Time to try a little tenderness? The detrimental effects of accountability when coupled with abusive supervision.

The deleterious health and behavioral consequences of reporting to an abusive supervisor have been documented in past research. Furthermore, recent corporate scandals have led to increased pressure to hold employees accountable for their behaviors and decisions at work. This study examines the interactive effects of abusive supervision on experienced relationships between accountability and work outcomes (job tension, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion), with a sample of 366 employees across a myriad of contexts and conditions for answerability. Specifically, it was hypothesized that high levels of perceived abuse would interact with accountability such that job satisfaction declines and tension and exhaustion escalate because of the control-depleting properties of abuse. Study results were supportive of these proposed relationships. Key contributions and limitations of the study, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.

Keywords: accountability; abusive supervision

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Accountability represents employees' perceived answerability for behaviors and decisions at work, with the assumption that reactions to external pressure for justification will affect reward allocation and discipline (Hochwarter, Ferris, Gavin, Perrewe, et al., 2007). Simply put, accountability refers to employees' beliefs about the degree to which they will be required to justify their actions at work to one or more individuals who hold reward or punishment power (Tetlock, 1985; Wood & Winston, 2005).

Accountability is endemic to all social systems (Frink & Klimoski, 1998, 2004; Hall, Frink, Ferris, Hochwarter, et al., 2003). In terms of its effects on business enterprises, organizations would cease to exist without accountability, as time spent providing goods and services would be replaced by effort targeted at reducing social disorder. It is interesting that prior research suggests that accountability can promote both favorable (e.g., Frink & Klimoski, 1998) and unfavorable (e.g., Siegel-Jacobs & Yates, 1996) outcomes--often simultaneously. For example, prior research (Hochwarter et al., 2007) found accountability to be concomitantly associated with both job satisfaction and tension, and other studies have documented relationships with involvement, citizenship, emotional labor, and job tension (Hall et al., 2003).

This predictive variability suggests the potential presence of theoretically relevant moderating variables (Hochwarter et al., 2007). Building on this research, we examine the role of abusive supervision (Tepper, 2000) on relationships between accountability and work outcome (i.e., job tension, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion). Defined as subordinates' perceptions of sustained verbal and nonverbal hostility aimed at them by direct supervisors (Harvey, Heames, Richey, & Leonard, 2006; Tepper, 2000), abusive supervision costs U.S. corporations more than $23 billion each year in terms of increased health care costs, absenteeism, and productivity losses (Tepper, Duffy, Henle, & Lambert, 2006). Furthermore, abused subordinates experience a host of negative repercussions, including increased problem drinking (Bamberger & Bacharach, 2006) and counterproductive work behaviors (Duffy, Ganster, & Pagon, 2002).

We contend that when supervisors are abusive, accountability will predict adverse outcomes for employees. To date, research has failed to empirically consider this important moderating variable in the realm of accountability and its associated work outcomes, despite calls to do so (Hall, Blass, Ferris, & Massengale, 2004).