The Hollywood movie Horrible Bosses was an exaggerated portrayal of employees taking revenge against abusive supervisors. But amid the preposterous scenes were some home truths: some supervisors do mistreat their subordinates, and some subordinates fight back.

In Hong Kong, for instance, one South China Morning Post survey found more than half of 500 respondents had suffered abuse at work, and more than two-thirds of that abuse was by their supervisor.

The survey was cited by Professor Huiwen Lian at a recent talk on the nature and consequences of abusive supervision and how to reduce this problem, which she has been investigating.

“These behaviours can include giving subordinates the silent treatment, belittling them, making negative comments about them such as telling them they’re incompetent or stupid, emphasising their mistakes and failures, screaming at them, humiliating them in front of others, and angry outbursts,” she said.

“Other researchers have shown that people under abusive supervision are more likely to experience psychological distress, job dissatisfaction, and also have little commitment towards the organization and high turnover intentions. Sometimes they become demotivated to work and less motivated to help others at work.

“My own research has found people under abusive supervision actively engage in harmful behaviours towards their organizations. For example, they won’t show up for work, they may harm or socially exclude co-workers, or sometimes they fight back and do harm to their abusive supervisor.”

These responses are detrimental in the long term because they damage an employee’s reputation in the company, so why do some employees engage in them?

Professor Lian said one first had to consider the effects of abusive supervision. In some cases it can damage an employee’s innate psychological need for a sense of competence, relatedness in terms of belonging and feeling respected, and autonomy over their lives. Being belittled, ignored, or intimidated into trying to please the boss all the time can undermine these needs.

“When our basic psychological needs are threatened, we can become defensive and focused on the short term, and we forget about long-term consequences,” she said. “This may lead employees to steal from the company, sabotage company property, hang out with friends on company time, ignore the supervisor’s instructions, drink or use drugs at work, and so forth.”

Employees experiencing abusive supervision may also harm their co-workers because they see such behavior being modeled by their supervisor, who is rewarded for it (for instance, through achieving their position). People in high power-distance cultures, such as Hong Kong, are more likely to react in this way.

“These are the ones who respect their supervisors more and are more submissive to them,” Professor Lian said. “They would like to think that whatever their supervisor does must be right and so they will do the same thing.”

Finally, employees may directly harm their supervisors when they are driven by anger and they lack sufficient capacity or motivation for self-control. They retaliate even though they may suffer in the long term because the supervisor can influence their future promotions and bonuses.

Professor Lian offered some straightforward advice to managers: be aware of your own potentially hostile behaviour, make sure all supervisors in the company are aware of their own behaviours, and provide them with sensitivity and coping training so they can deal with the stresses that may prompt hostile behaviors.

Managers should also bear in mind that abusive supervision is most harmful when carried out by a trusted supervisor, so supervisors should not take their good relations with employees for granted. Transgressions should be punished in public to show they are not acceptable.

At the employee end, a friendly working environment and opportunities to make choices in their working life could help to address workers’ psychological needs and mitigate their reaction to aggressive behaviours.

“Managers may want to strengthen the whole workplace norm of civil behaviors, applicable to both employees and supervisors. Make sure people know what are the right things to do—put these down on paper and offer formal training so people have no excuse, and give them motivation to control themselves,” she added.

Professor Huiwen Lian of the Business School’s Department of Management was speaking at the Business Insights luncheon in June 2015.