ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the cognitive processes that explains how and when supervisory enforcement of high performance work systems (HPWS) policies and guidelines may be associated with subordinates' perceptions of abusive supervision. It presents the conceptual model that proposes supervisory enforcement of HPWS policies and practices likely elicits subordinates' evaluations of organizational policies, organizational guidelines, and supervisory treatment. The chapter explores that the temporal component of perceptions of abusive supervision suggests that the afore mentioned process evolves over time via feedback loops that capture the ongoing exchange processes between subordinates and supervisors. Attribution theory has been used to explain how individuals ascribe the causes of important events for decades. Supervisors are important organizational representatives who influence how subordinates perceive the workplace because they enforce organizational policies and guidelines. The chapter focuses on the negative cognitive knots that tighten the feedback loops between perceptions of abusive supervision, supervisory enforcement of HPWS policies and guidelines, subordinates' attributions, and subordinates' injustice perceptions over time.
