Abusive Supervision Scale

Tepper defined it as subordinates' perceptions of sustained hostile behavior because the harm flows from how the subordinate experiences and interprets the supervisor's conduct, not from an externally certified act. The same behavior — say, blunt criticism — may be perceived as abusive by one subordinate and as acceptably direct by another, and it is the perception of hostility and injustice that drives reduced satisfaction, commitment, and well-being. Defining the construct perceptually keeps the measure focused on the experience that produces the outcomes, though it also means scores reflect interpretation and cannot by themselves verify what the supervisor objectively did.

Abusive supervision is specifically supervisory, sustained, and clearly hostile, but excludes physical contact. Workplace incivility is lower in intensity and ambiguous in intent — rude or discourteous behavior that may or may not be meant to harm — and is not limited to supervisors. Bullying typically involves repeated, escalating mistreatment with a power imbalance and can include peers. The constructs overlap, which is a recognized discriminant-validity concern, but Tepper's definition deliberately bounds abusive supervision as sustained, nonphysical, supervisor-to-subordinate hostility perceived by the subordinate, distinguishing it from these neighboring forms of mistreatment.

Because it operates through perceived injustice. Tepper grounded the construct in organizational justice theory: sustained supervisory hostility is experienced as a serious violation of fair, respectful treatment, and that sense of injustice spreads to attitudes about the job and organization, to behavior, and to personal well-being. In the original study this manifested as higher turnover and, among those who stayed, lower satisfaction and commitment, more work-family conflict, and greater psychological distress. The justice mechanism explains why a single supervisory phenomenon can damage outcomes ranging from job attitudes to mental health and even spill over into life outside work.