Moreover, AS refers to the extent to which managers are perceived to engage in
sustained displays of hostile verbal and non-verbal behaviours (Tepper, 2000). Examples of
AS behaviour may include explosive outburst (e.g. slamming doors, yelling at someone for
disagreeing), using derogatory language (e.g. ‘idiot’, ‘useless’), threatening (e.g. job
insecurity, promotion opportunity) and non-verbal behaviour (e.g. ignorant attitudes or
aggressive eye contact). Zellars, Tepper, and Duffy (2002) found that AS can have a
negative effect on organisational citizenship behaviour, and that it can act as a mediator of
the perception that an employee holds towards his or her organisation. Zellar et al. continued
that, when AS occurs, employees tend to denigrate the reputation of their organisation and
refrain from pro-social behaviour at work. Following this reasoning, it can be suggested that
when receiving AS, employees may develop a negative attitude against their mangers and
organisation, which in turn becomes negative behaviour at work such as cynicism.