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This study aims to investigate the effect of abusive supervision on employees’ creativity through the mediating role of job insecurity and the moderating role of subordinate gender in Indonesia.

Data were collected from various sources using online recruitment methods. The abusive supervision scale, job insecurity scale and employee creativity scale were the three measures in this study. Participants completed a three-wave data collection procedure using an online survey platform. After removing participants with incomplete and careless responses, the final data set contained 515 usable responses.

The results suggested that the negative effect of abusive supervision on employees’ creativity was mediated by job insecurity, and employees’ gender moderated this adverse effect. Gender roles shaped how employees respond to their leader’s hostile behaviours. In Indonesia, abusive supervision increased employees’ job insecurity and consequently reduced their creativity. However, the damage was more profound for the male employees than the female employees.

Gender role theory and perspectives are essential in explaining leader–employee interactions and must be included in leadership strategies. Also, support and resources must be provided equally for both male and female employees. However, more attention must be given to male employees to ensure their security working in organisations. Finally, some interventions are necessary to mitigate the effect of abusive supervision.

This study offers insight into how male and female employees, in a traditional gender role culture like Indonesia, respond to their leader’s abusive behaviours.

Abusive supervision provokes subordinates’ interpersonal deviant behavior. It is, therefore, essential to explore the contingent factors of this relationship. Drawing upon gender role theory, this study aims to explore how subordinate and leader genders moderate the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinate interpersonal deviance. Furthermore, this study posits a three-way interaction effect of abusive supervision with leader and subordinate genders on interpersonal deviance.

Multisource survey data were collected from 45 supervisors and 170 subordinates in eight companies in China. The data were analyzed using the PROCESS macro in SPSS.

The results showed that the positive relationship between abusive supervision and interpersonal deviance was stronger among female leaders than male leaders. Furthermore, the authors found a three-way interaction effect between abusive supervision and leader and subordinate genders on subordinates’ interpersonal deviance. Compared with female subordinates, male subordinates engaged in significantly more interpersonal deviance when experiencing abusive supervision from a female leader than from a male leader.

The authors reveal that gender differences exist in the effect of abusive supervision on subordinates’ interpersonal deviant behavior. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that subordinate and leader genders jointly influence the effect of abusive supervision. Finally, the findings extend the literature on gender’s moderating effects from constructive and neutral leader behaviors to destructive leader behaviors.