers, who tend to behave abusively, are analyzed, Also, the main features of subordinated, who are most likely to be abused, are included into the research. The aim of the study was to reveal the degree of supervisors’ abusive behavior’s outspread on the basis of the empirical analysis.