Abstract
Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, I develop and test a theoretical model specifying how abusive supervision affects employee time theft. The data was collected in three waves with one-month intervals, and 635 samples were received. I used multiple regression to examine the direct and moderating effects. Additionally, the bootstrapping method was used to test mediating effects. I found that abusive supervision was positively correlated with emotional exhaustion and moral disengagement; also, emotional exhaustion and moral disengagement played mediating roles between abusive supervision and employee time theft. The results advance understanding of how perceived leaders’ abusive supervision enhances employees’ time theft. It contributes to the literature by confirming emotional exhaustion and moral disengagement as a pathway linking abusive supervision to employee time theft. The study further identifies perceived co-worker support as a moderating variable in the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ time theft.