Showing one's true colors: Leader Machiavellianism, rules and instrumental climate, and abusive supervision

Abstract

Machiavellian (Mach) leaders' tendency to engage in hostile, abusive behavior is destructive for followers and organizations. Yet previous studies suggest that Machs do not always show negative leader behaviors such as abusive supervision. Drawing on trait activation theory, we propose that the manifestation of Mach trait-relevant behavior depends upon contextual cues from the psychological work climate. Specifically, we argue that a low rule climate or a high instrumental climate offers relevant cues for Mach trait expression. We find support for our hypotheses in two studies of 219 and 183 leader–follower dyads. Both for a low rule climate and a high instrumental climate, leader Machiavellianism is positively related to leader abusive supervision, which, in turn, is negatively related to subordinate OCB and positively related to subordinate emotional exhaustion. However, when rule climate is high or instrumental climate is low, Mach behavior is not expressed, and thus, there is no indirect effect of leader Machiavellianism on follower OCB and emotional exhaustion through leader abusive supervision. Thus, our study shows that the psychological work climate is critical for the expression of leader Machiavellianism in abusive behavior and the related negative consequences to occur.