title: Abusive supervision, work engagement and burnout: Does employee trait mindfulness buffer the effects of leader abuse?

authors: Powell, Briana

subjects: Abusive supervision

abstract: Job demands and job resources can motivate employees to perform at their best; however, when leadership is no longer considered a job resource and instead becomes a job demand, employees can experience an imbalance leading to negative outcomes. The current research body is well equipped with empirical evidence supporting the relationships between abusive supervision – a hostile and destructive leadership style – and these negative outcomes. Despite this, the majority of this research has used single-sourced correlation and cross-sectional research designs – creating a single-source method bias. As such, little research has been dedicated to understanding the effect on employee work engagement and burnout from this abuse overtime. This study aimed to bridge the gap in the knowledge base by comparing data from two timepoints. Furthermore, employee trait mindfulness has yet to be explored as a personal resource moderating these relationships and so the current study aimed to examine this.

Drawing on 318 employees from matched Time 1 and Time 2 data, the current research set out to (1) determine the longitudinal effects of abusive supervision on employee work engagement and burnout levels and (2) assess the role of employee trait mindfulness in these relationships, assessing where in the relationship this personal resource would likely cause a buffering influence. To analyse this, data were collected using self-report questionnaires at two timepoints, four weeks apart.

The results of the study find, longitudinally, that abusive supervision plays a negative role in employee work engagement and burnout levels. The results suggest that employees who are experiencing abusive supervision are more likely to report lower levels of work engagement and higher levels of burnout overtime.

While direct effects of mindfulness on engagement and burnout were found, moderation analyses indicated that trait mindfulness did not have a buffering effect on the negative outcomes of abusive supervision. Employees’ levels of mindfulness did not have an impact on the levels of work engagement and burnout experienced due to abusive supervision overtime. This might suggest that mindfulness does not provide enough in terms of employee personal resources needed to overcome the job demand of abuse by a leader. It is thought that abuse may limit an employee’s ability to be mindful due to the depletion of cognitive resources drained via abuse and thus mindfulness is unable to buffer the effects of the abuse.

Future research may wish to consider whether mindfulness provides more of a buffer closer to when the outcomes of abuse are experienced due to the acceptance tendencies that mindfulness provides. This opens the research body up to a number of research opportunities, including examining the boundary conditions of mindfulness in the face of abusive supervision.

text: Abusive supervision, work engagement and burnout: Does employee trait mindfulness buffer the effects of leader abuse? Job demands and job resources can motivate employees to perform at their best; however, when leadership is no longer considered a job resource and instead becomes a job demand, employees can experience an imbalance leading to negative outcomes. The current research body is well equipped with empirical evidence supporting the relationships between abusive supervision – a hostile and destructive leadership style – and these negative outcomes. Despite this, the majority of this research has used single-sourced correlation and cross-sectional research designs – creating a single-source method bias. As such, little research has been dedicated to understanding the effect on employee work engagement and burnout from this abuse overtime. This study aimed to bridge the gap in the knowledge base by comparing data from two timepoints. Furthermore, employee trait mindfulness has yet to be explored as a personal resource moderating these relationships and so the current study aimed to examine this.

Drawing on 318 employees from matched Time 1 and Time 2 data, the current research set out to (1) determine the longitudinal effects of abusive supervision on employee work engagement and burnout levels and (2) assess the role of employee trait mindfulness in these relationships, assessing where in the relationship this personal resource would likely cause a buffering influence. To analyse this, data were collected using self-report questionnaires at two timepoints, four weeks apart.

The results of the study find, longitudinally, that abusive supervision plays a negative role in employee work engagement and burnout levels. The results suggest that employees who are experiencing abusive supervision are more likely to report lower levels of work engagement and higher levels of burnout overtime.

While direct effects of mindfulness on engagement and burnout were found, moderation analyses indicated that trait mindfulness did not have a buffering effect on the negative outcomes of abusive supervision. Employees’ levels of mindfulness did not have an impact on the levels of work engagement and burnout experienced due to abusive supervision overtime. This might suggest that mindfulness does not provide enough in terms of employee personal resources needed to overcome the job demand of abuse by a leader. It is thought that abuse may limit an employee’s ability to be mindful due to the depletion of cognitive resources drained via abuse and thus mindfulness is unable to buffer the effects of the abuse.

