Zahlquist, Lena Aadnevik; Hetland, Jørn, Notelaers, Guy Louis Alice, Rosander, Michael & Einarsen, Ståle Valvatne (2023)
When the going gets tough and the environment Is rough: The role of departmental level hostile work climate in the relationships between job stressors and workplace bullying
In line with the work environment hypothesis, the present study investigates whether department-level perceptions of hostile work climate moderate the relationship between psychosocial predictors of workplace bullying (i.e., role conflicts and workload) and exposure to bullying behaviours in the workplace. The data were collected among all employees in a Belgian university and constitutes of 1354 employees across 134 departments. As hypothesized, analyses showed positive main effects of role conflict and workload on exposure to bullying behaviours. In addition, the hypothesized strengthening effect of department-level hostile work climate on the relationship between individual-level job demands and individual exposure to bullying behaviours was significant for role conflict. Specifically, the positive relationship between role conflict and exposure to bullying behaviours was stronger among employees working in departments characterized by a pronounced hostile work climate. In contrast to our predictions, a positive relationship existed between workload and exposure to bullying behaviours, yet only among individuals in departments with low hostile work climate. These findings contribute to the bullying research field by showing that hostile work climate may strengthen the impact of role stress on bullying behaviours, most likely by posing as an additional distal stressor, which may fuel a bullying process. These findings have important theoretical as well as applied implications.
Zahlquist, Lena Aadnevik; Hetland, Jørn, Einarsen, Ståle Valvatne, Bakker, Arnold B., Hoprekstad, Øystein Løvik, Espevik, Roar & Olsen, Olav Kjellevold (2022)
Daily interpersonal conflicts and daily exposure to bullying behaviors at work: The moderating roles of trait anger and trait anxiety
Building on the three-way model of workplace bullying and its underlying theories, this study investigates the role of trait anger and trait anxiety in the link between daily interpersonal conflicts and daily exposure to bullying behaviors. Using a quantitative diary study design, we approached 57 military naval cadets participating in a tall-ship voyage across the Atlantic, from Europe to North America, in 2017. They responded to a questionnaire on a daily basis over a period of 30 days—yielding 1428 measurement points. Prior to the voyage, participants also responded to a general questionnaire including measures of trait anger and trait anxiety. As hypothesized, multilevel analyses showed positive main effects of daily interpersonal conflicts on interpersonal conflicts the next day and exposure to bullying behaviors the same day. However, daily involvement in interpersonal conflicts did not predict exposure to bullying behaviors the next day. Moreover, and in support of the hypothesized moderating effects, trait anger (but not trait anxiety) interacted positively with daily interpersonal conflicts in the prediction of interpersonal conflicts the next day as well as exposure to bullying behaviors the same day. The study suggests that interpersonal conflicts persist and have an immediate effect on exposure to bullying behaviors and that this is particularly the case for individuals high (vs. low) on trait anger. We discuss how these findings contribute to the three-way model of workplace bullying, as well as possible practical implications.
Outcomes of a proximal workplace intervention against workplace bullying and harassment: A protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial among Norwegian industrial workers
Background: Workplace bullying is an important and prevalent risk factors for health impairment, reduced workability and lowered efficiency among both targets and observers. Development and tests of effective organizational intervention strategies are therefore highly important. The present study describes the background, design, and protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of an organization-wide intervention on preventing workplace bullying with a focus on promoting active and constructive bystander behavior. The main overarching goal is to develop an easy to use and standardized organizational intervention based on theory and research in the role of bystanders in bullying situations with the potential of reducing the prevalence of workplace bullying. The theoretical framework of the study is theory of planned behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991).
Methods/Design: Using a full randomized control trial (RCT) design, this project will empirically test the outcomes of an intervention program targeting bullying and harassment as the main distal outcomes and perceived behavioral control and helping behavior among bystanders as the main proximal outcome. A 1-year cluster randomized controlled design will be utilized, in which controls will also receive the intervention. About 1,500 workers from two different locations of a Norwegian industrial company will be randomized into one intervention group and two control groups with at least 400 workers in each group. A survey will be conducted electronically. With a total of three assessments over 10–12 months, the time interval between the measurement times will be 4 months. Thus, the data collection will take place at baseline, completion of the intervention and at 4 months follow-up.
