title: Do two rights fix a wrong? A study of employee and organizational responses to abusive supervision in New Zealand

authors: de Fluiter, Alida Jane

subjects: Abusive supervision

abstract: Organizational justice theories suggest that employees who are abused by their supervisor are likely to respond with lower job and personal outcomes. However, an under-explored area has been the influence of support perceptions. The present study suggests that perceived supervisor support (PSS) and perceived organizational support (POS) may moderate the influence of abusive supervision, and this was tested with three-way interactions. Data was collected from two samples: (1) 100 blue-collar workers in construction and (2) 218 random Maori employees from a variety of industries and professions. Structural equation modeling confirmed the unique constructs of the study measures towards abusive supervision and PSS and POS. Direct effects showed abusive supervision was significant and negative in both samples towards life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE), and significant and positive in both samples towards turnover intentions, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The results indicated that abusive supervision accounted for large amounts of variance towards all outcomes, with the exception of life satisfaction in study two (7%), and insomnia (8% in study one, and 4% in study two), ranging from 13%-32% variance. Significant three-way interactions were found for all outcomes except turnover intentions and insomnia. The three-way interaction towards life satisfaction in study one indicated that under abusive supervision, respondents with high PSS and high POS experienced the greatest levels of life satisfaction. Similar relationships were found toward depression (study one and two) and anxiety (study one), showing that respondents who experienced high abusive supervision, high PSS, and high POS had the lowest levels of negative mental health outcomes amongst all abused respondents. This suggested a potentially cumulative effect of multiple sources of support. Furthermore, towards job satisfaction in study two, findings show respondents with high abusive supervision and high POS reported the highest job satisfaction, irrespective of levels of PSS. A similar relationship was found toward OBSE in study two, suggesting that of the support variables examined, POS may have greater effect on outcomes, thereby supporting research of Dawley, Andrews and Bucklew (2008) who found POS to be the best predictor of organizational outcomes. Overall, this paper supports the notion that perceptions of support may moderate the influence of abusive supervision perceptions on employee’s work and personal outcomes. The findings show that while abusive supervision can play a dominant role on outcomes, this can be somewhat nullified by greater support from the organization. This has strong implications for firms dealing with problem supervisors, signaling the importance of establishing POS, and emphasizing that creating a supportive organization may be the first step to enabling employees to develop positive work and individual outcomes.

text: Do two rights fix a wrong? A study of employee and organizational responses to abusive supervision in New Zealand Organizational justice theories suggest that employees who are abused by their supervisor are likely to respond with lower job and personal outcomes. However, an under-explored area has been the influence of support perceptions. The present study suggests that perceived supervisor support (PSS) and perceived organizational support (POS) may moderate the influence of abusive supervision, and this was tested with three-way interactions. Data was collected from two samples: (1) 100 blue-collar workers in construction and (2) 218 random Maori employees from a variety of industries and professions. Structural equation modeling confirmed the unique constructs of the study measures towards abusive supervision and PSS and POS. Direct effects showed abusive supervision was significant and negative in both samples towards life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE), and significant and positive in both samples towards turnover intentions, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The results indicated that abusive supervision accounted for large amounts of variance towards all outcomes, with the exception of life satisfaction in study two (7%), and insomnia (8% in study one, and 4% in study two), ranging from 13%-32% variance. Significant three-way interactions were found for all outcomes except turnover intentions and insomnia. The three-way interaction towards life satisfaction in study one indicated that under abusive supervision, respondents with high PSS and high POS experienced the greatest levels of life satisfaction. Similar relationships were found toward depression (study one and two) and anxiety (study one), showing that respondents who experienced high abusive supervision, high PSS, and high POS had the lowest levels of negative mental health outcomes amongst all abused respondents. This suggested a potentially cumulative effect of multiple sources of support. Furthermore, towards job satisfaction in study two, findings show respondents with high abusive supervision and high POS reported the highest job satisfaction, irrespective of levels of PSS. A similar relationship was found toward OBSE in study two, suggesting that of the support variables examined, POS may have greater effect on outcomes, thereby supporting research of Dawley, Andrews and Bucklew (2008) who found POS to be the best predictor of organizational outcomes. Overall, this paper supports the notion that perceptions of support may moderate the influence of abusive supervision perceptions on employee’s work and personal outcomes. The findings show that while abusive supervision can play a dominant role on outcomes, this can be somewhat nullified by greater support from the organization. This has strong implications for firms dealing with problem supervisors, signaling the importance of establishing POS, and emphasizing that creating a supportive organization may be the first step to enabling employees to develop positive work and individual outcomes.

year: 2011

title: Section 2: Native disruption: Maori and the precariat: Introduction

authors: Masters-Awatere, Bridgette

abstract: Within this section, the authors encourage the reader to look back into history and then consider the future. We are invited to re-examine deeds from this country’s past. To immerse ourselves in a narrative that may be different to the one we have been taught in school, or heard among our friends and family. Through their stories we can see multiple narratives. Readers are invited to understand, embrace and own the past. By recognising and accepting the past — our collective histories — we can determine our collective present and future.