Future research may wish to consider whether mindfulness provides more of a buffer closer to when the outcomes of abuse are experienced due to the acceptance tendencies that mindfulness provides. This opens the research body up to a number of research opportunities, including examining the boundary conditions of mindfulness in the face of abusive supervision.

year: 2020

title: TATAU: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing [Book review]

authors: McCormack, Fiona

abstract: This book is a homage to tatau, honouring its deep socio-political significance and central mediating role in Sāmoan culture, past and present. As much as this is a social anthropological account, however, it is also a paean to tatau as a high art form, to the tufuga ta tatau who create these remarkably beautiful marks on the skin as well as the contemporary artists who wear and celebrate them. Indeed, many of the images reproduced in the book have adorned the walls of art galleries in and beyond Oceania.

text: TATAU: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing [Book review] This book is a homage to tatau, honouring its deep socio-political significance and central mediating role in Sāmoan culture, past and present. As much as this is a social anthropological account, however, it is also a paean to tatau as a high art form, to the tufuga ta tatau who create these remarkably beautiful marks on the skin as well as the contemporary artists who wear and celebrate them. Indeed, many of the images reproduced in the book have adorned the walls of art galleries in and beyond Oceania.

year: 2021

title: Mai i te kore, ki te pō, ki te ao mārama: He kohinga pūrākau hauora o ngā kaumātua Māori, Māori Elders health and wellbeing stories in life transitions

authors: Shelford, Pita

subjects: pūrākau

abstract: Introduction
New Zealand’s general population is ageing. Kaumātua (Māori elders) only make up approximately 3.1 percent of the total population and yet, they are disproportionately overrepresented in poor health, wellbeing and ageing statistics. However, this is a one-sided story and the focus of a deficit approach. There is a strong need for a strength-based approach where kaumātua voices of problem-solving and resilience related to ageing and the changes it presents, are heard. The purpose of this study is to identify and share those voices and to respond to the call from Māori academics to apply pūrākau as an alternative to Western narrative approaches. Through a pūrākau approach, this thesis sought to answer three key research questions: 

1)What are the cultural and communication features of the kaumātua teina narratives?
2) What are the cultural and communication characteristics of the kaumātua tuakana conversational styles? and 
3) What is the nature of the kaumātua journeys in how the stories unfold, and relationships develop? 

Methods
This study analyses pūrākau from the Kaumātua Mana Motuhake (KMM) collaboration project between the University of Waikato and the Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. The KMM project sought to enhance kaumātua wellbeing during life changes such as losses of licence, independence or spouse, health changes and retirement through a peer-support tuakana-teina programme. The KMM team implemented a tuakana-teina peer support programme where kaumātua (n= 121) engaged in up to three conversations as kaumātua tuakana-teina pairs. The conversations involved exploring the life changes the teina chose with the tuakana guiding the conversations and sharing potential services to help with the changes.
This thesis analysed 30 kaumātua conversations in 10 tuakana-teina pairs to tell a strengths-based story of health and wellbeing. Taking a Kaupapa Māori approach, the research prioritised, privileged and foregrounded Māori and Indigenous epistemology, ontology, and axiology. A pūrākau-grounded analysis approach was developed and applied to the conversations.

Findings
Related to the first research question, the analysis revealed kaumātua narratives that spoke to stories about adversity, turning points, independence and resilience. Regarding the second research question, the study identified key cultural and communicational characteristics kaumātua tuakana used, speaking with words of kinship and reciprocation, words of ignition and guidance, and words of empathy and affirmation. Pertaining to the third research question, the analysis illustrated conversational and relational journey types kaumātua pairs travelled, consisting of conversations that went direct to topics, detours that became defining moments, small tiki tours that came back to the topic, stories that were revisited, and hospitality becoming defining moments. 

