The Effect of Abusive Supervision on Counterproductive Work Behavior of the Employees of the Ministry of Sports and Youth with the Mediating Role of Organizational Justice

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of abusive supervision on the counterproductive work behavior of employees in the Ministry of Sports and Youth, considering the mediating role of organizational justice. This research was descriptive–correlational, and data were collected through a field survey using questionnaires. The statistical population consisted of all 900 employees of the Ministry of Sports and Youth, and based on the Krejcie and Morgan table (1970), a sample of 269 individuals was selected using a convenience sampling method. Data were collected through the Abusive Supervision Questionnaire by Mitchell and Ambrose (2007), the Counterproductive Work Behavior Questionnaire by Golparvar and Khaksar (2008), and the Organizational Justice Questionnaire by Niehoff and Moorman (1993). The face and content validity of the questionnaires were confirmed by the supervising professor, and the reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) for the abusive supervision, counterproductive work behavior, and organizational justice questionnaires were calculated as 0.87, 0.88, and 0.91, respectively. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and the Sobel test were applied using SPSS and PLS software. The results showed that abusive supervision has a positive effect on the counterproductive work behavior of the Ministry of Sports and Youth employees and explains 50.69% of the variance in counterproductive work behavior. The findings also indicated that abusive supervision negatively affects the organizational justice of employees and accounts for 25.90% of its variance. Furthermore, organizational justice was found to have a negative effect on counterproductive work behavior and explains 10.17% of its variance. Therefore, it is recommended that managers and supervisors enhance organizational justice and avoid abusive behaviors to foster a healthier and more motivating work environment, thereby preventing counterproductive work behaviors.