There has been substantial research demonstrating the negative impact of abusive leadership. However, new research (Wang et al., 2024) considers a new question: how does experiencing both abusive and ethical leadership at the same time impact employees? The authors argue that the uncertainty of having such a “hot and cold” leader is even more damaging than a leader who is only abusive. Importantly, they also explore how employees react when they witness their own supervisor being treated inconsistently by higher-level leaders.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
The researchers conducted three studies. Study 1 involved current employees; the researchers found that abusive leadership was related to employee exhaustion, but only when ethical leadership was also higher. This exhaustion, in turn, reduced employee job performance.
Studies 2 and 3 used experimental designs with online participants. In both, participants read about fictional leaders who displayed different combinations of ethical and abusive behavior. As predicted, participants reported feeling more emotionally drained when the leader was both abusive and ethical, compared to when the leader was just abusive. This pattern held true even when the inconsistent treatment was directed not at them, but at their immediate supervisor.
In Study 3, when a higher-level organizational leader treated the participant’s immediate supervisor in both abusive and ethical ways, participants felt unsure about their supervisor’s effectiveness in securing important resources from upper management.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Being treated inconsistently—or even seeing one’s own supervisor treated that way—can have serious negative effects on employees. Organizations should take steps to prevent this kind of “Jekyll and Hyde” leadership by selecting leaders with high self-control, training them to maintain consistent behavior, and holding them accountable for abusive behavior. Creating safe channels for employees to report inconsistent treatment may also help. Because these effects occur at different levels of leadership, it is crucial to monitor higher-level organizational leaders in addition to lower-level supervisors.
Xu, H. (H.), Hannah, S. T., Wang, Z., Moss, S. E., Sumanth, J. J., & Song, M. (2024). Jekyll and Hyde leadership: Examining the direct and vicarious experiences of abusive and ethical leadership through a justice variability lens. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication.
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