This paper examines the role of ethical leadership in mitigating the effects of abusive supervision and subsequent impact on employee outcomes including interaction justice, job attitudes and well‐being. We examined two sets of moderated mediating models to link positive and negative leader behaviors together by taking on a subordinate‐centric perspective. The first set stipulates that prior ethical leadership, as a moral licence, will reduce the negative impact of subsequent abusive supervision on interactional justice, which, in turn, will enhance subordinates’ job‐related attitudes and well‐being. The second set hypothesizes that prior ethical leadership will accentuate the importance of interactional justice, making subordinates more easily influenced by subsequent abusive supervision. Data were obtained from full‐time Chinese employees by using a three‐wave time lagged design (n = 223). The results generally supported our second hypothesized model. Specifically, interactional justice mediated the relations between abusive supervision and work outcomes. Moreover, prior ethical leadership moderated the interactional justice–work outcome relations as well as the indirect effect of abusive supervision on work outcomes via interactional justice.

中文翻译：

---

对道德领导者的辱骂行为的从属反应：多波研究

本文探讨了道德领导者在减轻滥用监督的影响以及随后对员工绩效（包括互动公正，工作态度和福祉）的影响方面的作用。我们研究了两套温和的中介模型，以从属为中心的视角将正面和负面领导者的行为联系在一起。第一组规定，事先的道德领导作为一种道德许可，将减少随后的虐待式监督对互动正义的负面影响，从而反过来会增强下属的工作态度和福祉。第二组假设，先前的道德领导将强调互动正义的重要性，从而使下属更容易受到后续滥用监督的影响。n  = 223）。结果总体上支持了我们的第二个假设模型。具体而言，互动正义介导了滥用监督与工作成果之间的关系。此外，先前的道德领导会缓和互动式司法与工作成果之间的关系，以及通过互动式司法对工作成果进行滥用监督的间接影响。