Conclusions
The findings compiled weave a collective tapestry of kaumātua teina pūrākau, kaumātua tuakana communication styles, and kaumātua conversational and relational journeys. Kaumātua teina have voiced a pūrākau for us to understand inter-generational trauma and how cultural connection liberated their wellbeing. Kaumātua tuakana have composed a script of communication protocols emphasising connection and relationship development essential to upholding tikanga (practices, principles, communications). The paired kaumātua journeys have drawn a signposted road map that highlighted journey types, emphasising reciprocity in conversing, learning, guiding, connecting, developing, strengthening and enhancing communications, relationships, and wellbeing

Implications
Via kaumātua conversations, invaluable understandings into Māori and Indigenous wellbeing, ageing and development scholarship are offered, strengthening transformation, leadership and resilience theories. Pūrākau and whanaungatanga (relationships) methodologies are advocated for and culturally responsive research is promoted. Health, wellbeing and ageing programme development, policy and service delivery can be practically informed, accentuating mentorship, intergenerational initiatives, and culturally appropriate kaumātua support. Together, the findings can cultivate community wellbeing and nurture cultural continuity.

text: Mai i te kore, ki te pō, ki te ao mārama: He kohinga pūrākau hauora o ngā kaumātua Māori, Māori Elders health and wellbeing stories in life transitions Introduction
New Zealand’s general population is ageing. Kaumātua (Māori elders) only make up approximately 3.1 percent of the total population and yet, they are disproportionately overrepresented in poor health, wellbeing and ageing statistics. However, this is a one-sided story and the focus of a deficit approach. There is a strong need for a strength-based approach where kaumātua voices of problem-solving and resilience related to ageing and the changes it presents, are heard. The purpose of this study is to identify and share those voices and to respond to the call from Māori academics to apply pūrākau as an alternative to Western narrative approaches. Through a pūrākau approach, this thesis sought to answer three key research questions: 

1)What are the cultural and communication features of the kaumātua teina narratives?
2) What are the cultural and communication characteristics of the kaumātua tuakana conversational styles? and 
3) What is the nature of the kaumātua journeys in how the stories unfold, and relationships develop? 

Methods
This study analyses pūrākau from the Kaumātua Mana Motuhake (KMM) collaboration project between the University of Waikato and the Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. The KMM project sought to enhance kaumātua wellbeing during life changes such as losses of licence, independence or spouse, health changes and retirement through a peer-support tuakana-teina programme. The KMM team implemented a tuakana-teina peer support programme where kaumātua (n= 121) engaged in up to three conversations as kaumātua tuakana-teina pairs. The conversations involved exploring the life changes the teina chose with the tuakana guiding the conversations and sharing potential services to help with the changes.
This thesis analysed 30 kaumātua conversations in 10 tuakana-teina pairs to tell a strengths-based story of health and wellbeing. Taking a Kaupapa Māori approach, the research prioritised, privileged and foregrounded Māori and Indigenous epistemology, ontology, and axiology. A pūrākau-grounded analysis approach was developed and applied to the conversations.

Findings
Related to the first research question, the analysis revealed kaumātua narratives that spoke to stories about adversity, turning points, independence and resilience. Regarding the second research question, the study identified key cultural and communicational characteristics kaumātua tuakana used, speaking with words of kinship and reciprocation, words of ignition and guidance, and words of empathy and affirmation. Pertaining to the third research question, the analysis illustrated conversational and relational journey types kaumātua pairs travelled, consisting of conversations that went direct to topics, detours that became defining moments, small tiki tours that came back to the topic, stories that were revisited, and hospitality becoming defining moments. 

Conclusions
The findings compiled weave a collective tapestry of kaumātua teina pūrākau, kaumātua tuakana communication styles, and kaumātua conversational and relational journeys. Kaumātua teina have voiced a pūrākau for us to understand inter-generational trauma and how cultural connection liberated their wellbeing. Kaumātua tuakana have composed a script of communication protocols emphasising connection and relationship development essential to upholding tikanga (practices, principles, communications). The paired kaumātua journeys have drawn a signposted road map that highlighted journey types, emphasising reciprocity in conversing, learning, guiding, connecting, developing, strengthening and enhancing communications, relationships, and wellbeing

Implications
Via kaumātua conversations, invaluable understandings into Māori and Indigenous wellbeing, ageing and development scholarship are offered, strengthening transformation, leadership and resilience theories. Pūrākau and whanaungatanga (relationships) methodologies are advocated for and culturally responsive research is promoted. Health, wellbeing and ageing programme development, policy and service delivery can be practically informed, accentuating mentorship, intergenerational initiatives, and culturally appropriate kaumātua support. Together, the findings can cultivate community wellbeing and nurture cultural continuity.

year: 2025-11-04