Abstract
Abusive supervision has attracted the attention of researchers in recent decades. As a service
sector, abusive supervision in the hospitality industry has been shown to be an important and
complex issue (Yu et al., 2020). This thesis aims to explore and examine abusive supervision
issues in the hospitality industry from multiple perspectives. Based on a review of empirical
studies on abusive supervision in the hospitality industry, the experience sampling method
(ESM) was identified as a valuable research direction. The applications of ESM are presented
in detail and applied in Empirical Study 1 to explore the relationship between abusive
supervision and subordinates’ daily emotional labour. Empirical Study 2 focuses on
bystanders’ reactions to abusive supervision, investigating the topic of abusive supervision
from the perspective of bystanders rather than victims of abusive supervision.
This thesis uses a manuscript-based format. The first manuscript is a systematic review of the
empirical studies on abusive supervision in the hospitality industry, the second presents the
applications of ESM in the hospitality industry, and the third and fourth are two empirical
studies of abusive supervision from the perspectives of victims and bystanders, respectively.
The systematic review covers 36 studies on abusive supervision in the hospitality industry
and demonstrates that ESM is a valuable and promising approach in abusive supervision
research. On the basis of this finding, the second manuscript presents in detail the
applications of ESM in hospitality research. By providing practical instructions on ESM and
identifying appropriate research topics in the hospitality industry, this manuscript offers
detailed guidelines for the applications of the method in hospitality research. Empirical Study
1 applies ESM to explore the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinates’
daily emotional labour. It reveals the daily fluctuations in the emotional labour of frontline
employees in the hospitality industry. Empirical Study 2 investigates the emotional and
behavioural reactions of bystanders to abusive supervision in the hospitality industry. Using
in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study provides an integrated picture of bystanders’
emotional and behavioural reactions to abusive supervision, ranging from negative emotions
to unconcerned and exclusionary feelings and from supportive behaviours to avoidance,
gossip, and learning behaviours.
As a whole study, this thesis investigated abusive supervision in the hospitality industry from
both victims’ and bystanders’ perspectives. From the victims’ perspective, abusive
supervision has been found to be positively related to victims’ daily surface acting through
their daily work engagement. Meanwhile, victims’ mindfulness moderates the relationship
between daily abusive supervision and their daily work engagement. From the bystanders’
perspective, abusive supervision has been found to influence bystanders’ emotions and
behaviours. Bystanders had various negative and unconcerned emotions, and showed helping,
avoiding, gossiping and learning behaviours towards abusive supervision. These findings
have supplemented the abusive supervision research in the hospitality industry. From a
theoretical perspective, this thesis has firstly identified key research trends and framed the
outlines of empirical studies in the hospitality industry. Following the research trends and
identifying the research gaps, this thesis has firstly explored the instant effects of abusive
supervision on frontline employees’ emotional labour through a diary study, and it is also
among the first attempts to understand abusive supervision from a bystander perspective in
the hospitality and tourism context. From a practical perspective, this thesis has identified the
potential negative impacts of abusive supervision in the hospitality industry and it can help
managers establish principles and rules and arrange associated training programmes to reduce
the negative impacts of abusive supervision.