How narcissistic employees respond to abusive supervision: two roles of narcissism in decreasing perception and increasing deviance

Abusive supervision, a type of interpersonal mistreatment from direct supervisors toward subordinates, has received growing attention in leadership research. However, the role of narcissism related to abusive supervision is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations of narcissism with subordinates' perceptions of abusive supervision and deviance toward the supervisor. Ratings on the aforementioned variables were collected from 403 full-time employees at two different times with one week in between (95 men, 308 women; M age = 26.0 yr.; M tenure = 5.1 yr.). The results of regression analyses showed that narcissism was significantly and negatively related to abusive supervision. Moreover, narcissism moderated the positive relationship between abusive supervision and deviance toward the supervisor.