Abstract
Widening social-class disparities create differential access to materials and resources, which fundamentally shape employees’ psychological orientations and behaviors at work. Integrating the social cognitive perspective with the behavioral activation and inhibition systems (BAS/BIS) framework, we examine how social class influences innovative work behavior (IWB) through challenge appraisal and voice for organizational issues and personal development, as well as the moderating role of abusive supervision. Using two preregistered, multi-wave, multi-source studies, we found that abusive supervision significantly moderated the relationship between social class and challenge appraisal. Specifically, higher abusive supervision widened the gap in challenge appraisals between upper-class and lower-class employees, strengthening the positive relationship between social class and challenge appraisal. In contrast, lower abusive supervision reduced class-based differences in challenge appraisal levels. We also found support for the moderated serial mediation, whereby the indirect effects of social class on IWB through challenge appraisal and voice behaviors were contingent on levels of abusive supervision.