Abusive supervision: can workplace friendships exacerbate work alienation and intent to quit?

Purpose – Drawing on conservation of resources, similarity-attraction and social comparison theories, this research aims to examine how supervisors’ abusive behaviour influences employees’ intent to quit by investigating the mediating role of work alienation and the moderating role of workplace friendship. Design/methodology/approach – In Study I, time-lagged survey data were collected from 241 academic institutions’ employees at two separate times to empirically test the study’s hypotheses. In Study II, four different scenario manipulations were administered to 220 academic institutions’ undergraduate and graduate students. Both studies were conducted in Türkiye. Findings – The results of the survey indicate a positive relationship between employee exposure to supervisors’ abusive behaviour and their intent to quit, with work alienation mediating this relationship, and workplace friendship partially boosting the intensity of the negative effect. Similar results were confirmed by the findings of the survey conducted across four scenario manipulations in the education sector. Research limitations/implications – Despite the two-sector, two-instrument study design used, this research may only partially capture and explain the relationships among the studied variables. To enhance the generalisability of their findings, future studies should investigate broader cultural and occupational contexts, using both longitudinal and mixed-method designs. Practical implications – Strong workplace friendships may intensify the negative impact of abusive supervision, increasing staff alienation and turnover intentions, signalling risks for team stability and retention. Economic implications of high-level employee turnover should be considered by managers. Originality/value – This study challenges the prevailing assumption that workplace or academic friendships are universally beneficial. By demonstrating that strong workplace friendships can exacerbate the negative effects of supervisors’ or instructors’ abusive behaviour, it introduces a more nuanced understanding of interpersonal dynamics in organisational and educational settings.