How abusive supervision climate affects team creativity: the contingent role of task interdependence

Abstract

Drawing on theories of social information processing and social identity, the authors explore how abusive supervision climate affects team creativity in a Chinese cultural context. The authors propose that this relation will be mediated by collective efficacy and group identification and moderated by task interdependence The study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression to analyze the paired data from 67 research and development (R&D) teams involving 378 employees and employers in a Chinese cultural context. Results demonstrate that abusive supervision climate was negatively related to team creativity, fully mediated by collective efficacy and group identification in a Chinese cultural context. In addition, task interdependence strengthened the positive relation between collective efficacy and team creativity, as well the positive relation between group identification and team creativity. Although research has explored how abusive supervision climate influences individual creativity, few studies have investigated the relation between abusive supervision climate and team creativity in a Chinese cultural context. This study is one of the first to explore how abusive supervision climate affects team creativity in a Chinese cultural context and examine the moderating role of task interdependence in the relation between abusive supervision climate and team creativity.