text: Section 2: Native disruption: Maori and the precariat: Introduction Within this section, the authors encourage the reader to look back into history and then consider the future. We are invited to re-examine deeds from this country’s past. To immerse ourselves in a narrative that may be different to the one we have been taught in school, or heard among our friends and family. Through their stories we can see multiple narratives. Readers are invited to understand, embrace and own the past. By recognising and accepting the past — our collective histories — we can determine our collective present and future.

year: 2017

title: Parsing Technology-entanglement for Thick-things: The Complication or Complexity of Media and Technologies

authors: Nicholson, Shaun

subjects: Digital media

abstract: Can an interpretive framework untangle distributed forms of technology-enabled media? The thesis develops an interpretive framework to provide an antidote to reckless imaginations that privilege concealment and encourage explanations of technology-enablement as social or automagical. The framework is a response to Latour's call to modify explanations given simply as 'social' and Kittler's observation of software as an unrecognizable layering of linguistic extensions. 

The interpretive framework is developed from successive encounters with technology-enablement associated with a particular geospatial use of Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality that accesses photos embedded with geospatial information depends on multiple distributed technologies ranging from smartphones to satellites. This contemporary form of technology-enabled media is demonstrated by a Panoramio geospatial layer of tourist photos accessed using the software product Layar. The encounters are with an image collection, WIFI router, 3G cellular data network, iPhone, geospatial location service and Layar. These enabling technologies have been gathered and inspected for human and nonhuman agencies during project encounters that followed an ethnographic approach. A dialogue with technology practitioners informs the analytical engagement with Augmented Reality to provide an alternative vocabulary for theoretical access to those vastly distributed and indescribable technology-enablers.

The framework is developed through successive propositions. The encounters pursue the trajectory of a digital image from a technology-enabled visual representation that can be created or consumed with ease to distributed image collections that operate as a contemporary site of interoperability. Photos are transformed in proposition 1 from a visual surface to a realm of specificity that is a stratified and expansive construction of exchangeable data. The second proposition establishes technologies as constructed from atomic building blocks that are combined in either complicated or complex formations. The second proposition asserts that it is necessary to distinguish between complication and complexity. Propositions 1 and 2 are extended by a debate between respective positions of an extremely flat ontology and an expansive materialism represented by Bryant, Barad, Latour and Bennett. The flat ontology is rejected and a thick account of things is asserted as a position that better accounts for the entanglement of humans and nonhumans interoperating amongst a synthetic ecology of media technologies. The third proposition is that the technology-enablement of media is a complicated or complex form of technology-entanglement. The thesis demonstrates this interpretive framework before concluding with a ‘how-to’ that guides researchers adapting this methodology for their own projects.

text: Parsing Technology-entanglement for Thick-things: The Complication or Complexity of Media and Technologies Can an interpretive framework untangle distributed forms of technology-enabled media? The thesis develops an interpretive framework to provide an antidote to reckless imaginations that privilege concealment and encourage explanations of technology-enablement as social or automagical. The framework is a response to Latour's call to modify explanations given simply as 'social' and Kittler's observation of software as an unrecognizable layering of linguistic extensions. 

The interpretive framework is developed from successive encounters with technology-enablement associated with a particular geospatial use of Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality that accesses photos embedded with geospatial information depends on multiple distributed technologies ranging from smartphones to satellites. This contemporary form of technology-enabled media is demonstrated by a Panoramio geospatial layer of tourist photos accessed using the software product Layar. The encounters are with an image collection, WIFI router, 3G cellular data network, iPhone, geospatial location service and Layar. These enabling technologies have been gathered and inspected for human and nonhuman agencies during project encounters that followed an ethnographic approach. A dialogue with technology practitioners informs the analytical engagement with Augmented Reality to provide an alternative vocabulary for theoretical access to those vastly distributed and indescribable technology-enablers.

The framework is developed through successive propositions. The encounters pursue the trajectory of a digital image from a technology-enabled visual representation that can be created or consumed with ease to distributed image collections that operate as a contemporary site of interoperability. Photos are transformed in proposition 1 from a visual surface to a realm of specificity that is a stratified and expansive construction of exchangeable data. The second proposition establishes technologies as constructed from atomic building blocks that are combined in either complicated or complex formations. The second proposition asserts that it is necessary to distinguish between complication and complexity. Propositions 1 and 2 are extended by a debate between respective positions of an extremely flat ontology and an expansive materialism represented by Bryant, Barad, Latour and Bennett. The flat ontology is rejected and a thick account of things is asserted as a position that better accounts for the entanglement of humans and nonhumans interoperating amongst a synthetic ecology of media technologies. The third proposition is that the technology-enablement of media is a complicated or complex form of technology-entanglement. The thesis demonstrates this interpretive framework before concluding with a ‘how-to’ that guides researchers adapting this methodology for their own projects.

year: 2016