CEOs' abusive behaviors and firm performance: The roles of TMT behavioral integration and task interdependence

Drawing upon a structural contingency perspective, our research investigates how and under what conditions chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) abusive behaviors influence firm performance. Using four-wave, multi-source data from 131 small and medium-sized firms in various industries in China, we theorize and find that top management team (TMT) behavioral integration mediates the negative relationship between CEOs’ abusive behaviors and firm performance. More importantly, TMT task interdependence serves as an essential structural condition. Specifically, the negative indirect effect of CEOs’ abusive behaviors on firm performance through diminished TMT behavioral integration becomes stronger under higher levels of TMT task interdependence. Our research advances upper echelons theory by incorporating structural design of organizations into the study of destructive leadership at the top echelon. It also extends the abusive supervision literature by reinforcing evidence of CEOs’ detrimental behaviors at the organizational level and specifying when such harm is more pronounced.