Discussion: This study primarily aims to develop, implement, and evaluate an intervention based on the abovementioned features with the ultimate aim of reducing the prevalence of workplace bullying, by awareness raising and training of bystanders. Manager involvement and involvement of the union representative and the elected health and safety representatives is an important feature of the program. Results of the intervention study will provide important information regarding the effectiveness of preventive interventions against workplace bullying when focusing on bystanders, particularly so regarding the role of bystander awareness, bystander self-efficacy, and bystander behavioral control on the one hand and the prevalence of bullying and harassment on the other.
Zahlquist, Lena; Hetland, Jørn, Skogstad, Anders, Bakker, Arnold B. & Einarsen, Ståle (2019)
Job Demands as Risk Factors of Exposure to Bullying at Work: The Moderating Role of Team-Level Conflict Management Climate
Conflict management climate is an important organizational resource that is theorized to prevent interpersonal frustration from escalating into harsh interpersonal conflicts and even workplace bullying. The present study investigates whether team-level perceptions of conflict management climate moderate the relationship between previously investigated psychosocial predictors of workplace bullying (i.e., role conflicts, workload, cognitive demands) and perceived exposure to bullying behaviors in the workplace. We collected data from crews on ferries operating on the Norwegian coastline consisting of 462 employees across 147 teams. As hypothesized, multilevel analyses showed positive main effects of role conflict and cognitive demands (but not workload) on exposure to bullying behaviors. Also, the hypothesized moderation effect of team-level conflict management climate on the relationship between individual-level job demands and exposure to bullying behaviors was significant for role conflict and cognitive demands, but not for workload. Specifically, the positive relationships between the two job demands and exposure to bullying behaviors were stronger for employees working in teams with a weak (vs. a strong) conflict management climate. These findings contribute to the bullying research field by showing that conflict management climate may buffer the impact of stressors on bullying behaviors, most likely by preventing interpersonal frustration from escalating into bullying situations.
Ågotnes, Kari Wik; Glambek, Mats, Hoprekstad, Øystein Løvik, Zahlquist, Lena Aadnevik & Einarsen, Kari (2024)
The impact of bystanders’ perceived access to resources on intervention behaviour in bullying situations
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Background
Workplace bullying is a prevailing workplace problem, with numerous studies documenting the detrimental impact of bullying on targets, bystanders, and organisations (Einarsen & Ågotnes, 2023). Concurrently, knowledge about the behavioural reactions of bystanders, which may have implications for how and when bullying situations persist and unfold, is still scarce. This exploratory study aims to investigate whether bystanders’ perceived access to resources at the group, department, and organisation levels will heighten the probability of bystander intervention. Specifically, it will investigate the effect of bystanders' perceived level of psychological safety, laissez-faire leadership (as a measure of a lack of department-level resources), and HR support on intervention behaviour enacted by bystanders as a reaction to a bullying situation.
Method
Data for the present study is part of an ongoing data collection using a convenience sample, where we have planned for three measurement points with 12-week time lags. Currently, we have completed the first round of data collection (N=756). We measured bullying intervention by asking respondents to indicate whether they had witnessed bullying behaviour enacted against co-workers during the past 12 weeks and further to indicate their behavioural response as either active/constructive (i.e., notifying the organisation, supporting the target in the situation, and/or offering support to the target at a later time) or passive (i.e., keeping away). These categories were dichotomized before our analyses so that we could compare each of the constructive behaviours to the passive behaviour separately. We performed several logistic regression analyses in SPSS, where the individuals’ perceived psychological safety, laissez-faire leadership, and HR support, respectively, were included as independent variables, and the different dichotomized categories of bystanders' intervention behaviours were included as dependent variables. We controlled for gender, leader status, and respondents’ reported exposure to negative acts.
Results
Results based on the cross-sectional (baseline) sample showed that individuals reporting high psychological safety were more likely to a) notify the organisation vs. keeping away (OR = 1.846, p
Einarsen, Kari; Ågotnes, Kari Wik, Glambek, Mats, Hoprekstad, Øystein Løvik & Zahlquist, Lena Aadnevik (2024)
