When Can Forgiveness be Enhanced? It Depends on What Motivates Abusive Supervision

We propose that supervisors’ performance promotion motives can serve as a kind of social account for abusive supervision that can enhance subordinates’ willingness to forgive, which in turn enhances their Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). We conducted three studies to test our hypotheses. In Study 1 and 3, we collected two-wave survey data, one in Taiwan’s military and the other through MTurk platform in the U.S. In Study 2, we conducted a scenario-based design with respondents also from Taiwan’s military. Across three studies, our results showed that supervisor’s performance promotion motives provided a beneficial moderating effect on the relationship between perceived abusive supervision and subordinates’ forgiveness. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.