Paul Harvey

• PhD Organizational Behavior
• Professor (Associate) at University of New Hampshire

Although workplace bullying is common and has universally harmful effects on employees’ outcomes, little is known about workplace bullies. To address this gap in knowledge, we draw from the tenets of social exchange and displaced aggression theories in order to develop and test a model of workplace bullying that incorporates the effects of employee...

Leadership research has been encumbered by a proliferation of constructs and measures, despite little evidence that each is sufficiently conceptually and operationally distinct from the others. We draw from research on subordinates' implicit theories of leader behavior, behaviorally anchored rating scales, and decision making to argue that leader a...

Despite growing interest in emotions, organizational scholars have largely ignored the moral emotion of schadenfreude, which refers to pleasure felt in response to another’s misfortune. As a socially undesirable emotion, it might be assumed that individuals would be hesitant to share their schadenfreude. In two experimental studies involving emotio...

We present two studies investigating the impact of causal perceptions and the moral emotions of anger, shame, and guilt on the justification of deviant workplace behavior. Study 1 tests our conceptual framework using a sample of undergraduate business students; Study 2 examines a population of practicing physicians. Results varied significantly bet...

As incoming co-editors, we introduce the 2017 International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (IRIOP) Annual Review Issue. We begin this editorial with a brief history of IRIOP, from its creation as a book series in 1986 to the present issue—its fifth as an annual Journal of Organizational Behavior publication. We also summarize se...

This study examines whether subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervision mediate the relationship between subordinate personality and aggression. Results from a cross-organizational sample of 411 working adults suggest that subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervision account for some of the variance in the relationships between subordinate...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether employees’ personalities are associated with their perceptions of abusive supervision. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 756 working adults provided data. Subjects’ began by taking personality assessments and then received a performance evaluation via a video role-play. Subjects t...

Recent studies suggest that some employees are more apt to perceive abusive supervision than others. Building on these findings, we propose the existence of affective traits that can bias employees toward inflated perceptions of abuse. Such traits could explain substantial variance in abuse perceptions that has not been accounted for in existing st...

Workplace entitlement is a pressing concern for modern organizations and managers. Organizational scholars, however, have largely overlooked this phenomenon in their research. In this Incubator, we summarize the untapped opportunities that entitlement research offers for impacting both scholarly thinking and practitioner knowledge on the subject. C...

Purpose – Given the entitlement and job mobility associated with Generation Y, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effects of psychological entitlement and tenure on the felt accountability-job satisfaction relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data from a sample of resident assistants were examined using hierar...

Confounding occurs when the definitions and measurements of constructs overlap. It is considered a fundamental flaw in both conceptualizing and testing relationships between variables. Although this logical and methodological error is well known, we argue that a significant amount of the published research and models of organizational behavior is u...

As organizations move to adopt high performance work practices (HPWP), the onus falls on supervisors to do whatever it takes to maximize the productivity of their work teams. This, however, creates a conundrum: When does high performance supervision cross the line to become abusive supervision? I it this Jekyll and Hyde situation that we plan to di...

Individuals make attributions when they infer causes about particular outcomes. Several narrative reviews of attributional research have concluded that attributions matter in the workplace, but note that attribution theory has been underutilized in organizational research. To examine the predictive power of attributions in organizational contexts,...

We investigate whether leader political skill (LPS) increases employees' perceptions of ethical leadership, even among leaders who acknowledge engaging in deviant behaviors. Study 1 indicated a positive relationship between LPS and ethical leadership perceptions, resulting in improved commitment and reduced stress levels among employees. Study 2 in...

This study examines whether subordinates' perceptions of abusive supervision mediate the relationship between subordinate personality and aggression. Results from a cross-organizational sample of 411 working adults suggest that subordinates' perceptions of abusive supervision account for some of the variance in the relationships between subordinate...

This paper reviews studies concerned with abusive supervision and provides a constructive revision of Tepper's 2007 model. As a result of our review of the recent research, we revised the 2007 Tepper model and added additional variables and casual paths to increase its explanatory potential. The model we propose distinguishes between abusive superv...

Prior abusive supervision research focuses on subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervision. Recent research suggests that a variety of factors may be related to these perceptions, including subordinates’ self-esteem, personality traits, and negative affectivity, as well as supervisors’ perceptions of justice and breaches of psychological contra...

This study explores the roles of subordinates' individual differences in predicting their perceptions of abusive supervision. We controlled supervisor behavior via a video vignette to assess if subjects perceived the same supervisor behavior differently. A sample of 756 working adults revealed that subjects' hostile attribution styles, negative aff...

Recent work has begun to look at the impact of abusive supervision, a dysfunctional workplace behavior, on employee outcomes. This study extends this line of research by examining vicarious abusive supervision (abuse not directly experienced, but rumors about it or hearing about it, that is "experienced vicariously"). In particular, this research e...

This study extends research on abusive supervision by exploring how supervisor reports of conflict with their coworkers are related to abusive behaviors and resulting outcomes. We utilize research on displaced aggression, conflict, and leader–member exchange (LMX) theory to formulate our hypotheses. Results from two samples of 121 and 134 matched s...

This chapter presents an investigation of the relationship between psychological entitlement and stress. Empirical and conceptual evidence is considered suggesting that Conservation of Resources (COR) theory may apply differently to employees with a heightened sense of entitlement. Using attribution and COR theory, a conceptual framework is offered...

Empirical work on the concept of abusive supervision typically employs measurements of subordinates' perceptions of abuse as the primary dependent variable. This study began with a test of the notion that a significant proportion of subordinates' perceptions of abuse can be explained by individual differences in subordinates' attribution styles and...

