The present may not be pretty: mindfulness intensifies the harm of abusive supervision on employee hostile attribution bias and deviant behavior

Mindfulness has generally been viewed as beneficial for individuals at workplace. However, our understanding of its’ potential costs is still very limited. Based on social information processing theory, we propose that employee trait mindfulness amplifies the harm of abusive supervision on employees in terms of increased hostile attribution bias and deviant behavior. Results from a multi-wave multi-source field study (Study 1) and an experimental study (Study 2) supported our hypotheses. Our findings offer some important theoretical and practical implications.