"You wouldn't like me when I'm sleepy": Leader sleep, daily abusive supervision, and work unit engagement

• Main Authors: BARNES, Christopher M., LUCIANETTI, Lorenzo, BHAVE, Devasheesh P., CHRISTIAN, Michael S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: abusive supervision; ego depletion; incivility; leadership; self-control; sleep; work engagement; Human Resources Management; Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4353; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/5352/viewcontent/You_wouldnt_like_me_when_Im_sleepy__Leader_pv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

We examine daily leader sleep as an antecedent to daily abusive supervisory behavior and work unit engagement. Drawing from ego depletion theory, our theoretical extension includes a serial mediation model of nightly sleep quantity and quality as predictors of abusive supervision. We argue that poor nightly sleep influences leaders to enact daily abusive behaviors via ego depletion, and these abusive behaviors ultimately result in decreased daily subordinate unit work engagement. We test this model through an experience sampling study spread over ten work days with data from both supervisors and their subordinates. Our study supports the role of the indirect effects of sleep quality (but not sleep quantity) via leader ego depletion and daily abusive supervisor behavior on daily subordinate unit work engagement.