# The Impact of Abusive Supervision on Quiet Quitting: The Mediating Role of Sleep Deprivation and the Moderating Role of Proactive Personality

## TL;DR

This study explores how abusive supervision in the tourism and hospitality industry leads to quiet quitting through sleep deprivation, and how proactive personality influences this relationship.

## Contribution

The study introduces sleep deprivation as a mediator and proactive personality as a moderator in the relationship between abusive supervision and quiet quitting.

## Key findings

- Abusive supervision is positively linked to sleep deprivation and quiet quitting.
- Sleep deprivation mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and quiet quitting.
- Proactive personality strengthens the indirect association between abusive supervision and quiet quitting via sleep deprivation.

## Abstract

In the tourism and hospitality industry, abusive supervision is a common social stressor, yet how it relates to employees’ behavioral adjustment remains underexplored, particularly when considering recovery processes outside of work. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study conceptualizes sleep deprivation as an indicator of impaired recovery that may help explain time-ordered associations between abusive supervision and quiet quitting. Based on three-wave, time-lagged data collected from employees in the tourism and hospitality industry, the findings show that abusive supervision is positively associated with sleep deprivation and quiet quitting, and that sleep deprivation carries a significant indirect association between abusive supervision and quiet quitting. In addition, personality strengthens the association between abusive supervision and sleep deprivation and, in turn, strengthens the indirect association with quiet quitting. By integrating leadership behavior, recovery-related processes, and individual differences, this study reframes quiet quitting as a form of resource regulation and offers behavioral science implications for understanding employees’ work investment adjustment across work and non-work contexts.