Supervisor undermining and submissive behavior: Shame resilience theory perspective

This study investigates the underlying mechanism between supervisor undermining and employee submissive behavior by proposing and testing a serial mediation moderation model. We suggest shame and selfcriticism as an explanatory mechanism between supervisor undermining and submissive behavior, and employee resilience as a coping mechanism between feelings of shame and self-criticism. We employed Shame Resilience Theory to explain the proposed model that states how supervisor undermining triggers shame among victim subordinates, which turns into self-criticism and ultimately manifests as submissive behaviors. We tested our proposed model on 251 responses from service sector employees in a time-lagged (four intervals) design. We examined different alternative models to test the serial mediation model. The results proved that supervisor undermining leads to employee submissive behavior and shame, and self-criticism serially mediates this relationship. The moderation hypothesis was also proved. Limitations and future research directions along with theoretical and practical implications are given at the end.