Role of gender on the relationship between abusive supervision and employee’s intention to quit in Indian electricity distribution companies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold; first, to examine the relationship between employee’s perception of abusive supervision and their intention to quit the organization and, second, to investigate the moderating role of gender differences on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 227 employees working in an Indian electricity distribution company through self-report questionnaires using a time-lagged design on two occasions (span between T1 and T2 was 3 to 4 weeks). Findings The finding of the study confirms that abusive supervision is strongly related to subordinates’ intention to quit. The study also reveals that women employees intend to quit organization more often than their men counterpart, when they perceive their supervisors to be abusive. Originality/value The research provides insight into how an interpersonal stressor like abusive supervision depletes an employee’s critical resources (conservation of resources theory) and thereby amplifies the employee’s intention to quit. The study is among the first to also reveal different coping strategies (to quit or not to quit) used by male and female employee (in line with “Role theory”) when faced with an interpersonal stressor like abusive supervision.