MAKASSAR, Indonesia August 02 2026 /IOP/–Have you ever worked for someone whose sharp words made you dread checking your email? A new study confirms what many employees already sense: an abusive boss doesn’t just ruin a bad day, it quietly drains the very engagement that keeps people motivated at work — though not in the way you might expect.
A study published in the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management (Emerald Publishing Limited, 15 May 2026), titled “Diverse consequences of abusive supervision on work engagement: the impact of job insecurity and the cognitive demand of flexible work,” examines precisely this mechanism. Conducted by Hillman Wirawan, Muhammad Tamar, Siti Haerani, Novina Sabila Zahra, and Asma Asma, the study surveyed 252 full-time employees across companies in eastern Indonesia. Using a three-phase longitudinal design with one-week intervals between surveys, the researchers tracked abusive supervision, job insecurity, the cognitive demand of flexible work, and the three components of work engagement — vigor (energy and stamina), dedication (pride and enthusiasm), and absorption (deep focus on the task at hand) — over time.
The surprising finding: abusive supervision — bosses who belittle, ignore, or humiliate their staff — significantly weakened vigor and dedication, largely by fueling job insecurity, the nagging fear of losing one’s position. Yet absorption barely budged. Employees under difficult supervisors could still lose themselves in their tasks, almost as if burying themselves in work became a way to cope rather than confront a hostile boss.
An unexpected buffer emerged from an unlikely source: flexible work. The study introduced a measure called the “cognitive demand of flexible work” — the mental effort employees invest in planning their own schedules, locations, and coordination when working remotely or on flexible terms. Employees who actively engaged this planning effort were noticeably more resilient. When their cognitive investment in organizing flexible work was high, the harmful effects of an abusive boss on their vigor and dedication weakened substantially. When that investment was low, the damage was far more severe.
In other words, the mental work of managing one’s own flexible schedule can become a hidden resource, something employees draw on to protect their motivation even when leadership fails them.
This research speaks directly to Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), which calls for protecting mental health and psychological safety in everyday environments, including workplaces. Toxic leadership is a documented threat to employee mental health worldwide, and understanding which coping resources actually help — like thoughtfully structured flexible work — gives organizations concrete tools to protect their people rather than vague encouragement to “build resilience.”
The practical takeaway is twofold. Organizations should invest in training supervisors to give feedback constructively, since abusive patterns rarely disappear on their own. At the same time, giving employees genuine autonomy over how they structure flexible work — rather than just permission to work from anywhere — may quietly shield their motivation from a difficult boss.
Reference:
Wirawan H, Tamar M, Haerani S, Zahra NS, Asma A (2026;), “Diverse consequences of abusive supervision on work engagement: the impact of job insecurity and the cognitive demand of flexible work”. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-07-2025-0647
Contact:
Hillman Wirawan
hillman@unhas.ac.id | Telp: +62 853-9812-0801
