Abstract
Abusive supervision refers to followers’ perceptions of the extent to which leaders engage in a sustained display of non-verbal and hostile verbal behaviours. While extant literature has examined the determinants of abusive supervision and its consequences on victims, recent research has extended the study of abusive supervision to consider third parties who witness abusive supervision. The third party perception of abusive supervision is independent of the subordinate’s perception of abusive supervision. Specifically, an act might be perceived as abusive by a third party even if the subordinate does not perceive it as such. This study applies social exchange theory and the indirect reciprocity paradigm to an empirical study of the consequences of witnessing abusive supervision in schools in Malta. While prior literature has examined the consequences of witnessing abusive supervision in corporations, no study has examined these phenomena among schoolteachers. Without such an understanding, academics, policymakers and managers are unable to comprehensively understand the effects of abusive supervision on schoolteachers.