ABUSIVE SUPERVISION AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVIANCE: THE MODERATING ROLE OF NEGATIVE RECIPROCITY IN APPAREL INDUSTRY

Abstract

The Sri Lankan apparel industry, known for its ethical manufacturing and global brand partnerships, remains the country’s most vibrant and labor-intensive economic contributor. This sector operates under high-pressure conditions and strict hierarchical structures, demands productivity and discipline, often at the expense of employee well-being. Within such contexts, workplace behaviors, both constructive and counterproductive, carry significant implications. One notable concern is organizational deviance, which encompasses voluntary behavior that violates organizational norms and harms the employer. While positive leadership is often promoted to enhance conduct, the dark side of leadership, that is, abusive supervision, which is conceptualized as a pattern of hostile verbal and non-verbal behaviors by supervisors, has gained attention for its potential to trigger deviant responses. Grounded in the Displaced Aggression Theory, this study explores how employees subjected to such mistreatment may redirect their frustration toward the organization rather than confront their supervisors. Furthermore, the study examines how negative reciprocity orientation, or the inclination to reciprocate harmful treatment, may moderate this relationship, intensifying the likelihood of organizational deviance. A cross-sectional, quantitative research design was employed using a structured, self-administered questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used to collect the data, producing 170 valid responses from 200 questionnaires given to workers in Sri Lankan apparel sector organisations. Negative reciprocity, organisational deviance, and abusive supervision were measured using validated instruments. Both direct and interaction effects were tested using SPSS's hierarchical regression analysis. Abusive supervision was positively associated with organizational deviance (β = 0.41, p < 0.001), indicating that higher levels of supervisory abuse were linked to increased deviant behaviours against the organization. The moderating impact was supported by the substantial interaction term between negative reciprocity and abusive supervision (β = -0.19, p < 0.01). According to a simple slope study, employees with high negative reciprocity exhibited a stronger relationship with abusive supervision and deviance (simple slope = 0.52, p < 0.001), whereas employees with low negative reciprocity showed a weaker association (simple slope = 0.28, p < 0.05). The model explained 47% of the variance in workplace deviance (R2 = 0.47). This study demonstrates that abusive supervision significantly contributes to organizational deviance, especially among employees with a high tendency for negative reciprocity, the findings support the Displaced Aggression Theory. When these people are mistreated by supervisors, they are more likely to indirectly retaliate against the company. Consequently, abusive supervision has a greater impact on deviant behavior when there is a negative reciprocity orientation. The findings draw attention to the hidden costs of toxic leadership and emphasize how crucial it is to comprehend how different employees react to mistreatment by their supervisors.