Exploring the impact of abusive supervision on employee approaches to managing service errors and failures: Examining the effects of hope and optimism, and service tenure

Drawing from the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the current study posits that leadership in the form of abusive supervision will be more detrimental to subordinates' hope and optimism, due to the loss of accumulated resources for those who have increased service tenure, thereby lowering their ability to alleviate and successfully manage service failures/errors. Using convenience sampling, 174 hotel frontline employees from Istanbul, Turkey, completed survey questionnaires in two separate time waves. Results from SmartPLS indicate that abusive supervision has a significant and adverse association with employees’ hope and optimism. Additionally, the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ hope and optimism is moderated by service tenure, such that the negative relationship is more profound for those with increased service tenure. Finally, hope and optimism mediate the relationship between abusive supervision and two behaviors for handling service errors/failures (i.e., service recovery performance and error reporting). This study concludes by discussing theoretical and practical implications. •This research studied how abusive supervisor behaviors affect employees' ability to handle service failures and errors.•Using time-lagged data the current study sampled hotel employees in Istanbul, Turkey.•Abusive supervisor behaviors were found to have a statistically significant and negative correlation with hope and optimism.•Abusive supervisor behaviors impaired service recovery and error reporting, with hope and optimism mediating these effects.