We argue that although attributional processes appear to affect virtually all goal and reward oriented behavior in organizations, they have not received adequate attention in the organizational sciences. In this Incubator, we encourage scholars to unlock the potential of attribution theory to develop more complete explanations of organizational beh...

This study examines predictors of abusive employee behavior toward coworkers. We examined two personality variables, negative affectivity and political skill, and two situational relationship variables-team member exchange and coworker relationship conflict. We tested our hypotheses with data obtained from a sample of 232 working employees. We foun...

Psychological entitlement is a relatively stable tendency toward inflated self-perceptions and unrealistic expectations concerning praise and rewards. This study investigates two behavioral outcomes of entitlement — political behavior and co-worker abuse — and the mediating role of job-related frustration. We also examine the impact of supervisor c...

Human resource management scholars have consistently found that effective HRM practices influence employee turnover decisions. They have attempted to integrate employee organizational behavior constructs into HRM effectiveness models to further increase the predictive validity of HRM effectiveness on employee turnover decisions. Adding to that lite...

We review past research on the relationship between attributional perceptions, emotions, and workplace aggression and develop a conceptual model that extends this research in two ways. First, we consider the influence of controllability attributions on the type (otherdirected, self-directed, hostile, non-hostile) and likelihood of aggressive respon...

This study extends research on the escalation of commitment phenomenon by investigating decision makers' tendency to look forward to project completion and develop anticipatory perceptions and emotions concerning goal attainment. We examine the influence of two project-specific predictors of escalation (level of progress and presence of an alternat...

The article explores the issue of abusive supervision. Topics include the attributions and perceptions of abuse supervision by subordinates, the relationship between attributions and abusive supervision, lead-member relations as a mediator, and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationships. It concluded that a large part of the variability in subordin...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between social stressors and the outcomes of job satisfaction, altruism, and turnover intentions. Additionally, this study examined the moderating impact of individuals’ core self-evaluations on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from a branch of...

Psychological entitlement refers to the phenomenon in which individuals consistently believe that they deserve preferential rewards and treatment, often with little consideration of actual qualities or performance levels. This study examines the influence of psychological entitlement on workplace outcomes, using attribution theory to explain its ef...

Numerous studies have found that individuals' levels of job strain are consistently and strongly related to turnover intention. The present study examined whether the supervisor—which is one of the most important interorganizational relationships that employees have—might buffer the strain/turnover-intention relationship. We employed the conservati...

Building on a recent study of Weiner's (1985a) attribution–emotion–behavior model, we examine the extent to which negative affective states mediate the relationship between attributions for undesirable outcomes and the ability to justify ethically questionable behaviors. Results of a scenario-based study indicated that causal attributions were asso...

To better understand the influence of causal perceptions on turnover intentions, this study investigates the influence of hostile attribution styles on job satisfaction, stress, and turnover intent. A theoretical model is developed in which satisfaction and stress are predicted to mediate the relationship between hostile attributions and turnover i...

The Emergence of Attribution TheoryDefinition and ConstructMeasuring AttributionsAttributional BiasesIndividual Differences and AttributionsCounterproductive BehaviorLeader-Member InteractionsImpression Management and Human Resource ManagementAttributions and EmotionsGroup and Organizational Level AttributionsEmerging IssuesConclusions References

We present a model that captures processes leading to aggressive behaviors in the workplace. Starting with trigger events, the model outlines the development of aggressive behaviors via three processing routes that vary in their level of deliberate, mindful processing. The model outlines how repeated exposure to trigger events can lead to the escal...

The authors aimed to distinguish between perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and perceived organizational support (POS). Previous research has shown that these two constructs are related, and whereas some researchers have suggested that POS mediates the relationships between POPs and outcomes (e.g., M. C. Andrews & K. M. Kacmar, 2001; R....

The purpose of this article is to review literature that has focused on the role of attributions in leadership processes and to explore and explain how the study of attributions does, and can, contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of leadership. The historical roots of attribution research are discussed, along with early attributional res...

We conducted a study to test the interactive effects of abusive supervision, ingratiation, and positive affect (PA) on strain (i.e., job tension and emotional exhaustion) and turnover intentions. We hypothesized that employees' use of ingratiation, when coupled with high levels of PA, would neutralize the adverse effects of abusive supervision on e...

This study investigates the impact of perceived social stressors on job and career satisfaction. Additionally, the authors investigate whether individuals' reported levels of political skill could attenuate the negative effects of social stressors on these outcome variables. The authors test these hypotheses with a sample of 246 alumni from a priva...

Purpose The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual model predicting the influence of biased causal explanations for subordinate behaviors and outcomes on a leader's functionality and the quality of leader‐member relationships. Design/methodology/approach Attribution theory is used to analyze the effect of leader perceptions and emotion...

Building on recent theories of authentic leadership, we introduce an attributional framework for understanding authenticity. It is proposed that authenticity implies an accurate and balanced attribution style - a relationship that we argue has been overlooked in past research on authentic leadership. We also suggest that organizations can take an a...

We present a theoretical model of attributions and emotions, and the behavioral and psychological consequences of these in the workplace. Expanding on Weiner's (1985) framework, we argue that emotional intelligence plays a moderating role in the attribution-emotion-behavior process. Specifically, the emotional intelligence dimensions of perception,...

Managing organizational aggression On December 30, 1999, the Radisson Hotel in Tampa, Florida, was filled with guests. Many were college football fans in town for the “Outback Bowl,” whereas others had arrived early to celebrate the coming of the new millennium. All plans were abruptly put on hold at 3:10 pm, however, when a hotel employee named Si...

Deviant workplace activities and the ability of employees to justify these behaviors have drawn increased interest following recent corporate scandals and other highly publicized amoral activities. However, much is still unknown about the factors that enable individuals to justify organizationally undesirable actions. This study set out to further...