Peer abusive supervision and third-party employee creativity from a social exchange theory perspective

We used social exchange theory to construct a theoretical framework of peer abusive supervision, third-party perception of organizational support, third-party employee creativity, and third-party perception of supervisory organizational embodiment. We then empirically tested the theoretical model with 367 supervisor-employee paired dyads from five large real estate companies in China. The results show that peer abusive supervision had a negative impact on third-party employee creativity, and third-party perception of organizational support played a mediating role in this relationship. Further, third-party perception of supervisory organizational embodiment positively moderated the impact of peer abusive supervision on third-party perception of organizational support. Our results, which show the spillover effect and boundary conditions of abusive supervision on third-party employee creativity, are significant for the enhancement of employee creativity in corporate management practice.